Our trustees
The Trustee Board of Citizens Advice York is responsible for the governance of the charity and, together with the Chief Executive, for determining the strategic direction of the charity. Our trustees bring a wealth of skills and experience from across the private, public and voluntary sector.
Our current trustees are:
Joanna de Groot : The Chair
Joanna has lived and worked in York since 1974, and is employed at the University of York, where she teaches and supports students and also undertakes research, writing, and speaking to academic and non-academic audiences. Since the 1980s she has also been active as a member of the union representing academic and academic- related staff, acting as a volunteer advisor and negotiator. Joanna deals with individual employment, health, welfare, and discrimination problems, and also works with the university authorities to implement equality and dignity at work policies as well as improvements in employment conditions. She has been a member of the University Senate and also of the university’s harassment and teaching committees. Joanna has worked on union issues at UK as well as local level, being an elected member of her union’s National Executive Committee and its elected President in 1995-6 and again in 2017-18.In York she has been a member of the former Community Health Council, and of the governing body of York College, as well as Secretary of York Trades Council.
Vicky Ling
Vicky is a Chartered Quality Professional with over twenty years’ experience in the not for profit advice and commercial legal services sector. She works with practitioners and network organisations to promote access to justice with a particular emphasis on legal aid.
John Nodder
John spent the earlier part of his career as a management consultant and programme manager, working with a wide range of central and local government organisations. More recently he managed several large change programmes for the national Citizens Advice service, and was also the Company Secretary. John brings experience of business change, managing people, money and systems, and charity governance.
Julia Atwater
Julia is Head of Customer Experience and Communications for a global IT services firm and has been based in York since 2016. With over ten years of experience, in service delivery, employee engagement, customer experience and communications. Julia is a vocal and award winning diversity and inclusion advocate.
Sara Boulton
Sara is a Solicitor and Director of the Baroness Hale Legal Clinic which gives free legal advice and information to members of the public. She is also a Lecturer at the University of York Law School since 2016 teaching students within the Law Clinic, and on the Legal Skills, and Professionalism and Ethics modules.
Sam Dyer
Sam works in the tech industry and has experience at large multinational IT services firms as well as much smaller organisations – currently working for a UK based startup of fewer than 50 people. Sam brings experience of fast-paced agile ways of working, public sector service delivery, as well as charity engagement at both a personal and corporate level.
Janet Looker
Janet has been living in York since migrating from London and the South West in 1965. Since then she has raised three children, worked in a variety of Voluntary Organisations – including the early Playgroup movement, and a variety of School Governorships – then getting into politics in the 1980s she became first a County Councillor on North Yorkshire County Councillor, then a City Councillor with the newly created City of York Council. She retired from the Council in May 2023 at the recent May elections.
Professionally, she qualified as a solicitor in the late ’70s and worked in a number of private practices in York until retiring in 2002.
She is looking forward to the new role as a Trustee with Citizens Advice York, and hopes to be able to use her skills to support such a significant organisation for the City and its residents.
Mike Galloway
Mike has spent most of his professional life in Further Education. He was a Principal and CEO of three different colleges, latterly 9 years at York college, before setting up an education consultancy working with Governors and Principals nationwide on change management issues.
Lauren Peel
Lauren is a Director of Marketing, Consumer Insights and Propositions at Fair4All Finance, a publicly funded organisation that aims to improve financial resilience for those in vulnerable circumstances. She`s an expert in consumer insights and research, specialising in seldom heard groups, and in product and service design in financial services. Lauren is also a consumer spokesperson for financial inclusion. Lauren has also been involved with, and an advocate for LGBTQ+ community for the last decade.
Interested in becoming a CAY trustee? We announce all trustee vacancies on the Volunteer section of our website, as and when they arise.