Christopher Pennell (Chair)

Christopher Pennell is a Board Member and Chair of Audit of Natural England and a Member of the Peak District National Park Authority. He is also Vice-Chair of the Authority’s Services Committee.

Christopher holds a degree in law from Oxford University. He spent 27 years in the coal industry, for a time as principal assistant to the NCB Chairman and then in successive procurement posts until he headed British Coal’s Supply and Contracts Department. After heading the coal privatisation project for British Coal, he switched to an environmental and heritage career.

For a decade he was the National Trust’s Regional Director in the East Midlands, a period during which he led many major built and natural heritage conservation and interpretation projects, including the rescue, restoration and opening to the public of The Workhouse, Southwell, the transformation of the presentation of Hardwick Hall, and the acquisition and planned conservation of the Alport Valley in the Peak District.

Christopher was a founder member of the East Midlands Heritage Forum and a member of the East Midlands Rural Affairs Forum. Until recently he was a trustee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (Peak District and South Yorkshire) and he remains the Chair of its Countryside Awards Scheme and a CPRE/Friends of the Peak District volunteer. For 18 months, until its dissolution, he was a Council Member of English Nature.

For 13 years Christopher was a Parish Councillor on the South Yorkshire/Nottingham boundary.

Joan Bray

Joan is Service Delivery Manager for Nottingham City Library Service which is part of Leisure and Community services.  She is involved in her professional association as Chair of East Midlands Branch of CILIP.

She has spent all her working life in libraries with a passion for making information and reading available for all. She is also committed to enabling people to achieve beyond their personal expectation and encouraging people to be involved in their history and heritage.

Joan has worked extensively with children and young people, and also has been Head of Local Studies at Nottingham Central Library. In this role she was involved in a Millennium Award for a Nottinghamshire based oral history project as well as a successful bid for a photographic conservation project which also included making the digitised photographs accessible through a website, Picture the Past.

Sara Crofts

Sara Crofts studied architecture at Edinburgh College of Art where she was able to specialise in historic building conservation at the Scottish Centre for Conservation Studies. She qualified as an architect in November 2002 and completed her masters degree in architectural conservation in November 2004. Sara has worked for a number of architectural practices specialising in the repair and conservation of historic buildings in both Edinburgh and Cumbria.After a spell as the Churches and Cathedrals Caseworker for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), she is now the Project Director of Faith in Maintenance – a new initiative to provide training and support for those who maintain historic places of worship. Sara is passionate about the need for education and training in order to give people the skills and enthusiasm to help them look after this country’s valuable heritage. She was awarded an SPAB Lethaby Scholarship in 2003 and is now keen to encourage other young professionals to embark in a career in conservation. For this reason she has taken on the role of Secretary of the Dance Scholarship Trust, an organisation set up to provide funding for the SPAB’s Scholarship programme. Sara is interested in promoting cultural diversity and an inclusive approach to heritage and represents the SPAB on Heritage Link’s Inclusion Working Group. She is a member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and has a long-standing interest in architecture, archaeology and the arts.

Eric Galvin

Eric Galvin is a non-executive director of the Royal Air Force Training Command, Vice Chair of the Sheffield College; a member of the Princes’ Trust board in Derbyshire; and community representative on the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Courts board. He has a lifelong interest in heritage issues and is chair of Pentrich Historical Society. Eric holds degrees in Commerce and Leadership Studies, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Marshall Foundation (Washington DC).   

He was a member of the Senior Civil Service until 2005 holding a range of leadership roles in education, employment, equality and social inclusion policy. He was the director for employment and skills in the Government Office for the East Midlands, Jobcentre manager in Nottingham and an employment adviser in Derby. He has lived in the region since 1972.  

Since leaving the civil service he has worked as a consultant, mentor and facilitator working on leadership issues with senior managers and board members. He also teaches with the Open University Business School.

Tristram Hunt (NHMF Trustee)

Dr. Tristram Hunt is a historian, author and journalist. He is an expert in Victorian urban history and is a lecturer in history at Queen Mary, University of London.  Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and the University of Chicago, he was previously a visiting professor at Arizona State University, an associate fellow at the Centre for History and Economics, King’s College, Cambridge and research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

He is also author of numerous books and articles, the most recent being the critically acclaimed Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City.  This book charts the history and architecture of the 19^th century city and concludes with debates on urban regeneration.  In addition, he has worked extensively to generate a broader public interest in heritage through his articles in The Times, The Observer, The New Statesman and specialist journals.  He has written and presented a number of radio and TV series including Civil War (BBC2), Isaac Newton: Great Briton (BBC2), The British Middle Class (Channel 4), Elgar and Empire  (Radio 4), and The Protestant Revolution (BBC4) and is currently completing a new biography of Friedrich Engels for Penguin. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Dianne Jeffrey

Dianne is Pro-Chancellor & chair of Governing Council, University of Derby, chairman of Anchor Trust, an RSL providing housing, care and support to older people, chairman of Digital Outreach Ltd, a unique partnership delivering digital technology skills to vulnerable people, and a member of the Heritage Lottery Fund, East Midlands committee. She also serves as a board member of the University and Colleges Employers’ Association.

Dianne served as an NHS Trust chairman for 13 years, and chairman of the NHS Confederation from 2000 – 2003. The Confederation, which is the independent membership body for NHS organisations, helps members improve health and patient care by influencing policy, supporting leaders and promoting excellence in employment.

She was appointed High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 2002/3 and is now a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Derbyshire. She is Hon. Colonel of Derbyshire Army Cadet Force. Dianne graduated in Psychology at Sheffield University, has worked in clinical and industrial Psychology, and has extensive experience in management training in the retail sector.

Dianne, who lives in the historic village of Eyam, has catalogued the libraries at Eyam Hall, and at Thoresby Hall, Nottinghamshire.  She developed training materials for guides when Eyam Hall was first opened to the public in 1993.