Dorset Women
Where equality reigns
Board Members & Patrons
Our Board Members
Chair - Marianne
Marianne is the Chair of Dorset Women CIC and is leading the project across the county to create a Dorset Women’s Charter which will set out what women should be able to expect across 10 aspects of life and society.
Marianne has enjoyed a career in a variety of leadership positions across health, social care and the charity sector. She retired from the role of CEO of Dorset Mind in 2021 and has bought her expertise in mental health, inequality, and leadership to Dorset Women to advocate for a new kind of society for women. She also coaches women individually and in groups who want to shape a new future for themselves and for other women and girls.
Contact: Marianne.DorsetWomenCIC@gmail.com Follow on Social Media: @Dorsetwomen
Secretary - Patricia
As a former Soldier, Patricia is passionate about the care of our veteran and wider Armed Forces community both during and after service. Over the last decade, her research area has focused primarily on the issues for and the needs of Females in the forces.
Added to an NHS community nursing services and NHS service delivery and commissioning support background, Patricia has most recently completed a Masters degree in Global Veteran and Families studies, following a BSc in Psychology and is keen to utilise these further to drive forward support and research agendas for the wider Armed Forces and Veteran and family communities.
Being a B.A.M.E female, Patricia’s personal and professional experience relative to female veterans and minority group issues now serve as a platform from which to engage in supporting public sector organisations and charities dedicated to making positive and lasting change.
She is currently part of the Co Design Group and Public Co Investigator working with the Veteran and Families Institute for Military Research and Essex University Partnership Foundation Trust on a collaborative veteran research project.
Treasurer - Alison
Alison works as a Library Assistant at the Dorset Library Service. She shares the lead role for finance and governance and additionally serves as a volunteer Director at Dorset Community Energy.
In this capacity, she contributes to the establishment of community-driven renewable energy initiatives.
Director - Lorraine
Lorraine is the lead director for disability and safeguarding matters, and award-winning Founder & CEO of SWAD (Sex With A Difference). SWAD trains social services and health care professionals, in the private and public sectors, about the sexual health needs of people with disabilities.
She delivers training at a local, regional, national (and international) level, and is FSB Policy Champion for Disabled Enterprise 2026. She sees activism as key in championing the rights of disabled people, whether it’s the right to sexual expression, to have accessible housing, or employment/business opportunities. Lorraine is committed to making Dorset a truly disability-inclusive county, for ALL types of women.
Director - Honey
Honey, author and linguist, is the lead director for partnerships and brings an extensive range of talents and experiences including a career at the Home Office and writing a number of children’s books. Honey is fluent in 6 languages and juggles a busy work role as a personal assistant with her love of dogs and can often be found on one of Dorset’s beaches with her dogs at her side.
Director- Annie
Annie, Raven-Vause is a graduate nurse, past midwife, accredited psychotherapist, master practitioner of NLP and published author. She has spent four decades working in and around health and social care and is well versed in both change management and organisational development. She moved from Cheshire to Dorset in 1985 following an extended period of travel around the world. In 2020, Annie returned to the NHS working at National level during the pandemic as Education Manager for the Practitioner Performance Advice service, a division of NHS Resolution, an arms-length body of the Department of Health. She has recently returned to work in her own private practice and to write her second book.
Director- Priya
Priya brings nearly 20 years of diverse experience in the banking industry, with a strong background in Compliance and Business Controls.
Priya is a graduate of The University of Mumbai and holds an MBA in Senior Leadership from the University of Exeter. She is a member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS), Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and is passionate about Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion (DOI), having held leadership roles in India, U.A.E., Singapore and the U.K.
Priya is a trained Indian classical dancer and an avid softball cricket player. She has captained a ladies’ softball cricket team and recently established a team to represent her Club in the Dorset League for 2025.
Director- Rio
Rio is an ex-police officer and sexual assault survivor who works at Bournemouth Foodbank, managing partnerships and fundraising for the charity. She is passionate about tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and is experienced in supporting victims across diverse circumstances, which enables her to work as a trainer, advocate, and strategic events planner on subjects relating to VAWG, misogyny in the media and gender stereotyping. Rio has managed domestic abuse support services and been involved in key projects designed to improve services for domestic abuse victims and justice in family courts.
Our Patrons
Tracey West
Tracey West has been an active, noisy patron of WAND since 2011 and we are thrilled that she has remained a patron through our transition to Dorset Women CIC. She has spoken out many times about the plight of those affected by domestic abuse on the radio and in the press.
She has also played an active role at events. In 2014, she chaired the multi-agency No Excuse for Abuse Conference as part of Domestic Abuse Awareness Week which was jointly funded and co–hosted by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in Dorset and WAND. In 2022, she performed empowering stand up poetry and took part in the Big Sleep Out in Bournemouth to raise funds for their local refuge.
Tracey is a dedicated supporter of women’s refuges in the South West. She endeavours to raise awareness and funds for these vital resources wherever possible. She believes the refuge services should be government funded for women, men and for members of the LGBTQ++ community, across the country.
Tracey explains, “Dorset Women CIC is doing great work across Dorset to further the empowerment of Women. Their Core Team work tirelessly to make a difference, they are nothing short of amazing. It is an honour to act in service to Dorset Women CIC – I’m enormously proud to be a part of what they do.”
Tracey also served as a Trustee for a decade for the National Association for Children of Alcoholics. She retired in 2017 to fully focus on being CEO of the international reforestation charity The Word Forest Organisation which she co-founded with her husband Simon.
Dame Harriet Walter
Dame Harriet Mary Walter DBE (born 24 September 1950) is an English stage and screen actress. Her film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), The Governess (1998), Villa des Roses (2002), Atonement (2007) and Man Up (2015). On television she starred as Natalie Chandler in the ITV drama series Law & Order: UK (2009–14), as Lady Prudence Shackleton in four episodes of Downton Abbey (2013–15), and as Clementine Churchill in The Crown (2016). She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2011 for services to drama.
Walter began her career in 1974 and made her Broadway debut in 1983. For her work in various Royal Shakespeare Company productions, including Twelfth Night (1987–88) and Three Sisters (1988), she won the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Revival. Her other notable work for the RSC includes leading roles in Macbeth (1999) and Antony and Cleopatra (2006). She won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for her role as Elizabeth I in the 2005 London revival of Mary Stuart, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play when she reprised the role on Broadway in 2009. She reprised her roles of Brutus in Julius Caesar (2012) and the title role in Henry IV (2014), as well as playing Prospero in The Tempest, as part of an all-female Shakespeare trilogy in 2016.