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 last year 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. Storeyland Coaching For Women
Contact: [email protected] Follow on Social Media: @Dorsetwomen
Director - Hilary
Hilary is our lead director for communication & women’s health. With a nursing career spanning 17 years, including several roles as Matron, Hilary is currently a Gynae-Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist at Dorset County Hospital Foundation Trust. She previously worked for BBC North and was Director at a GP Practice responsible for change, transformation, and people management.
Her charitable experience includes establishing the Jill Dando Fund with radio and television presenter, Nick Ross and working as Executive Director at The National Endometriosis Society (now Endometriosis UK).
Passionate about improving the lives of women with gynecological cancers, she co-founded GO Girls in 2015, to ensure all women and their families receive grassroots support at every step of their difficult journey.
She is also a regular speaker on the international conference circuit on women’s health and gynecological cancers.
She is a member of the British Gynaecological Cancer Society (BGCS) & Chair of the Nursing Sub-Group Volunteer of the Year 2019/Charity Today Awards Oncology Nurse of the Year 2020 In 2020 on International Women’s Day, Hilary was awarded a Points of Light award by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson 2022 Top 5 Most Influential Women Dorset.
Hilary is the founder of charity Go Girls and was a finalist in the RCN Leadership Award and Nursing Times Nurse of the Year 2023.
Director - Nicola
Nicola is leading the new employer-led DfE Local Skills Improvement Plan policy and process in Dorset for Dorset Chamber. Nicola is the lead director for finance and governance.
Formerly CEO of Ansbury Guidance, the Dorset Careers Guidance charity, most of her career has been in the education and sport sectors. This included as Director of Communications for the DfE funded British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) and DCMS funded UK Anti-Doping (UKAD).
Previously a Governor of The Swanage School and a Director of Careers England and British Shooting, Nicola is currently a Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board Member, a Governor of Kingston Maurward College, and Chair of the Dorset Skills Board. Nicola’s passion for the new CIC, Dorset Women, and its Charter, stems from a desire to maximise the strength and impact of Dorset women by educating system leaders so they make good decisions that don’t disadvantage women by accident or ignorance and improve women’s lives deliberately.
Women sharing their strengths and resources across the county will also benefit and build the whole Dorset community from every angle.
Director - 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.
Director - Lorraine
Lorraine is the lead director for disability and safeguarding matters, Founder & CEO of SWAD (Sex With A Difference) SWAD trains social services and health care professionals, in the private and public sectors (Service Providers), about the sexual health needs of people with disabilities.
She delivers training at a local, regional, national (and international) level. Lorraine was a nominee for the National Diversity Awards 2023, and was a finalist in the Grassroots Initiative of the Year in the Sexual Health Awards 2022, and is a member of Dorset Chamber of Commerce’s Diversity & Inclusion Forum. 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.
She raises awareness of the need for Changing Places toilets, and the value to business of the Purple Pound (the spending power of disabled people). Passionate about a holistic approach to women’s health, she embraced WAND’s initiative.
She is committed to making Dorset a truly inclusive county in the UK, for ALL types of women.
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.
Member- 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.
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.