How did it all start?

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Eileen has enjoyed a rewarding career in Housing for more than 33 years and has held a wide variety of roles in different authorities. Her most recent post was as Head of Housing Services with Renfrewshire Council for 15 years. She was also a member of Renfrewshire's Child Protection Committee for many years.

In recent years she was Chair of the Association of Local Authority Chief Housing Officers in Scotland and a member of the national Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group alongside government and national housing stakeholder bodies.

Anne is a qualified accountant and has had a long and varied career in the public sector. She has spent much of her career in roles related to audit and governance and was for a number of years the chief internal auditor for Renfrewshire Council. In recent years she worked as Head of Resources for the Social Work Service, which she found very rewarding and through it developed a personal interest in the work of the service. She was Chair of the national Resources standing committee for Social Work Scotland, and work locally and nationally on the integration of Health and Social Care Services.

Mark joined Strathclyde Police in 1986 and retired from Police Scotland in January 2016. He has been involved in a range of innovative and successful community and partnership projects. His last post before retiring was Support Superintendent in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Division. The post carried a wide range of responsibilities that included Professional Standards, HR, Counter Terrorism, Criminal Justice, Events Planning and Partnerships. Mark has an MBA in Public Service Management from Stirling University.

Ruth McQuaid, LLB (hons) Dip LP is a solicitor and senior civil servant who has worked for 30 years as a prosecutor for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. She is currently the Deputy Procurator Fiscal for Local Courts, Scotland with oversight of all sheriff and JP courts across Scotland. Ruth is also COPFS's national Equality and Victims champion and their lead for community engagement. She is a former chair  of the Justice Board's Equality and Diversity sub-group which led  a 4 year criminal justice disability project  tackling access to justice for the disabled. She is currently a member of the  Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities action group .

Billy Burke  (BSc PGDE MSc) has been a senior manager in education for 13 years, the past 7 as head teacher of Renfrew High School. As Past President of School Leaders Scotland Billy contributes to educational development at a national level and he also assists Strathclyde University on leadership development courses. Billy is committed to the promotion of wellbeing, equality and inclusion in schools and beyond, and is passionate about the value of lifelong learning for all.

Linda Jones, Chief Superintendent, Head of Safer Communities

Chief Superintendent Linda Jones has taken up post as the new Divisional Commander for Safer Communities, as of 1 February, 2021. CS Jones comes to Safer Communities from her role as Divisional Commander in V (Dumfries and Galloway) Division, where she's been in post since November 2018. Having joined Strathclyde Police in 1992, CS Jones has worked across the south-west of Scotland for much of her career, in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway. She has also spent time focused on Crime Management, Domestic Abuse, and Corporate Communications, as well as overseeing ongoing transformational change within Contact, Command and Control.

Christine has worked in the health and social care sector for almost 30 years in a range of roles spanning Youth Services, Addiction, Mental Health & Learning Disability. She took up her current post of Head of Mental Health, Addiction & Learning Disability Services for Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) three years ago, having worked for Glasgow City Council for 26 years. 

Christine has a range of qualifications in Counselling, Drug & Alcohol Studies and Management, as well as a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Glasgow Caledonian University. 

Bringing a background of IT and Project Management and a wealth of experience in creative crafting, Laura is also P.A to the Board and Chair of the volunteer Committee, ruling the meetings with her gavel! Having suffered from depression on and off most of her adult life, she brings an understanding of some of the difficulties people can face in every day life, especially those that are not obvious to the outside world. 

 Hello! I’m Laura Matheson, I am a 4th Year Psychology student, and I have been a part of I Am Me since I was in S6 of high school, following my I Am Me Keep Safe Ambassador Training. I am very passionate about tackling disability discrimination, especially so given my experiences of growing up with an autistic, epileptic brother, and personally experiencing multiple eye operations, compromising my vision. I have further great interest in mental health and mental wellbeing, and greatly enjoy being part of such a lovely team :)