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Joining the dots between research, practice and policy

We are a transdisciplinary network of consultants, business leaders, academics and practitioners who have come together to advance research-informed resilience policy and practice. Our aim is to build long-term whole of society resilience, as outlined in the UK Government Resilience Framework.

We are funded by delivering innovative projects, drawing on the network to form teams with the right expertise for each challenge. If you are passionate about resilience and have skills to offer, please join us.

200+ members

Public sector
Defence
Transport
NGOs
Education & research
Cybersecurity
Consultancy
Academia

Founders

Three professors bridging industry, academia and practice, who set up the Centre to bring whole of society resilience-building together.

Prof. Ruth Crick

Co-Founder

Ruth is Founder of WILD Learning Sciences CIC and WILD Learning Ltd. She has held leadership roles in research, practice, policy and enterprise with a common focus on the development of competence in self-leadership, learning relationships and complex problem solving for individuals, teams and organisations.

Ruth brings extensive thought leadership based on 25 years of research into dispositional learning analytics at the University of Bristol and the Connected Intelligence Centre at UTS in Sydney. This provides the evidence base for Work Integrated Learning Design (WILD) as a digital learning infrastructure which scaffolds, develops and measures personal and team resilience. Her work has spanned business, education and community in projects around the world. The Crick Learning for Resilient Agency profile was published in 2015 and has been translated into several languages.

ruth.crick@wildlearn.co.uk

Prof. Caroline Field, CEng FICE

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Caroline works in industry leading National Resilience at PA Consulting, helping clients develop and deliver resilience strategies whilst providing a framework for measuring the benefits.

Caroline brings expertise in resilient leadership and decision making — catalysing behaviour change in organisations and communities to deliver greater resilience. She is accredited in resilient leadership and has expertise in systems-based decision making to de-silo and prioritise resilience building efforts — understanding interdependencies and linking resilience to measured strategic outcomes.

Caroline is a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Structural and Infrastructural Resilience at Loughborough University, linking research and practice and helping to shape the future of the profession.

Caroline’s LinkedIn

Prof. Adeela Shafi, MBE

Co-Founder

Adeela is Professor of Education at the University of Gloucestershire in Youth Justice with a particular interest in resilience, as well as how diversity in thought, research and leadership contributes to the best outcomes for individuals, communities and society as a whole.

Adeela is accustomed to leading large multi-national research projects from international funders like the EU and the British Council involving multiple countries. These bring together academics, practitioners, policymakers and industry leaders to inform both policy and impact on practice.

Adeela brings the academic network and expertise to CWSR that are needed in order to bring together whole society resilience-building. She was awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to social justice and academia.

ashafi@glos.ac.uk

Steering committee

How the committee is chosen

Richard Smith-Bingham

Chair

Richard is the new Chair of CWSR. He has deep expertise in global risks and resilience, shaped by many years at Marsh McLennan, where he advised multinational businesses and countries on how to get ahead of disruptive trends and possible crises. Richard now provides independent, targeted challenge and strategic support to leaders in government and the private sector so they can better align strategic priorities and pressing resilience demands.

As well as being a specialist in the implications of intersecting risks, he brings fresh perspectives on organisational and systemic resilience practices, decision-making under uncertainty, and oversight arrangements, helping leadership teams embed approaches that are forward-looking, adaptive and durable. Richard is a commissioner on the National Preparedness Commission, for whom he has recently issued a report on how the UK can strengthen supply chain resilience for critical materials, components and goods.

Richard’s LinkedIn

Claire Crichton-Allen

Operations Director

Claire is a change readiness and learning resilience expert who helps people and organisations perform well through uncertainty, complexity and rapid change.

She strengthens agency, confidence and adaptability, turning ambiguity into clear priorities and practical action. Her approach blends strategic rigour with human-centred leadership, building resilient cultures that sustain momentum.

As an Educational Strategist, Sustainability Advocate and Researcher at the University of Strathclyde, Claire translates leading pedagogical research into innovative learning design that embeds sustainability competencies for real-world impact.

Claire’s LinkedIn

Wendy Tipper

Learning & Development Director

Wendy has recently joined CWSR as Learning & Development Director, where she leads the L&D programme of activities, including the Resilient Leadership Development Programme (RLDP) for resilience professional development. An accredited Resilient Leadership Consultant with over 30 years’ cross-sector experience, Wendy specialises in building leadership capability, resilience and strategic effectiveness.

Drawing on senior roles including Associate Director at Arup, she brings deep expertise in transformation and people development across complex organisations. Wendy is also a judge for the Management Consultancies Association Awards, assessing excellence in leadership and people, and brings a human-centred, systems-thinking approach to enabling sustainable, purpose-driven leadership.

Wendy’s LinkedIn

Phoebe Andrew

Marketing & Comms Director

Phoebe is Head of Place-Based Solutions at the Centre for Energy Equality and a Director of Looped Energy Communities CIC. She specialises in engineering design and systems thinking, leading multi-stakeholder innovation projects that tackle energy inequality and accelerate community-led approaches to decarbonisation.

Phoebe’s LinkedIn

Tim Norton

Projects Director

Tim is Head of Rail Resilience at the Department for Transport and has extensive experience in public sector resilience. A hydrologist by background, he spent much of his career focusing on flood resilience.

He is interested in how resilience can make tangible differences, linking strategic developments to practical improvements, working across organisational and sector boundaries, and joining professional and community resilience.

Tim’s LinkedIn

Nadine Sulkowski

Partnerships Director

Nadine is a Senior Lecturer in Systemic Resilience Management at the University of Gloucestershire and a Fellow of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management. She has extensive experience in international collaborations and multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Nadine has contributed significantly to higher education governance structures, leading notable projects such as the Erasmus+ capacity building project “BUiLD”, which established a systemic disaster resilience framework and Centres of Excellence across Indonesia. As part of the Erasmus+ empowerment4pandemias project, she has designed an organisational pandemic resilience framework for the healthcare sector.

Nadine teaches resilience planning and crisis management, focusing on enhancing systemic resilience and effective crisis communication, and aims to inspire students to become future change agents and innovators.

Nadine’s LinkedIn

Join the network

Meet other resilience professionals, share what you know, and take part in projects. Membership is free. We ask only that you sign the members' charter.

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