Meet the Team
Our Staff Team
Kye Lockwood
CEO
Across his more than two-decade career in the social sector, Kye has held several CEO positions, including establishing an award-winning social enterprise and leading three distinctly different charities before joining DataKind UK. His early work centred around addressing both systemic and individual health, wellbeing, poverty and social justice challenges. Teams Kye has led have been shortlisted for the Charity Awards, and won the Santander Social Enterprise Development Award and Mayor of London’s Volunteering Awards. He also demonstrates an ongoing commitment to his belief in the power of collaboration and community to achieve the best results for the social sector, building effective partnerships and representing communities and the sector on a range of advisory boards, panels and at high-profile events. These varied ventures have armed him with extensive experience of the challenges faced by the sector, and the successes possible when they are overcome.
Kye’s focus is now on bringing opportunities to build success and amplify impact to as many organisations in the sector as possible. This is fuelled by a belief that the tools, resources and skills that help drive organisation development in other sectors can be available to civil society, and that they should be used responsibly, ethically and for the benefit of society.
When not working Kye loves cooking, harking back to his days as a professional chef, and exploring Europe through walking and seeking out food markets. He is also a board member at ACEVO, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations.
Suzy Mayel-Afshar (on parental leave)
Head of Volunteer Programmes
Our Head of Volunteer Programmes oversees our programme delivery and ensures every volunteer is happy and engaged.
Before getting involved in the data for good movement, Suzy dabbled in data in the adtech industry. More recently she worked with food and farming charity Sustain, campaigning for a fairer food system (avoid mentioning food waste or recycling around her unless you have a few hours to spare).
She studied languages at university and has spent time working or studying in France, Spain, Chile and Brazil.
Dulcie Vousden (on parental leave)
Head of Data Science
Our Head of Data Science Dulcie works to understand the data needs of the social sector.
She develops and drives the delivery of our data programmes, and provides technical oversight to ensure we provide appropriate and impactful solutions for our partners. Dulcie also keeps DataKind up to date on best practices and new ideas in data science and leads conversations around data use in the social sector.
Before joining DataKind UK, Dulcie completed a PhD in medical biophysics at the University of Toronto and was a scientific researcher at UCL. She has over 10 years of experience designing and analysing data-focused projects and is excited to empower social change organisations to increase their impact using data!
In her free time she enjoys cooking and spending time with her two small children.
Caitlin Loftus
Data Science Project Manager
Caitlin supports our data science programmes, triaging, scoping, and overseeing our projects to ensure we deliver impactful, responsible data science solutions for our partners.
Caitlin has been working in data science, data engineering, and data visualisation roles for more than six years, most recently at the Greater London Authority. Passionate about using responsible data science for social causes, she also recently completed her Masters in Computational Analysis and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she worked with the Justice Project, using data on policing and neighbourhood violence to advocate for institutional reform.
Outside of work, Caitlin enjoys any excuse to spend lots of time outside: hiking, camping, long walks across London, and most recently starting to learn to garden.
Elizabeth Wan
Project and Events Manager
Elizabeth manages DataKind UK’s events and empowers data scientists to bring positive change.
Her background is in the social innovation sector as a public engagement consultant. Elizabeth has been designing, prototyping, and driving sustainable solutions to society’s complex problems through community participation approaches. She innovates in the fields of urban planning, youth empowerment, sustainability, inclusion, and more. Creating empathy and awareness is central to her work.
Outside of work, Elizabeth is a passionate scuba diver and she creates artwork inspired by nature. Most weekends you can find her doing farming and forest conservation in local farms.
Nicole Holgate
Communications and Community Manager
Nicole ensures the world knows as much as possible about DataKind UK's work and impact, and ensures that the community is inclusive and happy.
She has been working as a charity communicator for more than eight years, with a background in literature and journalism. Before joining DataKind she worked for homelessness fundraiser Church Homeless Trust.
In her spare time she enjoys fostering cats, singing in the London Humanist Choir, and is on the organising committee of Sunday Assembly London.
If you would like DataKind UK to be involved in or speak at your event, please contact nicole [at] datakind.org.uk
Natasha Hanckel-Spice
Head of Partnerships and Business Development
Natasha ensures that DataKind UK develops collaborations and has the financial support to grow our essential work.
She has spent the last decade developing and delivering impact-led projects in the UK, EU, and globally across diverse sectors including education, online safety, and community capacity building.
She’s seen first-hand the difference that good data use can have on outcomes and impact, and has worked with charities, social enterprises, and some of the biggest names in technology and finance. She’s also a trustee for Women’s Inclusive Team, an East London-focused, Somali-led women’s charity.
On the side, she combines her love of data and technology with her passion for creativity and textiles in her purpose-led startup CodeKnit.
If you would like to support DataKind UK or discuss opportunities for partnership, please contact natasha [at] datakind.org.uk
Our Committees
DataKind UK relies on a team of incredible volunteers to support our work and programmes.
Community Committee
"ComCom’s" remit is to build and retain an active and diverse community of highly skilled, motivated volunteers who work with third sector organisations to tackle their projects. ComCom members recruit and onboard Data Ambassadors and are also working on community DEI; third sector support; and engagement.
ComCom’s 2024 Lead is Dan Keefe, a developer and educator at Sigma Labs. He is a self-taught developer who was previously an English teacher.
Ethics Advisors
Our team of Ethics Advisors are volunteers with experience in responsible and ethical data use, who help to embed ethical principles throughout DataKind UK’s programmes.
They provide ethical guidance and oversight to our programmes and projects; lead our responsible data use training; and contribute to blogs.
Scoping and Impact Committee
The Scoping Committee aims to scope high-impact projects with data-ready social sector organisations, and assess project impact and increases in our partners’ data maturity. They run both Data Maturity Assessment calls at the beginning of DataDive projects, and Impact calls three months afterwards.
This year’s Chapter Lead is Diego Arenas, who has been a DataKindUK volunteer since 2017 and is a Senior Researcher in Artificial Intelligence at DFKI. He has vast experience with data science and engineering projects in both the private sector and academia and is interested in how we can maximise the impact of data for social change.
Our Board
Tariq Khokhar
Tariq joined DataKind's board in November 2020 as Chair of Trustees. He's spent the majority of his career using data and technology in the public interest.
He is the Head of Data for Science and Health at the Wellcome Trust. His team works to equip and motivate data scientists with tools and opportunities to innovate with health data in the public interest; and to put trust into practice by changing how data and software in health are funded, developed and governed.
Previously, Tariq was Chief Data Scientist and Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, and Senior Data Scientist and Global Data Editor of the World Bank in Washington DC. He currently lives with his family in Stroud.
Lindsey MacDonald
Lindsey joined DataKind's board in November 2020 as Vice-Chair of Trustees. She is passionate about tackling inequality and creating a charity sector that delivers on the promises it makes. She believes that effective and ethical use of data is central to this and unlocking charities’ potential to increase their impact.
She has seen this in action in her career in the social sector. She is currently CEO of Magic Breakfast, who believe that no child or young person in the UK should be too hungry to learn and was previously Managing Director of Street League. She won a UK ‘Women of the Future’ award in 2017 and in 2018 earned her MBA with distinction at Bayes Business School.
Lindsey had previously earned her doctorate at Brunel University, exploring ‘who really benefits’ in sport for development and peace initiatives, whilst embedding what she learned in the charity she co-founded, the Homeless FA. Lindsey is Vice Chair of the Sport for Development Coalition, that brings together member organisations to demonstrate and make the case for sport’s contribution to wider social outcomes and impact.
Ed Anderton
Ed brings a wealth of experience and skills from a varied career across the social sector and central and local government to bear in his efforts to drive change, collaboration, and innovation. He's passionate about making better use of the information available in the social sector to direct resources to the people and organisations who can make best use of them. A long-time supporter of DataKind UK, he first got to know the organisation in the early days of its life, during his time at Nominet Trust (now Social Tech Trust).
Ed is currently the head of Research, Impact and Learning at Fidelity Uk and International Foundations. Prior to this, he was Learning and Evaluation Lead for the Community Hubs Programme in the London Borough of Redbridge, Director of Practice Development for the Centre for Youth Impact, and Strategy and Policy Manager at Access Foundation. Ed began his career with roles in performing arts education, community development, education consultancy, and conflict resolution, before making the move to Whitehall and social sector regulation. He is a Clore Social Leadership Fellow, and is also a Trustee of London Plus.
Bethia McNeil
Bethia is Chief Executive of the Centre for Youth Impact and YMCA George Williams College.
She has been with the Centre since its launch in September 2014, and more recently oversaw the merger between the Centre and the YMCA George Williams College. Prior to joining the team to set up the Centre, Bethia worked at the Dartington Social Research Unit, the Young Foundation, the National Youth Agency and NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), in a variety of policy and research roles.
She has also worked in further and higher education as a teacher and trainer. Bethia is particularly interested in the relationship between quality and impact in youth work and provision for young people, and in the theory and practice of measurement, especially within collaboratives. Bethia is a 2012 Clore Social Fellow and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.
Kate Vang
Kate has been an active member of the DataKind UK community since 2015, previously serving as Chapter Lead, where she helped grow its incredible community of volunteers. She first built a career in investment management at Värde Partners, where she worked in roles across trading, risk management, investment, and portfolio strategy.
Kate then pivoted to pursue her passions for data science and social impact, in large part catalysed by attending her first DataKind UK DataDive weekend. She consulted with charities, NGOs and companies before joining The ONE Campaign as their first data scientist. Today Kate is a Data Science Manager at Meta, where she supports a team of data scientists working to prevent harm and build safer communities.
Lauren Woodman
Lauren is CEO of DataKind Global. She has spent 25 years working at the intersection of technology, development, and policy. Most recently, she was the CEO of NetHope, a consortium of 60 of the largest global nonprofits and tech companies from 2014-2020.
Before that, she held a variety of positions in the private sector, government, and the UN, including managing Microsoft’s global education and government programs for more than a decade and serving as an executive at the Software and Information Industry Association. Currently, she is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Board of Stewards for its Initiative on Digital Economy and its Trustworthy Data Collaboration. Lauren holds degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and Smith College. She lives in Seattle with her partner and two daughters.