PIRC is small, independent and free thinking. With a compact, flexible team, PIRC can pursue avenues not always addressed by larger organisations. PIRC now has its main office in Mid Wales, with staff:
Elena Blackmore
Project Officer
Elena followed a BA in Psychology with an MSc in International Development at the University of Bath. Prior to joining PIRC in early 2010, she also worked in South Africa in children’s homes and in Luxembourg.
She co-authored the Common Cause Handbook and is particularly interested in how our institutions and policies shape our cultural values.
- Socio-cultural influences on values
- Social history
- Stories about change
- Reading about ideas
- Wild swimming and wandering the Welsh countryside
Richard Hawkins
Director
Richard is a researcher, communicator and designer. He has led PIRC’s work on Common Cause over the past 2 years, which has included facilitating over 80 workshops across the Third Sector and civil society in the UK and Europe. Prior to Common Cause Richard coordinated PIRC’s climate workstream, bridging between the research community and campaigning NGOs and was lead author of the Climate Safety report, also overseing its design & production.
Before joining PIRC in 2007, he founded The Green Shed, an ethical and environmental web design company. He has significant expertise in visual communication, having worked with leading information designers and run several climate communication projects with London Design Colleges. He has a degree in Law, specialising in International Environmental Law, from the University of Nottingham and is a fellow of the RSA.
Interests & skills:
- communication of climate science
- risk & uncertainty in society
- information design & data visualisation
- ultimate frisbee
Ant Jarrett
Administrator and Secretary
Having gained experience working for Legal Aid and the Welsh Government amongst many others, Ant arrived at PIRC in 2009 following a reassessment of his values brought about by a decade of working in the public sector. This also involved establishing his own business as a photographer and kicking a host of consumption based habits. Prior to moving to Mid Wales in 1998 he has lived in London, Surrey, and Leeds – where he became immersed in environmental and social activism – as well spending 3 years working in Greece on sea turtle conservation.
- Photography
- Web design
- Techno and punk
- Low impact travel
- Running
Rosie Leach
Common Cause for Nature Intern
Rosie is a researcher, theatre practitioner and organic gardener. She has an MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Edinburgh and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford. Before moving to Wales in 2011 to learn about organic gardening and sustainable living at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Rosie co-founded Green Stage in London to explore how participatory performance can shed new light on environmental issues.
Rosie is co-director of the Green Isle Growers food growing cooperative based in Ynyslas gardens. She has worked with Oxfam, Christian Aid and Tree Aid as a campaigner, researcher and fund-raiser and is interested in facilitating collaboration within the third sector.
- Global justice and alternative, ecologically sound economics
- The role of story-telling in social change
- Sustainable, wildlife friendly food production
- Theatre and being outdoors (often together)
Jamie McQuilkin
Common Cause for Nature Intern
Jamie comes from a scientific background, having studied ecology at Auckland and Edinburgh, pursuing interests in invasion, conservation and fungal ecology. Before coming to PIRC in 2012, he worked in the biology department at the Centre for Alternative Technology. He also has experience as a science communicator, having taught field ecology to undergraduates and run lectures on ‘Ecology in Context’ at an open school that he co-founded in 2011.
- Ecological economics and ethics
- Scientific method and rigour
- Conservation methodology
- Sailing and playing the bagpipes (at the same time)
Bec Sanderson
Common Cause Intern
Bec is a research psychologist, specialising in memory and cognition, with an MA from the University of Edinburgh. Her past work has included studies on Parkinson’s disease patients and art therapy for mentally disabled adults in Iceland. She is fascinated by experimental design, the principles of statistics and (some areas of) modern continental philosophy. She is also a qualified masseuse and accomplished pianist.
- Psychology methodology and statistics
- Cognitive biases
- Book binding and stop-motion animations
- Wild swimming
Ralph Underhill
Project Officer
Ralph is an environmentalist and conservationist with experience in lobbying and campaigning. He has worked for the Campaign for National Parks, Buglife and spent the last 7 years at RSPB. He has a degree in Zoology from Cardiff, an MSc in Science Communication from Imperial and MSc in Conservation from UCL. He has worked freelance as a journalist, having feature articles published in the The Engineer Magazine, While at RSPB he coordinated the Our Rivers campaign, worked closely with the Environment agency and Defra and with European colleagues in Brussels on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Ralph is also a cartoonist concentrating on conservation issues which can be viewed at Mark Averys blog (as above).
- Understanding motivations and influencing people
- Making people enthusiastic about wildlife
- Drawing Cartoons
- Mountain biking