Our Board of Trustees is responsible for promoting the vision and objectives of Signature. They provide firm strategic direction to the organisation, setting overall policy, defining goals and setting targets and evaluating performance against those agreed targets. They ensure that agreed plans and budgets are monitored, delivered and evaluated by the executive team.
Members of the Board work alongside the Signature team at functions, meetings or other events. They act as representatives of Signature and promote and enhance our reputation and values.
John Walker joined Signature as a Trustee in October 2015, became Vice Chair in November 2016 and Chair in 2022. He is a Senior Lecturer at University of Sussex and convenes an undergraduate programme in British Sign Language and Deaf culture. John is a human geographer and his PhD thesis explored the cultural capital of the Deaf community in Brighton and Hove.
Mark joined our board in September 2017. Mark is head of centre for deaf education at City Lit in London. Over the years, Mark has taught and assessed all levels of BSL, from introductory to Level 6, and is a qualified Internal Verifier, also providing consultancy and advice for BSL tutors in other colleges.
Helen joined our board in December 2017 as trustee and treasurer and is currently Chief Operating Officer of Tyne Community Learning Trust, a multi academy trust of 9 schools in South Northumberland. A chartered accountant, Helen is responsible for running the Trust finance department and business service teams. Helen, who is from Huddersfield, remained in the North East after gaining her accountancy degree at Newcastle University in 1987.
Ian Robinson is semi-retired and is a freelance Trainer and Consultant on Deaf issues. He was Coordinator for Leeds City Council’s Deaf START Post 16 team working with FE & HE Deaf students in and around Leeds for 10 years. He managed a large team of CSWs, English Support, Educational Support Workers and Educational Interpreters that covered colleges around Leeds, ensuring Deaf post 16 students received quality communication support and developed independence.
Emma Winfield joined the Signature Board in Summer 2022. She trained as a lawyer specialising in pensions and became an in-house policy expert and then a compliance manager. Following a sabbatical to look after her young family, Emma became a compliance and legal manager in the education sector and has significant experience clerking and advising Trustee bodies on governance, risk and compliance. Emma is currently studying BSL level 6 and hopes to represent and provide a view of students who are on their learning journey.
Adam Schembri is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Birmingham. Adam has conducted research in sign language linguistics for more than 25 years, including starting the BSL Corpus project at DCAL. As a hearing second language signer of BSL, Adam is interested in helping to bridge the gap between academic research on BSL and BSL teaching.
John has been a BSL teacher and assessor with Signature for a total of 30 years.
He teaches all levels from BSL Level One to BSL Level Six. In 2010, he won the Signature National Teacher of the Year award.
He is passionate about BSL and about supporting people to learn to sign. Over the years, he has taught thousands of students to sign and taught Deaf awareness to large companies.
Carolyn Kerr is the Head of Learning and Development, at the Cabinet Office having previously worked at the Scottish Qualifications authority (SQA). Carolyn will bring vast experience from working within another awarding organisation to the Signature board.
Leave your Name, Email and the manner of your enquiry and member of our very helpful team will get back to you as soon as possible.
