Democratic Audit Trustees
Clare Coatman (Chair)
Clare leads the TUC’s young workers programme. She has worked on a range of projects within the democratic reform sector including as National Coordinator for High Visibility with Yes! to Fairer Votes, Head of Operations for Power2010 and Participation Manager for the Convention on Modern Liberty. She has been involved in activism since being a school student spokesperson during the Iraq War protests.
Dr Stuart Wilks-Heeg
Stuart is a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester, on sabbatical from the University of Liverpool. He joined the University of Liverpool in 2002 as a Lecturer in Social Policy. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010 and moved to the Department of Politics in 2014, becoming Head of Department. He is recognised as a leading expert on the UK democratic process, particularly with regard to issues associated with the mechanics of the electoral process. Stuart frequently provides UK political commentary and analysis for newspapers and broadcasters regionally, nationally and internationally. He also contributes to a range of leading political blogs, and tweets on UK politics @stuartwilksheeg.
Tufyal Choudhury
Tufyal Choudhury is Assistant Professor at Durham Law School. His research and publications cover the areas of racial and religious discrimination, integration, human rights and counter terrorism, contributing to advancing both academic and public policy debates.
He is also a Senior Research Affiliate of the Canadian Terrorism, Security and Society Research Network and a member of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office External Review Panel.
His teaching and research focuses on issues of counterterrorism, radicalisation, racial and religious discrimination, and integration. He has over 30 publications in this field, including most recently, What the Prevent Duty Means for Schools and College in England: An analysis of educationalists’ experiences, “Campaigning on Campus: Student Islamic Societies and Counterterrorism” (2017) Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and “The Radicalization of Citizenship Deprivation” (2017) Critical Social Policy.
Professor Tim Bale
Tim Bale is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London. He graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. After teaching English in Spain, he did a Masters Degree at Northwestern University in the USA. Following a few years spent working for the NHS, he returned to do a PhD at the Department of Politics at Sheffield University, where he then lectured for a year. After Sheffield, he taught politics at Victoria University of Wellington in and then at Sussex University until 2012. In 2008 he won the Political Studies Association‘s Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching. In 2011 he received the W.J.M. Mackenzie prize for his book The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron, the second edition of which was published in late 2016. Other books include The Conservatives since 1945: the Drivers of Party Change and Five Year Mission. The Labour Party under Ed Miliband. The 4th edition of his textbook on European Politics was published in 2017. He tweets @ProfTimBale.
Scarlett MccGwire
Scarlett MccGwire is a journalist and communications trainer. She has worked with many politicians in Russia and east-central Europe (including Kosovo) through the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
Dr Oliver Escobar
Dr Oliver Escobar is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh and co-director of What Works Scotland. His areas of research, teaching and practice are participatory democracy, public dialogue and deliberation, and collaborative policy-making. He is a Public Engagement Fellow for the Beltane Network, an Honorary Researcher at QMU’s Centre for Dialogue, a Trustee of Democratic Audit UK, and the Director of ClimateXChange’s Citizens’ Juries. Oliver founded and coordinates the Citizen Participation Network, has trained hundreds of public engagement practitioners, and is involved in developing democratic innovations across various policy arenas in Scotland and beyond.
Dr Joelle Grogan
Dr Joelle Grogan is a Senior Lecturer in law at Middlesex University London. Her primary areas of research are UK and European Union public law, with an expertise on the rule of law. Her current focus is Brexit, and legal measures taken in response to the COVID-19 crisis. She is also author of the Brexit chapter of The UK’s Changing Democracy: The 2018 Democratic Audit.
Dr Jess Garland
Dr Jess Garland is Director of Policy and Research at the Electoral Reform Society. A former Senior Political Adviser to a Shadow Cabinet Minister, Jess has several years experience working in Westminster. She has a PhD in Politics from the University of Sussex and holds a Research Masters (MRes) in Government, Policy and Politics from Birkbeck, University of London and a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from UCL. Jess has particular expertise in political participation and political party organisation research.
If you require contact information for any of Democratic Audit UK’s trustees, contact democraticaudit@lse.ac.uk
Democratic Audit's core funding is provided by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Additional funding is provided by the London School of Economics.