Mrs. Barbara Kasumu

Barbara holds two non-executive roles on the boards of the Youth Hostel Association and the Foyer Federation. She has a degree in Politics from Queen Mary University and a Masters in International Public Policy from University College London. Barbara is currently Chief Executive of award-winning social enterprise Elevation Networks and a respected equalities campaigner, working on the participation, employment and leadership of young people and women. She has worked extensively with government departments, NGOs and various youth initiatives across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. Barbara has worked in the youth sector for over ten years and specialises in providing consultancy services to employers from Barclays to the Civil Service Fast Stream and other stakeholders on how to engage and attract young people, women and people of colour to their talent pipelines and governance structures. She also runs Visible Women, a campaign to match young women and girls with female role models and mentors in male dominated industries. On Twitter alone the #IamVisible hashtag reached 259,290 unique users and as a result VW was featured in The Independent as one of the top campaigns ‘tweeting for equality’. Barbara is also an RSA fellow. Barbara was appointed to the Diversity and Inclusion board for the London 2012 games alongside Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and was a victory ceremony presenter for the Paralympic Games. Barbara has been a consultant for the Department for International Development- Civil Society Youth Working group; supporting the implementation of the “Youth Guidance Project”. She has also been a member of the international steering committee for the Commonwealth Youth Forum that feeds into the bi-annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In 2009, Barbara was a Youth Advisor for Oxfam GB, where she ensured that young people remained on the agenda with Oxfam’s campaigns and policy work. As a trainer and facilitator Barbara has worked with reputable organisations such as the Scottish Youth Parliament and the British Youth Council. She was previously selected to be a Young Advocate for the Changemakers charity where she worked with think tank of the year; Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) to help to improve the LGIU’s practice and policy regarding the inclusiveness of young people.