Our team of people are passionate about the subject of sleep and empowering everyone – whether it’s adults, families, professionals or corporate organisations – with expert advice and knowledge to make clear, informed decisions.
We are a small team that work from our offices in Doncaster with a network of practitioners and volunteers around the country.
Vicki Beevers
CEO
Vicki is the Founder and CEO of The Sleep Charity and passionate about supporting people to get a better night’s sleep. Having experienced chronic sleep deprivation herself, and the lack of support available, she decided to do something about it and in 2012 established ‘The Children’s Sleep Charity’. Doncaster-born, Vicki was delighted when the first commissioned sleep service was established in her hometown with the Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group.
Vicki sits on the Board of the British Paediatric Sleep Association. She has been involved in a number of research studies around sleep collaborating with leading academic institutions such as the University of York, the University of Leeds and University College of London. She also provides lectures to post graduate medical students and education students at numerous institutions including the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families, Brighton University and Sheffield Hallam University.
Sleep is a subject that she never tires of speaking about and in 2019 she became a TEDx speaker urging the nation to wake up to the importance of sleep. Vicki regularly features in the national media and has led the charity to deliver two manifestos in Westminster to campaign for increased support for those with sleep issues. The behavioural sleep intervention that she has developed for families of children with sleep issues utilises her extensive experience around working with children.
Prior to working in the charity Vicki’s career was in education. She held various senior roles and worked within special schools, mainstream provision and for a Local Authority as an advisory teacher. Vicki holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education and a Post Graduate Diploma in Special and Inclusive Education and is also a CBTi certified clinician. She has recently been accepted as a ‘Pilotlighter’ where she offers strategic business support to other charities through Pilotlight.
Lisa Artis
Deputy CEO
Lisa has worked in the realm of sleep for more than 12 years and previously headed up The Sleep Council, a not-for-profit advisory organisation, that merged with The Sleep Charity in July 2020. Here, she was instrumental in driving consumers awareness of the need for a good night’s sleep, generating thousands of pounds of press and broadcast coverage and working alongside companies such as Virgin Airlines and John Lewis on sleep projects.
An experienced sleep advisor, Lisa is responsible for the strategic and operational aspects of the charity and with a background in PR and marketing, she is pivotal to the charity’s campaigning around the importance of sleep to health and wellbeing, as well as advocating sleep on the Public Health agenda and is a Health Literacy Champion, ensuring the charity’s health information is accessible for all.
Lisa is a member of the British Sleep Society and is currently the Co-Chair of its Communications Sub-Committee. She also sits on several steering groups around sleep. She is passionate about workplace wellbeing and recently won SHP’s 2021 Trailblazer in Workplace Wellbeing award. Not only is Lisa interested in the wellbeing of other workplaces, she is a huge advocate for her staff’s wellbeing and is a RSPH Health Champion and Menopause Champion.
Lisa also has a keen interest around adult sleep and the link between sleep and mental health with qualifications in Mental Health Awareness and Children’s Mental Health Awareness as well as being a Youth Mental Health First Aider. Lisa has a love of learning and has also received a diploma in cognitive behavioural therapy and is CBTi trained.
To give back to the sector, she is a trustee of local charity, Dementia Friendly Keighley, a cause close to her heart.
Professor Jason Ellis
Honorary Consultant
Jason Ellis is Professor in Psychology at Northumbria University and Director of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research. He has sat on various committees including the British Psychological Society – Division of Health Psychology, the Teaching and Educational Advisory Committee for the Sleep Research Society (based in the USA) and the Division of Health Psychology Scotland.
Jason has presented his research at numerous conferences and invited talks in the UK, Europe, the United States and Canada (including the University of California – San Diego C.A., Harvard Medical School M.A., and the University of Laval, Quebec), and the rest of the world.
Additionally he has consulted for Transport for London, Wall to Wall Media, Cussons Pearl, and UCB Pharma. He is also actively involved in both public and professional engagement activities, speaking at the British Science Festival, TEDx Conference, and the National Science Learning Centre.
Andy Leonard
Operations Manager
Andy joins the team from Doncaster Children’s Services Trust where he worked with a team dedicated to supporting social workers and Looked After Children.
Prior to this Andy worked in the corporate sector leading teams and driving strategy.
In his role as Operations Manager, Andy will assist in leading on strategic planning and directing operations and projects, as well as ensuring systems and processes are in line with best practice and the organisation’s workforce development plan.
Nicola Whittaker
Finance Manager
Nicola joined The Sleep Charity in March 2017 and brings over 15 years of experience in corporate finance functions. An integral part of the team, Nicola manages all day-to-day aspects of the charity’s finances as well as assisting on management and year end accounts.
Charlotte Fawcett
Communications & Partnerships Manager
Charlotte is a public relations specialist with 20 years’ of industry experience in strategic planning, media relations, copywriting, digital PR, and campaign/project and event management.
She graduated with a BA (Hons) in Public Relations and has a diploma in Events Management and Business. Following five years with full-service agencies, Charlotte ran a successful freelance PR business for 11 years where she was named runner-up for Freelance Practitioner of the Year award at the CIPR Yorkshire and Lincolnshire’s PRide awards. Having previously worked for The Sleep Council, Charlotte is well-versed in the importance of a good night’s sleep and is passionate about promoting The Sleep Charity and the work it does to help the nation sleep better.
Brian Marshall
Head of Sleep Support
With a background in the health and pharmaceuticals industry, Brian has a degree in Biomedical Sciences and Health and a wealth of experience in project management. He is a qualified children’s sleep practitioner and in this role he strategically leads the development and delivery of our evidence-based sleep services. These services include a range of support such as sleep clinics for families of children with complex sleep issues, provision of workshops as well as training for professionals. Brian collaborates and works closely with the local clinical commissioning groups and funders to report the impact of services, helps to deliver training and workshops and is responsible for the sleep practitioner and our National Sleep Helpline team.
Brian has a keen interest in green prescribing and has achieved Level 3 Forest School Leader training with Doncaster University and Outdoor First Aid training .
Helen Rutherford
Lead Sleep Practitioner
Helen has been a specialist Sleep Practitioner since 2016. Her professional practice has focused on working with children who have additional needs and she also has a breadth of experience including management and leadership roles. These have included time as a Portage service manager (a home visiting educational service for preschool children with special educational needs and disability) and Family Liaison Officer on the staff of a special educational needs school in Worcestershire. In addition, she is an accredited ‘Signalong’ tutor.
She led on the NHS England funded, national award winning project ” Sleep Support for Children with Autism” and on the BBC Children in Need funded “Sleep Support for Children with ADHD”. Helen has a flexible and adaptable set of skills that can have her sharing her expertise with health, educational and social care professionals in one part of the working week and then devoting her time to parents, carers, children and young people in the other.
Jean Brown
Sleep Practitioner
Jean has a passion for sleep and currently heads up our sleep service through Alder Hey Children’s Trust. Jean has a long history in working with children and sleep, previously working for Scope for some 25 years managing a large day-care for children 0-12 years of age before changing direction and training to become a sleep practitioner. She was then instrumental in setting up and managing a very successful sleep service for Scope with Lottery funding that was secured for three years.
Stacey Fairclough
Sleep Practitioner
Stacey looks after our Doncaster and Bassetlaw sleep services. She previously worked for Doncaster Children’s Centre’s as Project Worker and Early Years Development Worker and in Rotherham as an Early Help Family Support Worker. Over the years she has met lots of families and their children and whilst supporting them have come across many having difficulties with their sleep in some way or another and is keen to put her skills into practice with the charity.
Kim Larrad-Tye
Training & Membership Officer
Kim has a background in Project Management within the IT and Communications industry. She was involved in many projects launching Cable TV and Internet services within the UK until she started her family. She then set up a business supplying children’s play tables and play equipment to the NHS, HM Prisons, schools, doctor/dental surgeries and a diverse range of companies.
She is now a company director with her husband running an IT and Project Management Consultancy.
She is working for The Sleep Charity on a number of projects helping develop the Training courses and the Membership offer. She also looks after setting up licenses for new candidates joining our training courses online. She is always happy to help if anyone has any questions about their online learning journey.
Joanne Jenkinson
Training & Development Officer
Jo brings over 20 years’ office and administrative experience and is super organised and efficient. Her role spans a multitude of tasks but has an integral role in managing all aspects of the charity’s training including bookings, course enquiries and workshops and webinars.
Matthew Perry
Graphic Designer and Marketing Assistant
Matt started his role as Graphic Designer and Marketing Assistant after finishing 3 years of studying Digital Media at university. He has six years of experience in graphic design, whilst obtaining further skills in animation, app development, coding, and more along the way. Having previously worked freelance throughout university, he learnt to develop skills on custom prints, CAD designs, and fulfilling design requests from clients. He has joined the team to support with producing graphics, creating and publishing newsletters, designing posters, and any other marketing materials.
Dr Mike Oliver
Workplace Sleep Ambassador Programme Manager
A registered Health Psychologist and Chartered Psychologist, Mike has transitioned from working in the corporate sector to now being a healthcare professional. Mike’s view is that we spend so much of our time at work that collectively and individually we should be doing as much as we can to be healthy and happy during that time.
In his corporate career, Mike held senior positions in large multinational organisations, primarily focusing on organisational change management. He retrained to become a Health Psychologist whilst working in a Public Health team managing an extensive workplace health and wellbeing programme. It was during this time that Mike heard from so many people and organisations about how sleep, or the lack of good sleep, was affecting health as well as productivity.
The combination of organisational change management and growing expertise in the subject of sleep help to make Mike an ideal person to manage The Sleep Charity’s Workplace Sleep Ambassador programme. He is really looking forward to working with individuals and organisations to help them make a success of their involvement in this important initiative.
Sal Annable
Administrative Assistant and PA to CEO & Deputy CEO
Sal adds much needed support to our administration team. Her role is to answer emails, deal with enquiries and provide telephone support. She also manages travel arrangements, submission of reports and managing diaries for the Senior Leadership Team. In her spare time, Sal is quite crafty and can be found making silver jewellery, painting, or making things from stained glass.
Maxine Gravill
Lincolnshire Training & Information Officer
Relatively new to the world of sleep, Max first joined The Sleep Charity in 2023 to offer administration support to the Sleep Talkers Project. Her role as Training & Information Officer for the Lincolnshire Sleep Hub will see her develop partnerships with other organisations to disseminate the charity’s work at scale to support adults and carers in Lincolnshire at high risk of sleep issues, with a particular focus on developing links using nature and music to support improved sleep. Super organised and a stickler for detail, Max has over 20 years office and administration experience, having run her own business offering events management and administrative support to businesses in the commercial sector from 2005 until joining the Charity.
Elaine Mitchell
Lincolnshire Project Officer
Elaine Mitchell is a certified and qualified Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker, EFT practitioner, Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master Teacher. With a love of combining skills, with a splash of Yorkshire humour and grit.
Having previously worked with The Sleep Charity on a freelance basis supporting both staff and service users for CPD, Elaine is excited to be working alongside such a fabulous devoted and inspiring team. Taking the Lincolnshire Sleep Hub forward with energy and enthusiasm.
Outside of work Elaine loves to take regular dips in her ice bath, enjoys Qigong, weightlifting and all things a little bit woo-woo. A mum of two, wife to a long-suffering husband, all are owned by Ronnie a boisterous Foxeagle a Foxhound and Beagle cross livewire hound life is never quiet.
It’s Elaine’s mission to live a long, healthy, happy, fun and slightly weird life whilst having a positive impact enroute.