Our Team

Annamarie Hassall MBE is the Chief Executive (CEO) of nasen with responsibility for strategic direction and operational delivery across the full breadth of nasen’s activity. nasen CEO is the main point of contact for the board of trustees and has a close working relationship with the Department for Education (DfE). Annamarie also has overall responsibility for external relations and business development.

Sam is responsible for nasen's finances, legal and commercial matters.

Lorna Beard is Director of Education at nasen. Accomplished in SEND, school and Trust leadership as well as a strong background in school improvement Lorna has a history of strong strategic as well as operational school leadership.

Carol is responsible for nasen's finances, legal and commercial matters.

As Executive Office Assistant, Tracey is first point of contact for visitors and calls as well as supporting our Executive Leadership Team and Board of Trustees.

Sadie supports on nasen's HR process, people matters and recruitment.

Alison leads and delivers nasen's strategy for securing new funding income from a diverse range of funders and commissioners for development. Alison has an established fundraising and business development career in the education, healthcare and charities' sectors and draws on this experience to further build and develop funding opportunities that drive forward nasen’s mission

Martin leads on cross-functional organisational initiatives which aim to support strategic transformation, identify improvement opportunities, and encourage a strong corporate culture that will benefit nasen’s membership, external partners and its customers.

Helen is Grants and Development Officer responsible for identifying and building applications where nasen can support organisations on their mission for inclusion. Helen was previously a teacher and project manager where she now draws upon her prior experience to build and develop opportunities driving forward nasen’s mission. 

Michael is Head of Education. Michael is responsible for leading our membership offer and he oversees nasen’s research journals and the nasen Spotlight series published by Routledge. Michael develops nasen resources and training, as well as providing valuable advice to our members.

Sam has held several SENDO positions. During Sam’s time working in PRU’s, she became interested in how literacy difficulties, link to behaviour and limit curriculum access, particularly how this impacts learners’ motivation, self-esteem, and opportunities. Sam has undertaken master’s in education and qualified as a Dyslexia specialist teacher and assessor, NASENCO, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology.

Ffion began working in education in 2005, where she quickly developed a keen interest in neurodiversity and inclusion. She has found her teaching, leadership and SENCO roles incredibly fulfilling and has enjoyed working across a broad range of education settings. Her particular interests include supporting sensory differences, and female presentation of Autism, ADHD and ADD.

Anna qualified as a teacher in 2012 later working as a SENCO and SEND Lead across the West Midlands. Before joining nasen, Anna led a Communication and Interaction hub provision, working between specialist and mainstream settings supporting children with a range of additional needs. Anna also has a particular interest in animal assisted therapies, outdoor learning and Forest School, and how these are of benefit to learners with SEND.

Zoe began her career on the Graduate Teaching Programme in 2000 as a secondary maths teacher. She then furthered her practice across several secondary schools holding roles including outreach and SENCO. Her most recent post before joining nasen, was as Assessment and Achievement Lead as part of the SLT of an autism-specific all-through special school. 

Gail is our finance administrator dealing with a variety of finance office processes, including payments, purchase orders, invoicing, credit control and administrative support in all areas of the operations team.

Denise is our Financial administrator dealing with a variety of finance office processes, including payments, purchase orders, invoicing, credit control and  administrative support in all areas of the operations team.

Bailey provides administrative support in our operations team.

Gina leads the sales and marketing team ensuring that nasen's membership growth and revenue targets are met and exceeded. Gina also manages nasens PR profile by overseeing campaigns, exhibitions, events and branding.

Maria is responsible for the day-to-day liaison with the regional teams as well as building the Whole School SEND Member Community and managing the WSS social media accounts.

Alistair supports nasen by securing sales, such as advertising in our membership magazine, nasen Connect, selling exhibition spaces at nasen Live and sponsorship opportunities for our annual awards ceremony.

Natalie supports nasen's strategic objectives by promoting nasen across the UK through targeted marketing campaigns, social media external exhibitions and external advertising. Natalie also attends exhibitions on behalf of nasen and leads the event management of the nasen Awards.

Sam contributes to nasen’s strategic priorities by promoting nasen across the UK through targeted marketing campaigns, social media, external exhibitions and external advertising. Sam also organises our annual events such as nasen Live and the nasen Awards.

Lorretta is responsible for ensuring nasen’s websites and the Customer Relationship Management system are operating effectively and meeting the needs of the organisation. Lorretta also analyses website traffic and responds to feedback on the website and/or Customer Relationship Management system.

Amanda has worked in education for over 20 years, with the latter half of her career dedicated to SEND. Having developed practice both as a SENCO and senior leader in mainstream primary settings and at local authority level she is committed to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND. 

Harriet is responsible for the contract management and project delivery for our current DfE funded programme ‘Universal SEND Services

Caroline has worked in education since 2009 and has a passion for supporting learners with SEND. She took on the role of SENDCo and developed this working across multiple schools. Prior to taking on the role of National Delivery Coordinator for Whole School SEND, she worked as a Regional SENDCo (leading and coaching other SENDCos) for a large MAT.

Alison has been a teacher for 26 years. She has previously been a class teacher, nurture teacher, SENDCO, Head of Chestnut Nursery School, and Head of Inclusion for Exeter Children’s Federation. She has been on the board of trustees at nurtureuk since 2016 and has a passion for improving the education and life chances of children from a background of deprivation. 

Erica is a National Coordinator for Whole School SEND.  She has extensive experience leading on SEND in mainstream schools and multi academy trusts. She began her career as an English teacher before becoming a SENCO.  As well as her work for Whole School SEND, she supports several multi academy trusts. She is an experienced SEND and MAT reviewer and acts as an associate consultant for nasen.

Malcolm has worked in the field of SEND for 30 years and in that time has worked in adult provision, mainstream schools, and special schools. He has worked in with children throughout the age range and with learning difficulties ranging from moderate to profound. Malcolm has been a Headteacher of three schools and one federation. He is a National Leader of Education, a Member of the National SEND Forum, and Patron of the Centre Algarve holiday centre for people with special needs.

Dr Tim Coulson CBE is a primary teacher who became Headteacher of William Tyndale School in Islington. He was a local authority officer in five areas, including as Director of Education for the 550 schools in Essex. He led an education action zone in Lambeth and the National Numeracy Strategy after a spell at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority. He was the first Regional Schools Commissioner for the east of England and now is CEO of Unity Schools Partnership, an academy trust of 32 primary, special and secondary schools. He chairs the Norwich Partnership and is a member of a joint education and health SEND ministerial group.

Maria manages a number of projects here at nasen.

Pernille oversees and manages the delivery of projects across the DfE awarded Universal SEND Services programme, as well as supports contracts and programmes management at nasen. 

Luca supports project delivery across the Whole School SEND Universal Services programme.

Sophie provides administrative and logistical support for the Whole School SEND Universal programme.

Hadeel provides support to the Consortium and project delivery across the WSS programme.