Ms Katie Ghose
Member appointed by Council (first appointed: September 2015 until 31 July 2018, re-appointed for a second term from 1 August 2018 until 31 July 2021 and further re-appointed for a third term from 1 August 2021 until 31 July 2024).
Katie Ghose is a non-profit chief executive and experienced board member with nearly three decades experience of leadership and management in the UK voluntary sector.
Currently Chief Executive of KIDS, a charity supporting disabled children, young people and their families in England, Katie has also been Chief Executive of Women’s Aid Federation of England, the Electoral Reform Society and the British Institute of Human Rights. Prior to this Katie held public affairs and communications roles in Parliament and in the charity sector at Age Concern England (now Age UK) and Citizens’ Advice. As a barrister in her twenties, she represented migrants and asylum-seekers and went onto fulfil Board roles with several human rights charities, including Asylum Aid, Bail for Immigration Detainees and Stonewall. From 2006-08, Katie was an independent Commissioner on the Independent Asylum Commission, which was instrumental in persuading the government to pledge an end to child detention in the UK.
Following a conference on democracy at St George’s House, Windsor, in 2014, Katie helped to convene and pioneer the UK’s first citizens’ assemblies, which convened randomly selected citizens in two regions to consider English devolution and present their recommendations to fellow citizens and policy-makers. St George’s House hosted the participants in a successful follow-up gathering, which stimulated a citizens’ assembly on Brexit and helped to embed the assembly model as a means of encouraging reflective and informed deliberation on a wide range of topics. Katie has been a Trustee of St George’s House since 2018.
Katie was born and brought up near Brighton, studied law at Oxford University and received a Masters in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside.