Our Team
Meet the people that make the Walker Institute what it is.
Our people come from a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise, but they all have one thing in common. They’re committed to using scientific research to help the people who are most at risk from the impacts of climate change.
Walker Core Team

Rosalind Cornforth
Walker Institute Director

Celia Petty
Strategic Livelihoods Lead

Pen Cabot
Business Development Director

Ted Shepherd
Grantham Professor of Climate Science

Marah McGuire
Operations Support Officer

Harley Pope
Research Fellow and Walker Academy Lead

Konstantina Pratta
Walker Academy Support Coordinator/Facilitator

Elena Saggioro
Research Fellow

Cathie Wells
Research Fellow
Research Students
Ambassadors and Associates

Andrew Ainslie
Associate Professor - Agriculture and Development

Peter Gibbs
Chair of Board. Former BBC Weather Forecaster & Journalist

Andrew Bennett
President of the Tropical Agricultural Association

Virginia Murray
Consultant in Global Disaster Risk Reduction at Public Health England

Aondover Tarhule
Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Illinois State University

Lord Crisp
Co-Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health & Former CEO of NHS

Aida Opoku-Mensah
Former UN Economic Commission for Africa Chief of Staff to the Executive Secretary & Special Advisor on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ICT

Manuela Gonzalez-Suarez
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences

Vanessa Lawrence
Former Director General and CEO, Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency working globally in the application of Space, Geospatial and AI

Chris Hilson
Professor of Law

Valerio Lucarini
Professor of Statistical Mechanics

Lisa Methven
Professor of Food and Nutritional Sciences

John Methven
Professor of Atmospheric Dynamics - Meteorology

Richard Nunes
Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design

Deepa Senapathi
Senior Research Fellow - Sustainable Land Management

Joy Singarayer
Professor of Palaeoclimatology - School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Reading

Stefan Thor Smith
Associate Professor in the School of Construction Management and Engineering & Research Division Lead - School of the Built Environment, University of Reading

Karen Lawrence
HR Advisor

Ashley Burke
International Partnership Manager

Emma Robinson
Research Accountant

Anne-Marie West
Finance Business Partner