Meet the trustees
Jason Barnett
Trustee
Jason has worked for a non for profit charity called deafPLUS since 2009 as a Centre Manager and in 2020 appointed as Fundraising Manager. He is also a former employee of The Royal Association for the Deaf as an Interpreting Office Manager and was an Executive Assistant to the CEO when he left for deafPLUS. He also developed and ran the BSL Interpreting Section for the London Borough of Hounslow. Jason has contracted meningitis when he was 21/2 years old.
Mary Sorene
Trustee
Having trained as a Secretary in 1961, Mary was a verbatim court reporter for over 40 years. Mary is also a Certified Reporting Instructor and now concentrates on training Verbatim Speech-to-Text Reporters for deaf or hard of hearing people.
Ralph Nattress
Trustee / Treasurer
Ralph’s background is engineering & followed a technical business based career covering product design, production, logistics, sales & marketing dealing with computer & telecommunication based systems. He has been involved with improvements in communications for the deaf, from development some 25 years ago of the V.18 protocol to helping shape subsequent deaf product developments.
Simon Pearse
Trustee
Simon has been actively involved in the deaf community since 2006 when co-opted to TAG covering broadcasting issues. He is currently on the DAC Executive which he represents on the Next Generation Text Steering Board.
Simon is a Trustee for National Association of Deafened People and represents NADP at Ofcom's Consumer Forum for Communications and Digital Television Group Accessibility Working Group. Simon is profoundly deaf and uses hearing aids. Simon is a qualified Actuary.
Jill Jones
Trustee
Jill has worked in the deaf community for 52 years, as a social worker with deaf people in local authorities and NDCS, and as manager of a Sensory Impairment Team. Jill co-founded the Deaf Ex-Mainstreamers Group (DEX), and led DEX’s deaf-led audit of deaf education. Now the Chair of DEX, Jill was a Director of the Institute of BSL and UKCoD. She supported a successful appeal for the award of the Disability Living Allowance (Fairey/Halliday case law). She is deaf due to Treacher Collins Syndrome.
Dr Sheila Sirco
Trustee
Dr Sheila Sirco was brought up in Deaf culture. She graduated from English Language and Literature, obtained MA , and got two PhDs. She is also a published author. From her early life, acquainted with difficulties Deaf people encounter, led her to become an ardent campaigner for Deaf inclusion and equal treatment. Sheila had worked over 20 years as a Linguist, Interpreter and Consultant for various organisations including the UN. In 2008 she took over TERRA and expanded a company from a start-up to a reputable organisation within Deaf and disabled community.
Thomas Lichy
Trustee
Thomas works as Director of DeafLondon, & also trustee at Inclusion London; & DeafPLUS; & Parent-Governor at Heathlands School for Deaf Children. He has previously been a trustee for RAD; Governor at Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children; member of the Board of Oversight for a genetic engineering research program at Bristol University; and a participant in a UN relay services working group. He has a particular interest in legislation and technology.
