Trustees
Davina Ripton (Chair)
Davina is Managing Director of Change Ready. She coaches business leaders and teams, helping them to build the skills and confidence needed to deliver impactful change projects. Her experience spans SMEs, charities, global financial services and retail businesses. She also mentors young entrepreneurs with The Prince’s Trust, supporting them to launch and grow their businesses. She is currently co-chair of HVCA. She lives in Eyam and is a keen walker and trail runner.
Roger Clarke
Roger lives in Hope. He is currently convenor of the travel and transport group. He is a board member of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and the Foreign Policy Centre. He has been national chair of Friends of the Earth, CEO at the Youth Hostels Association, and a member of the Peak District National Park Authority.
Louise Petheram
Louise Petheram has lived in Bradwell since January 2020. For the last eight years she has been a vicar in rural Leicestershire and Derbyshire. Prior to that she was a freelance author writing school science textbooks and other educational materials. She has written for all the major educational publishers. Hobbies include walking, conservation volunteering and bee-keeping.
Esme Ward
Esme has worked in the museum and heritage sector for over 25 years. Her focus had been on broadening access, creative and inclusive learning, research and cultural policy, and building innovative partnerships, including with health and environmental sectors, in Manchester, across UK and beyond. In her day job, she is Director of Manchester Museum. Esme lives in Hathersage. .
Richard Calvert
Richard is currently a Director of Higher Futures Ltd, which advises universities and governments on higher education policy and practice. Richard spent much of his career working in international development, including work on climate and environmental issues. He is also a Council Member at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Richard has lived in Hope since 2016 and is keen walker and cyclist.
Stuart Walker
Stuart is an engineer and a research fellow at the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, a research organisation at the University of Sheffield. He works on emissions reduction and sustainability assessment with businesses, policymakers and charities in the UK and around the world. Away from work he likes to run on the fells from home in Hope, tinker with homemade electric vehicles and travel around Europe by train.
Faith Johnson
Faith is managing director of the Community Interest Company, which runs the Environmental Quality Mark award scheme on for the PDNPA. Her work also includes carbon footprinting, fair trade auditing and nature recovery, all things she is passionate about. She is on the Board of Business Peak District. She lives on a working upland farm near Bakewell.
Team Members
Laurie Cooper (Staff)
Laurie joined HVCA as the Travelling Light Coordinator in April 2024 to support the team on their travel and transport projects. She also works as a yoga teacher, fitness coach and massage therapist. Laurie feels very lucky to live in the Peak District and will strive to do her best to help maintain the beautiful environment it offers, to be enjoyed by all.
Emily Gait (Staff)
Emily joined the Travelling Light Team in March 2025 as the Community Engagement Officer for the Move More project. Growing up in the Hope Valley, Emily is familiar with the local area and the opportunities it offers for active travel. Emily has spent the last 7 years in Scotland managing funding and support for walking, wheeling and cycling projects. Having recently relocated to the Peak District, Emily is eager to connect with the local community and help promote sustainable, healthy travel options. Outside of her work, Emily is a Freelance Illustrator, a keen cyclist, and enjoys growing her own food.
Jeremy Wight (Treasurer)
Jeremy lives in Hope. He has had a career in Public Health, most recently as Director of Public Health for Sheffield, and also held other senior managerial posts within the NHS. He is currently treasurer of HVCA. He likes to spend as much time as possible outdoors.
Zee- Zee Heine (Volunteer)
Zee-Zee has been chair of the HVCA Energy group since late 2020, and led the Widescale Retrofit
Campaign, until spring 2023. She
has been writing for the HEAT Hub website.
She has been a vegan over 20 years (since . Zee-Zee doesn’t fly, so in 2017/18 she travelled to
New Zealand and back by cargo ship and train. All her life she has used public transport and
ridden her bicycle.
Anne Robinson (Volunteer)
Anne is a life long transport campaigner, who is a key member of our Transport group. She is an active member of our Switzerland in the Peak District working group and works closely with trustees and staff to keep moving our projects forward to improve public transport in the Hope Valley.
Antonia Charlton (Volunteer)
Antonia lives in Castleton, and is a keen cyclist with her e-bike. She has worked for charities in sustainability for over 30 years. At the moment she is deputy chief executive at CoMoUK which supports the development of shared transport like public bike hire and car clubs. At HVCA, antonia is a member of the travel and transport management group and the travelling light steering group.
Simon Daniell (Volunteer)
Simon joined as a member of the HVCA Energy Group with a passion for energy consumption reduction and renewable energy generation. He would like to see solar panels installed on as many roofs as possible and a trial of the many small wind turbines now available to assess their suitability for use in the National Park to generate electricity when the sun doesn't shine. He is also linked to similar groups in Tideswell, Bakewell and the Derbyshire Dales. Currently he is trying to support the small local schools in fuel poverty and help with the energy needs of our community halls.
David Hughes (Volunteer)
David is the convenor of the Land Group and an inveterate tree planter. He founded and ran Climate Stewards an international climate change charity and ran the Ecochurch charity to get churches to take climate change seriously. He works at the junction of the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity and can often be found planting sphagnum moss or trees.
