McDougall Trust is pleased to announce the appointment to its board of Dr Sarah Birch, Dr Jay O'Connor and Michela Palese.

Chair of Trustees, Derek McAuley said of the appointments:

“I am pleased to announce a further strengthening of the Board of the McDougall Trust with the appointment of three new trustees; Dr Sarah Birch Dr Jay O'Connor and Michela Palese. They bring a wealth of academic and professional experience to the Board and their wish to serve in a voluntary capacity is a sign of growing confidence in the future health of the Trust. As a board we will be working to develop a new strategy with their keen involvement. The Trust undertook a transparent and open appointment process and had to choose from a high-quality set of applicants."

Dr Sarah Birch is a Professor of Political Science at King’s College London. Her current research focuses on adapting elections and other democratic institutions to climate change.

Dr Jay O'Connor brings together academic research on democratic governance and accountability with specialist practice in public engagement and communications. With a PhD in Political Science, she advises organisations on building stakeholder relationships, strengthening governance frameworks, and communicating in ways that foster understanding. 

Michela Palese is a Policy Manager at the Electoral Commission, leading their work on electoral administration and political finance. She previously worked at the Electoral Reform Society and the UCL Constitution Unit, where she co-authored Doing Democracy Better with Professor Alan Renwick, a major report on improving the quality of information and debate during UK election and referendum campaigns.