Meet the Committee
Our dedicated committee members volunteer their time to organise everything we do! They come from a range of professional backgrounds and have a huge amount of combined experience. Click on a picture to find out more about the individual and how to contact them!
Internal Comms Officer
Lou Sykes
Hi everyone! I am really excited to have joined AFON as the new Creative Director. I work within the Rivers Trust movement designing and delivering river restoration projects as well as hosting catchment partnerships. I'm particularly interested in the big picture scenarios, working at landscape scale, and how we can get people to appreciate everything nature has to offer. When I'm not at work you can find me out and about exploring my local area or doodling in my sketchbook. I'm really looking forward to working with a great committee of young people and seeing what AFON can achieve in the next couple of years.
Rosie Crowther
​Hi I'm Rosie, Associate Director at AFON. My day job is working for ZSL communicating conservation to the public in fun and exciting ways. Before this I studied Wildlife Conservation at Kent Uni and have worked in environmental education across Scotland, London and the south east. I have been lucky enough to meet some fantastic mentors throughout my career, and want to support those starting out on their own journeys.
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Connor Davies
Hi everyone! I work in Bristol as a Learning and Engagement Presenter at Bristol Zoological Society (Bristol Zoo and Wild Place Project) and I’m part of the Youth Board at Chester Zoo. My main passion is helping to increase education and engagement with conservation, especially in young people, and trying to increase the opportunities for young people to get involved with decision-making in conservation. This is why I’m so excited to be Careers & Mentoring Officer at AFON, helping to provide career resources and access to mentoring from incredible conservation professionals for young people across the UK! Outside of work, I’m usually found taking photos of animals, searching for peregrines in the Avon Gorge or getting lost in a book in local park!
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Jasmine Isa Qureshi
Hi there! I'm a freelance Journalist, Wildlife Filmmaker, Marine Biology graduate and Television Researcher at the BBC Natural History Unit. I'm also Ambassador for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and have written for multiple sites and magazines, including The Wildlife Trusts, The Beaver Trust, Bloom in Doom Mag, and Nature's Gold Magazine. I love film and telling stories through film, and also write about politics and social justice. I enjoy drawing, photography, looking for bugs, and musical theatre outside of AFON, so my passion for nature still rings true in my other hobbies!. I am passionate about stories, and sharing and crafting these stories, using them and the skills I've gained to raise awareness to important issues, and changing them for the better, all whilst traveling and exploring the natural world, as a filmmaker, conservationist and writer.
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Laura Saunders
​I am an MSci Hons Biology graduate from the University of Nottingham, having specialised in animal behaviour and conservation. I am delighted to have joined the AFON committee and to be a part of a network which brings together and inspires young people who are interested in nature and conservation. I am a big believer in the power of the collective voice, and I am very excited about what AFON has already achieved and what it can achieve in the coming years. For me, the long-term goal is a career in conservation, so I fully appreciate how important and valuable AFON is to young aspiring conservationists. In my spare time I volunteer at Attenborough Nature Reserve, love being in nature spotting wildlife and I am currently working on my species ID skills. I hope to help AFON grow even bigger and better over the next few years and I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together, as a network!
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Daisy Gillman
Hi! I'm Daisy and I am really excited to be joining the AFON team! I am currently studying MSc Agroecology at Harper Adams university. I'm particularly interested in farmland wildlife conservation, and I hope to work in this area in the future. I'm really looking forward to working with everyone on the team to continue AFON's network.
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Hamdiya Osman
​I studied Animal Management in college and Animal Conservation Science at University after miraculously finding both courses last minute. This showed me how inaccessible options to study outside of well-known degrees were to most people and it’s something I often think about throughout my career in conservation. My passion lies in helping young people discover nature as I feel very lucky to have found the courses I had that led me to where I am today, and want to share that with others. After graduating, I worked closely with the Cheetah Conservation Fund in my parents native land Somaliland, and as a trainee with the London Wildlife Trust. My hobbies include writing blogs about conservation topics and photography.
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Regional Reps
We have regional reps across the UK. Find yours and join your local group, and discover like-minded people and events in your area!