Jo is Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Devon Communities Together.
A proud Plymouthian, Jo returned home to Devon in the early 1990s having spent her student years at Manchester University. She brought with her a degree in Town and Country Planning and a lifelong appreciation of a decent curry!
Jo spent the early part of her career in planning, economic development, and urban regeneration. Working closely with local communities, she worked on a variety of projects designed to bring about lasting change in some of Plymouth’s most deprived neighbourhoods. In the early 2000s, Jo moved into the council’s’ social inclusion unit where she set up Plymouth’s fist hate crime reporting scheme. Her last 5 years in local government were spent as a senior policy advisor.
Jo joined the voluntary sector in 2011 where, working in Plymouth and Torbay, she supported programmes of work designed to tackle social and digital isolation, before returning to her planning and community engagement roots as planning and engagement manager at the Dartington Hall Trust. Before joining Devon Communities Together, Jo spent 18 months setting up a new charity for the National Trails a network of long-distance trails around the UK.
Jo is also a Director of Plymouth Energy Community Homes.
I love Devon because…
It’s home. I love that within half an hour of where I live, I can be at the coast or on the moors and that those places hold countless, lifelong memories. I also love Devon’s local food and drink offer and the amazing talents of its creative communities.