The UK National Commission for UNESCO is governed by a Board of Non-Executive Directors, led by our Chair. Each Non-Executive Director is formally appointed by the FCDO and is a specialist in one of UNESCO’s core programme areas. The day-to-day operations of the Commission are undertaken by a Secretariat, led by our Chief Executive and Secretary-General.
The National Commission works in collaboration to the UK Permanent Delegation to UNESCO, including the UK Ambassador.
UK Permanent Delegation to UNESCO
Anna Nsubuga is the UK’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. Appointed to the role in 2023, Anna is an experienced public and social policy professional having worked at community, national, regional and international levels across a range of policy areas. Anna’s areas of expertise include further education and adult learning, girls and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, European affairs, and stakeholder engagement.
Max is the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Kingdom’s Mission to UNESCO.
UK National Commission Board of Directors
Dr Dan O’Connor is Head of Research Environment at Wellcome Trust. Dan has a PhD in the History of Medicine (University of Warwick) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Bioethics and the History of Medicine (Johns Hopkins University), as well as considerable experience in the commercial sector.
Professor Mike Robinson is a specialist in cultural heritage and sustainable tourism, with over 30 years’ experience working with projects spanning more than 40 countries. As Professor of Cultural Heritage at Nottingham Trent University, Mike is working to develop the University’s international, cross-disciplinary research portfolio in the heritage field.
Charlotte Joy is a social anthropologist who specialises in contested heritage and heritage protection. She is a lecturer in Cultural Heritage Management in the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton. She is the author of two books, 'The Politics of Heritage Management in Mali' (Routledge, 2012) and 'Heritage Justice' (CUP, 2020). She chairs UK Blue Shield's Working Group on the protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage and is a member of UNESCO's Network of Facilitators of the 2003 Convention.
Will is a specialist in education and international development with over 20 years teaching and researching in education. Following his first career as a secondary
teacher, he has held positions in civil society, international organisations, and academia. Currently, he works as the Director of Internationalisation and Sr Lecturer in Education and Development at Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh where he also leads the Comparative Education and International Development (CEID) Research Group. His research explores how global pressures and national policies shape
Dr Slavtcheva-Petkova is a specialist in global journalism, journalists’ safety, online communicative safety and young people and the media. Currently based at the University of Liverpool, she is an academic and former journalist with over 20 years of experience in global comparative journalism research. She is the author of four books – Global Journalism: An Introduction, Russia’s Liberal Media: Handcuffed but Free, Discussing Trump’s America Online and Young People, Media and Politics in the Digital Age. Vera leads a one-stop platform for journalists’ safety – https://safetyofjournalists.org – an initiative of the University of Liverpool and the Worlds of Journalism Study, in cooperation with UNESCO. The platform hosts the Safety of Journalism Index, ranking 73 countries.
UK National Commission Secretariat
Andrea has responsibility for the financial management of the organisation, as well as managing office administration and HR.
Charlie is the lead contact for UK organisations and individuals to access UNESCO's programmes and activities and manages the UK's UNESCO accreditation processes. He also works with the UK Government and existing UNESCO designations to manage elements of UNESCO's policy areas.
Nushin is responsible for leading the delivery of UKNC's Local to Global Programme. Local to Global aims to build a more resilient and adaptive network of UNESCO-designated sites and ensure that UK society continues to feel the benefits of UNESCO Membership
Alison supports the Commission's policy and parliamentary work, including coordinating involvement at UNESCO General Conferences and Executive Board meetings, liaising with UNESCO experts, strategic mapping of UNESCO programmes with government policy priorities and other research.
