Our Team

Ian Davenport (Chair of Trustees)

Ian Davenport is an experienced educationalist and the Chair of the LIS Foundation. He was the founding CEO of the Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation, which is now a leading education bursary charity. Ian has previously been Chair of Trustees of the Royal Academy for the Deaf, has advised a range of organisations including the Department for Education, and was previously Headmaster at Blundell's School. Currently he is developing two further charities focussed on improving educational opportunities for less advantaged children.

Sarah Evans

Sarah has a background in finance, management consulting and education. She founded and is currently a governor at Westside School, a small school model for excluded young people aged 11-16 years. Sarah set up Oxford Youth Lab, enabling multi-stakeholder practitioners and academics to come together in order to understand the complexity of current youth issues. Sarah sits on the boards of the Solutions Lab at MaRS in Toronto, Ivey Business School and Ivey Sustainability Centre. She is an Advisor to Springboard Foundation and is a Member of Institute of New Economic Thinking (INET) Council. In Canada, Sarah sits on the Board and Executive Committee of Alpine Canada where she is as Chair of HR, Inclusivity, Diversity and Safety Committee.

Colleen Amos OBE

Colleen’s career spans secondary teaching, TV presenting and senior positions in communications and marketing in private and public sector organisations. Colleen is co-founder and CEO of the Amos Bursary. The nationally-recognised charity exists to ensure talented young British men of African and Caribbean descent acquire the skills and mindset to move from potential to performance in higher education and their professions. She is also co-creator of the award-winning Progression Programme for Schools. Colleen was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Larissa Dempsey

Having graduated from UCL with a Bachelors of Arts and Sciences, Larissa has first-hand experience of the value of interdisciplinary education and is passionate about ensuring wider access to it via her LIS foundation trusteeship. Larissa is most interested in how science intersects with society, and works as a researcher in healthcare markets, executing research projects in a variety of therapy areas using both qualitative and quantitative methods.

Stephen Isherwood

Stephen has extensive experience in the recruitment and development of students, graduates and school leavers. He was appointed CEO of the ISE in 2013 following seven years as Head of Graduate Recruitment at EY. Stephen was a special advisor to Dame Shirley Pearce’s TEF review, is a member of the Jisc Advisory Board, and a trustee of Ashorne Hill Management College. He works with Speakers for Schools and is an Enterprise Advisor for Roding Valley School. He has also presented to various committees in Parliament.

Dr Michael Englard
Lead

In 2021, Michael set up the LIS Foundation – LIS’ sister charity – which supports students from low income, care experienced, and estranged backgrounds. Working with the trustees, Michael continues to lead the charity.

Prior to joining LIS, Michael co-founded Causeway Education where he is now a trustee. This charity runs programmes for students from less advantaged backgrounds and teachers from low progression schools.

In the independently evaluated “Academic Apprenticeship” programme, 100% of students received at least one offer from a Russell Group university compared to 73% from a comparison group. The programme, run with the Sutton Trust, was reported widely in the national press. Michael led the development of OSCAR – an online platform for students completing personal statement and apprenticeship applications – which has been used by over 200 UK schools.

In addition, Michael is a Committee Member of the Stephen Spender Trust and a fellow of Advance HE (previously the Higher Education Academy).