Our Associates

Good people to work with!

Nate Holder

Associate EDI & Music Education Consultant

Nate Holder BA (Hons), MMus is a musician, author, speaker and music education consultant based in London. He is an advocate for decolonising music education and has been speaking, writing and consulting on the subject internationally for the past few years.

Nate brings his passion and skill in public speaking into leading CPD training and workshops for schools, hubs and universities; helping address bias, underrepresentation in music classrooms, departments, hubs and boards internationally. He is currently serving as Professor and International Chair of Music Education at the Royal Northern College of Music

He has written four books including, 'I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons' (2018), and 'Where Are All The Black Female Composers' (2020).

Carmel Cardona

Associate EDI Consultant & Resilience Coach

Carmel is the founder of Stitch Your Parachute, a strategic consultancy working across the cultural sector building personal and organisational resilience. Her Research MSc from the LSE in gender, coloniality and sexuality, combined with her own lived experiences, led her to focus on gender, disability and class in her work building inclusive organisations.

Carmel trained as a coach with the NeuroLeadership Institute and works with female and non-binary people in leadership roles, particularly those returning to work after illness or parental leave.

Rochelle Blair

Associate EDI & Youth Voice Consultant

Rochelle is a music producer & DJ based in South London. Aside from music she is also an advocate for EDI and lifting youth voices, having worked with organisations such as Sound Connnections and Muntu Arts.

Jenetta Hurst

Associate Music Education Consultant

Jenetta Hurst is a music specialist with 16 years’ experience working in secondary schools in a range of settings. She is currently Head of Department for Music in a large secondary school in East London, and is a former senior leader.

Jenetta’s interests are staff development, CPDL, ITT and teacher induction and she graduated from UCL Institute of Education with the MA Leadership in 2019. Jenetta is also an Honorary Member of the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Aileen Douthwaite

Associate EDI & Cultural Arts Consultant

Founder and director of AMD Arts Consultancy Ltd, Aileen has worked in a variety of senior leadership roles in education across the UK and is well respected amongst her peers.

Recognising the positive impact that music education can have on people’s lives, she is passionate about breaking down barriers to inclusion and supporting music and arts organisations to achieve this.

Aileen is skilled in strategy, governance, management, policy development, supporting teams and public speaking. She is also a trustee with Nonclassical.

Katie Mason

Research Assistant

Katie is a developmental psychologist, researcher and musician with over 13 years’ experience in developmental, cognitive and educational research. She completed her doctorate at University College London in 2017, where she designed and evaluated the effect of a music-based intervention for deaf children.

Katie has always been driven to explore the potential for music to grow and reinforce key cognitive skills throughout the lifespan, and is dedicated to conducting research with a collaborative approach, working with deaf and hearing teachers, musicians, artists, other practitioners and young people.

As a research consultant, Katie is experienced in producing evaluations and reports for a number of creative arts organisations and charities.

Nzinga Orgill

Associate EDI Consultant

Nzinga is a Race and Culture Expert (RaCE) who is passionate about people and successful in delivering transformational change to benefit individuals and organisations.

Sha is a thought leader able to influence senior leaders, and successfully drive positive change, moving the dial for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse colleagues in areas such as representation and progression.

Alexis Kumi

Associate Editor

Alex is passionate about social affairs, identity politics, and the arts. He has expressed his love for storytelling through a combination of specialist writing, media training, and journalism in a career spanning 20 years.

Having graduated with an MA in Journalism Studies from the University of Sheffield, Alex pursued a career in print journalism. He has written for several publications, including The Guardian and The Evening Standard. A committed multimedia storyteller, Alex has also worked as a TV and radio journalist at the BBC.

Away from journalism, Alex has written and edited reports for a broad range of organisations. He has also designed and implemented media training courses for charities to improve their communication strategies.