Our team
CRESST has a dedicated team of 2 staff and 6 freelancers, who work together to provide skills to handle conflict well in schools in and around Sheffield.
Rob Unwin
Programme Director
Former Bradford Middle school teacher Rob Unwin, was one of the founders and first Trustees of CRESST in the early 2000s. He coordinated the DECSY pilot peer mediation project which resulted in the proposal to Sheffield Quakers for the legacy funding with which CRESST was formed. He was also the first Director of REMEDI-UK and was involved in the early days of Mediation Sheffield. He is currently seconded to CRESST as Programme Director from DECSY (Development Education Centre, South Yorkshire) where he has been joint coordinator, education adviser and international trainer for many years.
Rachel Newman
Freelance Trainer
Rachel is the artistic director of Growtheatre and has also worked with CRESST since 2013 and has loved training peer mediators and conflict coaches in many schools in Sheffield and beyond.
Heather Morgan
Freelance Trainer
Heather is a facilitator and part time primary teacher. She has worked with CRESST since 2019 and has greatly enjoyed training up mediators and conflict coaches across many schools in Sheffield. Her background is in theatre and she graduated with a degree in English and Drama in 2013. Since then, she has worked on a wide variety of projects in both theatre and education. Highlights have included storytelling in care homes, improvisational theatre in primary schools and a project on helping young people understand politics through drama. Heather is incredibly passionate about the power of the arts to bring communities together and inspire change. She is regularly exploring how to bring creativity into conflict resolution education.
Jessica Matthews
Freelance Trainer
Jessica is a theatre practitioner with several years experience of designing and delivering creative workshops for children, young people and adults. Alongside her work for CRESST, she is co-director of Voz Theatre, a community theatre company that aims to promote dialogue and build social cohesion through the arts. Jessica has an MA in Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution and is fluent in French and Portuguese.
Donna-Marie Fry
Freelance Trainer
Donna-Marie Fry has been a Freelance Facilitator at CRESST since 2021 and is a PhD student at the University of Bradford. With over 15 years of experience as a primary school teacher in both the UK and International schools, Donna possesses a deep understanding of the challenges encountered by students and educators navigating conflicts within school communities. Her commitment to peace education is not just a profession but a profound passion that drives her work.
Having worked in diverse educational settings, Donna has a keen interest in leveraging feminist research methods and principles to address power imbalances and foster student and educator ownership in violence prevention learning activities. Donna firmly believes that meaningful, participatory action with children and youth holds transformative potential to reducing harm and violence in school communities.
Véronique Pin-Fat
Freelance Trainer
Véronique is a philosopher of ordinary language and ethics. She spent her academic career at the University of Manchester where she published, researched, and taught ethics in global politics. What she learnt about violence and its relationship to processes of dehumanisation brought her to CRESST. She is a passionate advocate of the idea that peaceful relations consist of easily learnt skills from primary age up to, and including, adulthood. Véronique delights in being part of CRESST’s team of trainers who provide schools with the opportunity for peace skills to be taught in a way that makes them learning fun.
Susan Downer
Freelance Trainer
Susan Downer is a journalist, award-winning short story writer, creative facilitator, scriptwriter, and CRESST trainer. She brings her love of storytelling to her peer mediation role and believes that lives and relationships can be transformed when we shift the narrative and ‘tell another story’. In 2024, she set up an annual debate/people’s assembly called Sheffield: We Can and enjoys any work that brings people from different story worlds together. She also enjoys podcast walks, mentoring aspiring young writers, chewing the fat (talking), and chewing the fat (eating cake).
Josiah Lenton
PhD student
Josiah is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield. He is currently working closely with CRESST on several projects (including his own doctoral research), and is happy to be back, having trained as one of our primary school peer mediators in 2005! He holds degrees in education and social research, and has a wide range of experience working with children and young people.