Tim was a grass roots trade union campaigner in the construction industry in the late 70s and 80s, fighting against the privatisation of directly-employed labour in local authorities and the use of 'labour only subcontracting', which led to poor health and safety conditions and lower wages. In the early 1990s he worked at the Refugee Legal Centre - a free representation unit for asylum seekers appealling against the refusal of asylum by the Home office - successfully representing many asylum seekers before the UK Immigration Courts. In the late 90s as the level of detention rose dramatically, he set up an award-winning Human Rights organisation, Bail for Immigration Detainees, which sought to ensure that detained asylum seekers in the UK had access to judicial oversight of their detention consistent with the Human Rights Act. This work included an innovative litigant-in-person project for detainees who lacked access to legal representation due to cuts in the legal aid budget. In 2006 he started working with the Campaign against Climate Change. He joined COIN in February 2007.

George has twenty years experience in research and campaigning and outreach for environmental and indigenous rights organisations. He has worked as a senior campaigner for Greenpeace and the Rainforest Foundation, and as a policy consultant to the German and Papua New Guinean governments. He has authored fifteen major reports and won nine awards for his video documentary work.

Before joining COIN George was one of the founders and co-ordinators of Rising Tide, a national network of grassroots climate change campaign groups. He has spoken and written widely on climate change issues and sustainable lifestyles including articles for The New Statesman, The Guardian, and The Ecologist. He is the author of Carbon Detox (www.carbondetox.org) a popular book offering "fresh ways to think about personal action to climate change" and is the creator of the blogsite www.climatedenial.org which examines our psychological responses to climate change. His 1930's terraced house in Oxford (www.theyellowhouse.org.uk) is a case study in eco-renovation and achieved 60% reductions in energy and water use.

Richard joined COIN full-time in August 2008 and will be coordinating the COIN training programmes. He hopes to see the delivery of courses move up a gear with more and bigger events and the courses being adapted to specific professions and other audiences.

Before working for COIN, Richard oversaw the documentation efforts of several large human rights projects in West Africa and Sri Lanka, using statistical methods to produce objective and undeniable evidence of human rights atrocities. This included work for Truth Commissions such as that in Sierra Leone, contributing to a history of the country's 10 year conflict. His interest in environmental issues is long-standing, beginning with involvement in green campaigning in the mid 90s.

Richard has been very active on climate issues, especially as volunteer coordinator of his local Friends of the Earth group, lobbying MPs and organising successful public events. Other interests include mountain biking so if you know of a decent sized hill near Oxford please get in touch...

Catrina joined COIN in June 2008 as a part-time Project Manager and became full-time in February 2009. She works on a variety of COIN's projects including climate action groups and COIN's work with Trade Unions and Refugees. She is also currently overseeing COIN's website redesign and office management.

From May 2008-February 2009, Catrina worked as the Coordinator for Winchester Action on Climate Change, a coalition of individuals and organisations seeking to engage every household and every organisation in the Winchester district in meeting the challenge of climate change and realising the benefits of low carbon living. Prior to this, from 2004-2008, Catrina worked for ARTICLE 19, an international human rights organisation which promotes freedom of expression. While at ARTICLE 19, she worked in a variety of project management and campaigning roles focused both on the Asia region and globally. Catrina has also worked in HIV/AIDS and community regeneration.

Hannah joined COIN part time in February 2009 and takes on a new partnership with Refugee and Human Rights NGOs. For the other two days of her week she works with Voluntary Services Overseas as a Volunteer Support Adviser. Before joining COIN Hannah worked primarily in campaigns and research on a diverse range of issues, from Woman’s Rights to Illegal Logging. She holds an L.L.B with Honours in Environmental, International and Trade Law and more recently completed an MSc in Environment and Resource Management. She is currently a Training Facilitator for Voluntary Services Overseas. She has also worked with the Scottish refugee organisation, ALP.

Hannah left Scotland at the age of 16 to work for a rural NGO in Sri Lanka and since then has gone on to work in varying capacities for organisations based in Swaziland and Cambodia. She also spent 12 months running small student led development organisation, EGP. She has been involved in campaigning on social and environmental justice issues since she was 16 including time as a dedicated local Greenpeace activist in Edinburgh.

Hannah also enjoys painting, creativity, music and language.

Antonia joined Coin as a volunteer in August 2007. She started helping to
organise the speakers training and series with Mim and then helped running
the Ecovation project. Since June 2008 she is officially part time
employed as the Ecovation Project Manager. During the last 4 years she has
studied Permaculture and Environmental subjects and has been active in
local action groups, to help raise awareness of Climate Change as well as
human right issues.

Antonia qualified in Germany as an Occupational therapist in 2004. She
then came to Oxford and has worked for the NHS with Learning disabled
adults, as a private carer and is currently employed in a women-only
mental health project for Oxfordshire Mind. She is also very fond of
music, was involved in a radio project and attended an introductory course
in sound engineering and radio production. She has now successfully
absolved a Dreamweaver web design course and welcomes any interesting
project requests.

Siân has recently retired from teaching. Climate change is a priority and for this reason she is happy to spend voluntary time doing any administrative tasks in the COIN office.

Siân has been concerned about the environment all her adult life. For example, it is over thirty years since she decided for environmental reasons not to fly again and not to learn to drive. Previous campaigning and voluntary work have centred around nuclear weapons (early 1980s)and,more recently, visiting asylum seekers in detention.

Claire Stentiford is an Analyst at Best Foot Forward (www.bestfootforward.com), and is responsible for bookkeeping at COIN.

Brian is a retired businessman who has generously agreed to help COIN with its accounts. He is also one of the two wonderful people behind the East Oxford Farmers' & Community Market, which runs every Saturday from 12-3pm at the Asian Cultural Centre on Manzil Way.

In memory of Richard Sexton, Co-Executive Director of COIN 2004-6.