The RED Learning Coop are:

Caroline Holmes

Caroline works for a number of organisations developing and delivering trade union education, continuing professional development (CPD) and other bespoke courses, both face-to-face and online. She is currently managing a national training programme for a trade union and developing customised CPD for another. She is also the lead content developer for a union online learning management system. Caroline was previously a tutor at Ruskin College, Oxford, running the BA in International Labour and Trade Union Studies, and working on an outreach trade union programme. She has also worked widely with UK and international trades unions.  She took part in projects run by the International Federation of Journalists in Istanbul and Brussels and developed an online programme for the UN World Health Organisation to support older workers. A community activist and trade unionist, Caroline is a member of the UCU and NUJ, and sits on the latter’s National Health and Safety Committee. She is passionate about using health and safety as a tool to protect workers’ rights and continues to write and develop educational materials and to argue that equality and health, safety and welfare are intrinsically linked.

Ian Manborde

Ian is currently equalities and diversity organiser at Equity, the UK trade union for performers and allied professionals in the entertainment industry. His background is in trade union/activist education for example managing during 2006-2017 the MA in international labour and trade union studies (ILTUS) at Ruskin College, Oxford. He has worked for a wide, diverse body of trade unions in the UK and internationally devising and delivering courses which assist in the growth of trade union organisation through activism. Ian recently completed his doctoral thesis on the topic of activist pedagogy and an article based on findings will appear in the journal New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. Ian acts in an advisory capacity to a number of community/activist develop/education bodies. Recently this included work contributing the Movement Builders programme of the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) https://neweconomyorganisers.org/our-work/movement-builders/

Fenella Porter

Fenella is a campaigner, teacher, researcher and activist in gender, development and labour, with a particular focus on women’s rights. She has 25 years’ experience working collaboratively with women’s organisations and movements, development NGOs, and trade unions at national and international levels, to create space for critical reflection and movement building. Since 2019, she has been co-Director of Gender Justice and Women’s Rights at Oxfam GB. Her work spreads across the organisation and externally to build capacity on gender justice and meaningful commitment to women’s rights. With a PhD in Gender and International Development, she has taught and published in Development Studies, Women’s Studies, Global Labour and Trade Union Studies. Her work has included academic research and teaching, both in the UK and internationally. She is also currently a Trustee of Womankind Worldwide

Cilla Ross

Cilla is a work sociologist with a background in higher, labour, co-operative & adult education.   Cilla’s research interests lie in the history and place of work, life stories, critical and radical pedagogy, and emancipatory education. She has recently co-edited Reclaiming the university for the public good: experiments and futures in co-operative higher education (with Malcolm Noble, 2020, Palgrave). Other recent publications include research into the degradation of work in Isidorsson T and Kubisa J (2018) Job Quality in an Era of Flexibility Experiences in a European Context London: Routledge  and on union co-operatives and precarity, Ross P, Bird A and Conaty P, (2017) Co-operative Solutions to Precarious Work, London: TUC. Most recently Cilla has been co-designing the first Co-operative University in the UK and working on the Ministry of Reconstruction 1919 Report on Adult Education. Cilla is also involved in union co-ops and is a founder member of the Preston Co-operative Education Centre. Cilla is a Fellow of the Co-operative College and a Honorary Professor in Co-operative Education at the University of Nottingham.

Tracy Walsh

Tracy is an educator, researcher and Trade Union activist, who has worked for many years with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and affiliated trade unions, and with international Trade Unions, such as Pergam in Slovenia, OPPZ in Poland, and the International Transport Federation (ITF). She is currently studying part-time for a PhD at Greenwich University, which explores the relationship between gender, race and class in British Trade Unions. Tracy is an active member of the University and Colleges Union (UCU). She has recently co-authored a chapter on the RED Learning Coop, with Fenella Porter, in ‘Reclaiming the university for the public good: experiments and futures in co-operative higher education’ (Eds Ross and Noble). Tracy is currently a Trustee for the Young Women’s Music Project (YWMP)
https://www.ywmp.org.uk/