Dr Audrey Allwood

Dr Audrey Allwood is multi-talented and diverse, with a wide span and depth of experience developed over the course of her life's work. She blends her exceptional academic background with decades of work within local authorities, the NHS and community-based organisations. Audrey also brings her love of the arts into her storytelling techniques as a public speaker. She has spoken for organisations including Vodafone, eBay, British Land, the National Trust, the Institute of Accountants and Bath University. Audrey also contributed to ABC Radio's programme on Caribbean migration in Brixton, covering gentrification and social change. Available for keynote and after-dinner speaking engagements, she combines intellect, innovative storytelling and intuition with a charming and warm personality that adds a special touch and deeply engages audiences.

In addition to her professional achievements, Audrey's extensive travel experiences have fuelled a deep interest in people, both as individuals and as members of organisations and communities. She is well-rounded and versatile in her speaking offerings, covering topics such as managing stress and wellbeing, organisational service development and leading change. Audrey delivers fascinating insights on awareness themes, including International Women's Day, race equality, diversity, stress awareness, walking, Windrush Day, Alcohol Awareness Week, Black History Month, mental health, Menopause Month, motivation and veganism for World Vegan Day. She is also open to discussing bespoke opportunities and tailored presentations.

Audrey is a social anthropologist and currently lectures at Goldsmiths, University of London, teaching degree-level anthropology modules that include academic writing skills and contemporary issues. Her academic interests focus on researching Caribbean experiences and the connections between Caribbean migrants in Britain, examining everyday lives and the lasting contributions of these communities to British society and culture. She published the article "Belonging in Britain: Black Older People's Experiences of a Sheltered Housing Scheme in London" in Housing, Care and Support in 2008, followed by her first monograph, Belonging in Brixton: An Ethnography of Migrant West Indian Elders in Brixton, London, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2020. Through collaborative work with organisations such as Age UK Lambeth, Audrey collected oral histories from tradespeople, resulting in the limited-edition publication Windrush Generations Trades People: 12 Stories in 2021. She has since secured another publishing contract in collaboration with fellow scholars exploring contributions to local British history.

Audrey is also certified to teach mindful meditation and has delivered motivational, encouragement and stress management workshops within the community. In 2015, she created "Walk with Audrey", a coaching programme workbook designed to support motivation and personal change, which was piloted with Certitude, a mental health organisation, as a personal development and communication tool.

Underlying and complementing Audrey's accomplishments is more than thirty years of experience in the public sector across housing, health and social care. Her career has included frontline support, team and service management, specialist training delivery and senior-level consultancy in project management, strategic planning and service development across councils, voluntary sector organisations and the NHS. As a result, Audrey is highly knowledgeable on a range of contemporary issues, including substance misuse, housing tenancies and security of tenure, homelessness, mental health, dementia, poverty and environmental concerns.