Board members
The ACRE board is made up of voluntary directors whose role is to set out the charity’s strategic direction.
We are lucky to have a board with a range of skills and insight into rural communities that helps us make sure we deliver our charitable aims and objectives.
James Blake
Chair
James was elected Chair of ACRE in November 2022, following an external recruitment process.
Since 2017, James has been Chief Executive of the Youth Hostels Association – a leading national youth charity and social enterprise, with over 140 hostels across England and Wales, predominantly in rural communities.
James has had a lifelong interest in rural affairs. Following a degree and PhD in geography, where he specialised in environmental and rural policy, James had a senior level career in central and local government, most recently as Chief Executive of St Albans City and District Council from 2012-2017. Prior to that James was a senior civil servant in the Department for Communities and Local Government, where he worked in various policy roles on local government, regeneration and social inclusion.
James has held various non exec roles and is currently a Governor of the University of Hertfordshire and a trustee of a small local music charity.
Sue Dovey
Vice Chair
Sue was elected to the ACRE board in November 2018. She has 20 years experience of working with rural communities, including being the CEO of two ACRE members. She is supportive of and committed to the national work of ACRE and the local work of its members. Sue has been a trustee/director of local, regional and national not-for-profit organisations. She understands the requirements of good governance, based on the Nolan principles, and believes that good governance is vital for all organisations, but especially for those in the not-for-profit sector. Good governance, in turn, requires good team work, honest self-assessment and keeping up to date with strategic and regulatory requirements. As someone who ran a School for Social Entrepreneurs for eleven years, she encourages creative thinking and entrepreneurial ideas.
Gavin Parker
Vice Chair
Professor Gavin Parker is Chair of Planning Studies at the University of Reading. A chartered planner and fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences he has developed a strong track record in community planning and maintains a strong research interest in citizenship, participation and governance in land, planning and development. Gavin chaired the Community Council for Berkshire from 2006 to 2011. He was one of the three executive directors of the Royal Town Planning Institute between 2012-2014 and he has served on the board of the New Forest National Park Authority since 2017 and as Chair since 2020.
Charles Coats
Charles was elected to the ACRE board in November 2017. He is from a farming background and retains an involvement in a family farming business. Charles has a BSC Hons Degree in Rural Estate Management from Reading University. He is a Fellow, recently retired, of the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) with over 42 years professional experience in the management of property, mainly in the public sector. He has been a parish councillor since 2014 and Chairman since June 2021 and has responsibility for coordinating planning related issues, including leading on the successful adoption of a Neighbourhood Development Plan. Charles is currently Chair of Gloucestershire Rural Community Council.
Garry Jones
Garry was elected to the ACRE board in November 2023. He has served as Chief Executive of Support Staffordshire since 2014. Previously he undertook the same role at York CVS, and before that spent 10 years in the nature conservation sector. Garry has an MA in Natural Sciences and a post-graduate qualification in Local Governance. He is also an NHS Trust Governor and Chair of Transforming the Trent Valley Landscape Partnership.
Sarah Morland
Sarah was co-opted to the ACRE board in February 2024. She is a trustee of Connecting Communities in Berkshire, having served as Chair for three years to January 2024. Sarah was Partnership Manager at Reading Voluntary Action until she retired in December 2019, sitting on various partnership boards to give a voice to voluntary organisations in strategic decision making. She has an MSc in Change Agent Skills and Strategies and worked for many years as an independent consultant in the VCS focussing on organisational change, collaborative working and strategic planning. She volunteers for a number of charities including Thrive, the therapeutic gardening charity.
Sharon Davis
Sharon was elected to the ACRE Board in November 2024. She is an experienced business and communications leader who has spent her career championing underrepresented groups and has a strong interest in localism.
Over 20 years, she has delivered tailored communications services and consultancy to small businesses, heritage and rural organisations, educational organisations, NGOs, government departments, and local councils. In 2017, she set up Dales Business Women as a response to her own isolation. Through this network, which she has now passed on, she was able to champion the unique challenges rural communities face.
Sharon is eager to bring her commercial acumen and entrepreneurial expertise to the board and create better outcomes for rural communities. Born in London, she relocated to Yorkshire in 2016 and currently resides in a market town on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales with her husband and two children.
Jane Colthup
Jane was co-opted to the ACRE Board in February 2024. She has been Chief Executive of Community First Yorkshire since June 2021. Previously Jane was a management consultant working with local authorities and before that worked in skills, training and recruitment. Her career has spanned public, private and not for profit sectors.
Caroline Cotterell
Caroline was elected to the ACRE Board in November 2024. She has spent over 30 years working to empower communities to take action to improve their quality of life and their environment.
With The Countryside Agency, she led a team working across the South East of England to promote parish planning, community transport schemes and community service grants and advice. She then moved to the Commission for Rural Communities where she led a ground-breaking programme of work investigating issues such as housing, flooding and social exclusion for the Government’s first ever Rural Advocate, reporting into No 10 and Parliament. For the last 10 years she has worked as a Director with Natural England where she has had various roles in corporate governance, strategy development and policy implementation, including developing their conservation strategy.
Caroline lives in a small Cotswolds village and is actively engaged in her local community, most recently having introduced monthly film nights into the village hall.
Andrea Graham
Andrea was elected to the ACRE Board in November 2024. She has a PhD in agricultural botany and spent the first 18 years of her career working as a research scientist.
In 2007, Andrea joined the National Farmers’ Union where she went on to hold roles including Countryside Adviser, Chief Science Adviser, and Chief Land Management Adviser. During her final 8 years at the NFU she served as their national Head of Policy. Her department led on many rural policy issues such as crime, access and rights of way, environment, infrastructure and planning matters as well as leading on the NFU’s net zero roadmap for farming. This included representing the farming industry through a period of significant change following the 2016 EU referendum, as well as the pandemic.
Since taking early retirement in late 2022, Andrea enjoys her time as a long-serving rural parish councillor in her Cotswold community. She is currently working towards a lifelong ambition to achieve a formal qualification in photography.
Jim Webster
Jim Webster was elected to the ACRE board in November 2018. He has lived and farmed in the far south of rural Cumbria all his life. In the 1970s he was involved in the voluntary management of the YHA, on regional and national councils. From the 1980s Jim has been heavily involved with the CLA, at county and national level. After FMD he was asked if he would act as the CLA’s National Livestock Adviser and as an NLA, he was a self-employed contractor for ten years dealing with Defra, FSA, RPA, and Trading Standards at all levels, on a very regular basis. He has represented the CLA at a county level in a number of areas: the local Police Liaison committee and the NW Flood Defence advisory committee, among others. After FMD he joined the Farm Crisis Network as a volunteer, taking on mainly casework, helping farmers cope with stress and mental health issues. Jim has a deep commitment to Rural people and became a trustee of ACTion with Communities in Cumbria, the ACRE Network member for Cumbria in 2014.
