About Us

Caz joined the busy Food Sense Wales team in January 2022, bringing over 30 years of experience supporting professional offices, law firms, and the NHS. She is Prince2 qualified and an alumnus of Cardiff Metropolitan University’s CEIC programme (Circular Economy).

As Project Support Manager, Caz provides financial, administrative, event management, business and project support to advance Food Sense Wales’ strategic objectives.  She liaises with diverse stakeholders across Wales and the UK to facilitate effective planning, communication, and relationship building.

Previously, Caz worked as an NHS PA, and was awarded NHS Wales PA of the Year in 2016. She is described as an extraordinary PA with a proactive, can-do attitude.

Outside of work, Caz is an active community leader, serving as Secretary and Trustee on the Board of Here for Good Collective/Hope St Mellons. In her spare time, she can often be found either at the gym or driving her classic 1972 Mini!

Pearl is a sustainability change-maker and is leading Cardiff’s Sustainable Food City programme through Food Cardiff. Pearl also sits on the Peas Please Project Board to support local place-based action through Veg Cities and facilitate and empower the people’s voice on veg.

Pearl previously led an ambitious and transformational sustainability programme at the Royal Agricultural University, winning multiple awards including the Guardian University Award for Sustainability Project in 2016. She also developed innovative engagement and behaviour change programmes with the National Union of Students.  She holds a First-Class BSc in Marine Biology and Social Ecology (specialising in animal behaviour) and a MSc (Distinction) in Environmental Design of Buildings (specialising in human behaviour). She is also a Practitioner member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.

Katie Palmer is Programme Manager for Food Sense Wales.  Katie has an MSc in Nutrition from Kings College London and in Food Policy from City University. She has worked in the world of food for over 20 years with experience in both the private sector, and third and public sector (including six years on Food Standards Agency’s Welsh Food Advisory Committee and Welsh Government’s Food and Drink Industry Board).  Katie is a founding member of the Veg Power Board as well as being one of the founding members of Food Policy Alliance Cymru.   She also sits on the WLGA’s School Holiday Enrichment Programme Advisory Group and was one of the team of four who created the multi award winning Food and Fun programme in Cardiff in 2015. Most recently she has been elected as a member of the Conscious Food Systems Inner Council supporting a movement of food, agriculture, and consciousness practitioners, convened by UNDP, and united around a common goal: to support people from across food and agriculture systems to cultivate the inner capacities that activate systemic change and regeneration.

Siân-Elin joined Food Sense Wales in October 2020 as Communications and Engagement Manager.  Having worked in the fields of Communications, PR and Events for over twenty years, she most recently worked as a Principal Communications and PR Officer at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Prior to her time in the University sector, Siân-Elin spent six years as an Event Producer at BBC Wales and before that, enjoyed several years as a Press Officer at ITV Wales.  Siân-Elin started her career working for a theatre company, Theatr na n’Og, as a Marketing and PR Officer and is still as passionate as she was then about engaging and communicating with a range of diverse communities and audiences in creative, relevant and innovative ways.

Dr Sanderson Bellamy is an Associate Professor of Food Systems in the Department of Applied Sciences and the Centre for Research in Biosciences at UWE Bristol. Before working at UWE, Angelina was Senior Research Fellow and Associate Dean for Environmental Sustainability at Cardiff University. She also worked as a Research Fellow at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Stanford University’s Wood’s Institute for the Environment.

Angelina’s expertise encompasses food production systems, household food consumption, short supply chains, land use and land cover change, ecological resilience and ecosystem services. Dr Sanderson Bellamy uses a systems approach and place-based methods for understanding society’s grand challenges especially as they relate to the food system. For example, in order to meet zero emission targets, we have to address food systems. We also need these changes to also address the biodiversity crisis and increasing food insecurity. This is why a systems approach is critical, and this is the kind of expertise Angelina brings to the table—an understanding of the complexity of the food system and the need for change that fits into the wider context.

Angelina currently advises Welsh government on the implementation of its Nature Recovery Action Plan, she led on the implementation of the first Biodiversity Action Plan at Cardiff University and also advised on the development of Cardiff City’s One Planet Strategy (which includes food as one of its 6 thematic areas for change). These experiences inform her approach to practical actions for effective strategy implementation.

Simon Wright has been running places to eat in Carmarthenshire for over 30 years and is currently the owner of Wright’s Food Emporium Llanarthne with his wife Maryann. Simon has also had a career as a food writer, and broadcaster making radio and TV programmes for BBC Wales and Channel 4. He is a former editor of the AA Restaurant Guide and worked for 10 years as the restaurant consultant on the UK based productions of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. He has a long record of interest and activism in issues around sustainable food, farming and local supply chains and was appointed as a Professor of Practice at University of Wales Trinity Saint David in 2021.

Amber lives on a small holding in Pembrokeshire and has over 20 years’ experience of food system change work, both on the ground and as a researcher. Her main area of expertise and interest is how to enable Wales and the UK to produce and consume more fruit and vegetables and the role small scale and short supply chains have to play.  She helped found Peas Please and still supports the UK Fruit and Veg Alliance and Edible Horticulture Roundtable, as well as being Wales membership engagement coordinator for the Landworkers Alliance and a freelance action researcher.

Diane’s career began focussing on food and at Middlesex University.  This passion has continued in and around food with highlights being Which? magazine, international consultancy work on food and consumer affairs with WHO, FAO and the European Commission, and many years representing consumers at Codex Alimentarius developing food standards for world trade.  She has served on many government food and agriculture committees and is currently chair of the trustee board with Cynnal Cymru -Sustain Wales, having previously been chair of Natural Resources Wales, and the Consumer Council for Water in Wales. Food and sustainability have been a key focus throughout her career.