Meet our Team
Behind SIGNAL is a team brought together by a shared purpose: to make lived experience visible and useful, so people can shape their own lives, get support that reflects what matters, and move towards freedom from poverty.
We work alongside partners, practitioners and communities across the UK, while learning from and contributing to a wider global movement. This allows us to connect local experience with broader insight, sharing what works and strengthening how we support change.
Through this, we help turn lived experience into insight that can inform practice, influence thinking, and contribute to change at both an individual and wider level.
Andy
Director
Andy Cox works across communities and systems to understand what matters to people and turn this into meaningful action. His work focuses on enabling people and organisations to respond to increasing complexity with practical, human-centred approaches.
More about Andy
Despite the many organisations and dedicated people supporting communities across the UK, the challenges people face are becoming more complex and harder to address through traditional approaches.
Through earlier research, Andy and colleagues identified the Global Stoplight methodology as a practical way to respond to this complexity. Since 2018, this approach has been tested and adapted within the UK, leading to the development of SIGNAL.
SIGNAL supports individuals and households to understand what matters to them and take action, while also helping organisations better understand and respond to need. Working with partners across sectors, Andy focuses on connecting lived experience with practice, supporting more responsive and purposeful services.
Dr Julia Corvalan
Global Operations Manager, Poverty Stoplight
Julia is an international development specialist working with grassroots organisations to co-create solutions in highly vulnerable communities.
More about Julia
Julia is Global Operations Manager for the Poverty Stoplight, a multidimensional poverty measurement and coaching methodology used in over 60 countries. Her work focuses on supporting mission-driven organisations to design and deliver impactful, locally grounded solutions.
She is also a Senior Fellow of the Global Innovators Group at the Aspen Institute, specialising in development finance, policy and governance.
Since 2007, Julia has worked extensively across the Global South, combining academic insight with practical, field-based collaboration. She holds a PhD from Strathclyde Business School and is a UK Higher Education Academy Fellow.
Julia has taught strategy at undergraduate and postgraduate level, most recently at Heriot-Watt University, and has presented at international forums including the Aspen Ideas Festival and the Skoll World Forum. Her work has been published by the World Economic Forum, Project Syndicate, IPS and NPR.
Fabiola Murianni
Expansion and Project Officer, Poverty Stoplight
Fabiola works at the intersection of public policy, social inclusion and international development, supporting partners to design and deliver impactful programmes.
More about Fabiola
Fabiola is an international cooperation specialist and project manager with experience across European public policy, social inclusion and sustainable territorial development.
Working with Fundación Paraguaya as Expansion and Project Officer for the Poverty Stoplight, she supports the design and delivery of international projects, working closely with partners to ensure effective implementation.
Her work combines technical expertise in data collection and analysis with practical, field-based collaboration. She supports partners to identify need, measure impact and align delivery with strategic priorities.
Fabiola holds a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of Pisa and a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation from the University of Milan.
Rob
Co-Director
Robert Webb focuses on bridging the gap between community experience and decision-making, ensuring that services respond to what people actually need.
More about Robert
Robert believes it is possible to build a fair and resilient society where people and communities can fulfil their potential. However, his experience has shown how often the voices of those closest to the challenges are overlooked in policy, funding and service design.
SIGNAL helps to close this gap by ensuring that people’s real needs are identified and understood at their root. It is not a passive survey, but an active methodology that begins to generate value as soon as an individual completes their Life Map and creates an action plan.
By focusing on individuals and households, SIGNAL builds a richer, more accurate picture of community need over time. This enables organisations to respond more effectively and design services that reflect lived experience.
Dec
SIGNAL Coach
Dec is part of the SIGNAL leadership team, supporting the development of its approach and partnerships across the UK.
More about Dec
Full profile coming soon
Caroline Gitsham MBE
Housing Ambassador
Caroline brings extensive public sector leadership experience, supporting organisations to strengthen their impact on customers, communities and society.
More about Caroline
Caroline leads Caroline L Gitsham Consulting Ltd, working with organisations to challenge, support and inspire improvements in how they serve communities.
With over 30 years’ experience in the public sector, including 15 years at executive level, she has led across a wide range of complex and high-pressure environments.
Caroline has worked in advisory roles to government and national bodies, and has extensive experience managing significant resources and delivering across multiple priorities.
She is passionate about customer experience and making a meaningful difference, bringing energy, insight and a strong values-led approach to her work with SIGNAL and its partners.
Dr Sarah Bowman
SIGNAL Ambassador
Sarah brings a unique blend of senior communications experience and academic research, focusing on stakeholder engagement, ethics and how people learn and respond to change.
More about Sarah
Sarah began her career in corporate, PR and marketing communications before moving into academia, where her PhD explores the knowledge and competencies required for effective public affairs practice.
Her work focuses on stakeholder engagement in complex environments, including issues and crisis management, change communications, and the role of arts-based and multi-sensory approaches in shaping understanding and behaviour.
Sarah’s research draws on a range of conceptual frameworks to explore how people, organisations and systems interact, with a particular interest in learning, development and pedagogy.
Alongside her academic work, she has operated at senior levels across the private, public and third sectors, working with large corporations, start-ups and not-for-profit organisations at regional, national and pan-European level. She brings this combined practical and academic perspective to her work with SIGNAL.
Dr Rich Gibbons
Community Research Lead
Rich focuses on participatory approaches that enable communities to shape decisions and influence the systems that affect their lives.
More about Rich
Through his work with SIGNAL and Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders, Rich explores how current structures can unintentionally exclude and marginalise communities.
His work focuses on developing participative models that enable people to engage meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives, both now and in the future.
With a background in social sciences and a doctorate focused on wellbeing and happiness, Rich is particularly interested in qualitative and biographical approaches. He uses participatory research methods to understand how people experience and define a good life.
The SIGNAL methodology aligns closely with this work, supporting individuals to explore their experiences, understand root causes and take action in a way that reflects their own priorities.
SIGNAL is shaped not only by the people directly involved in its work across the UK, but also by the wider movement and relationships that inform, strengthen and support its development.
Global Stoplight Movement
SIGNAL values its connection with Global Stoplight Partners and the sharing of expertise under the central leadership of Fundación Paraguaya.
This wider movement brings together organisations, practitioners and partners across multiple countries, all working to make poverty visible and support meaningful action at an individual and household level.
Each partner contributes to a shared approach that focuses on understanding the root causes of poverty, supporting people to identify what matters to them, and enabling action that reflects their priorities.
Through this connection, SIGNAL both contributes to and learns from international practice, linking local experience in the UK with wider global insight.
The Saville Foundation
We are privileged to receive mentorship and support from Gary Shearer and the team at The Saville Foundation.
The Saville Foundation is committed to enabling meaningful social change globally, supporting approaches that challenge established ways of working and create new possibilities for communities and systems.
Through this relationship, SIGNAL benefits from strategic guidance, challenge and connection, strengthening both its development and its ability to support partners.
For more information, please read www.tsf.bm signal.