Active Lancashire welcomes three new board members

Active Lancashire is thrilled to announce the addition of three new professionals to its board as independent board members, each bringing a wealth of expertise and passion to help the charity drive positive change in local communities.

Kathryn Moffitt

Kathryn is the community and wellbeing manager at West Lancashire Borough Council, which includes providing leadership and developing and overseeing the strategic direction for health inequalities, wellbeing, and physical activity with the aim of improving health and wellbeing outcomes for the residents of West Lancashire. 

Kathryn is responsible for community-based teams who work innovatively to co-design services with residents and partners to meet local needs and priorities. Kathryn is passionate about creating effective systematic changes, working in partnership to drive collective action and reduce the inequalities experienced by local communities.

Kathryn has always had a passion for health, wellbeing and nutrition having studied and worked in this field for over 20 years.  

Expressing her enthusiasm, Kathryn said: "I am delighted to join the Active Lancashire Board alongside colleagues with a combined wealth of knowledge and experience. I hope that together we can lead, challenge, and support the strategic direction of Active Lancashire, and collaborate with partners to ensure movement, sport, and activity are embedded and accessible in our communities to prevent and tackle inequalities."

Kathryn's interest in sport started at an early age and she has been a canoeist since the age of eight. Kathryn started competing for the Great British Canoe Polo Team aged thirteen and has since achieved 7 European, 4 World and 3 World Games Championship medals. Kathryn retired from international competition in 2014 but has remained an active member of her club and when possible, competing in National Leagues and supporting the younger players to develop. 

Amanda Thornton

Amanda is an expert in the psychology of change, with a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and 30 years of NHS experience both patient-facing and more latterly transformation, leadership and strategy.

Amanda said: "As a proud Lancastrian and Burnley girl – I am so excited to be chosen to work with Active Lancashire at a very exciting time. Having spent my whole career within the NHS, there is no denying that prevention is better than cure for our communities.

"As Active Lancashire embark on an ambitious ‘decade of movement’ and join partners in ‘Activating Lancashire’, I want to play my part in helping to ensure healthier choices become easier choices." 

Amanda has worked at an NHS Integrated Care System level (ICS) since 2012 holding a range of clinical and operational director roles (director of clinical services, chief clinical information officer, NHS Covid staff testing director, portfolio director), designing, managing and transforming award-winning health and care services. 

Amanda chose to leave the NHS in early 2023, keen to use her broad and extensive insights to align to and enable communities, business and industry to hear and respond to the growing needs of health and care services. 

Amanda is clear that there are a range of wider stakeholders that ‘hold the answers’ to the health and care needs of our population and the services that cater for us – people, families, communities, carers, academia, suppliers, new business and voluntary sector partners. A humble, empowering leader and convener, she has facilitated collective efforts that have helped strengthen the UK health and care system – and hopes to continue to do so now looking through a different lens.

Outside her professional life, Amanda is a keen gardener and a 5k enthusiast – recognising the benefits of activity on mental and physical wellbeing.

Dannielle Roberts

Dannielle is the director and founder of Proper Active, a strategic research consultancy specialising in movement and physical activity for better communities and better health and wellbeing.

Danielle said: "As a very un-sporty child, it was only in my twenties that I discovered the value of getting active for physical, social and emotional wellbeing. I also realised that the world of sport and physical activity wasn’t always set up to best support people with different backgrounds, abilities, and lived experiences. I have become a passionate advocate for changing this and I am excited to support Active Lancashire in driving this shared vision for local communities across Lancashire."

Dannielle has worked across public, private and third sectors in a number of different industries. She began her career in the pharmaceutical industry as a research chemist with Pfizer, where she was involved in the identification of a number of potential new drug candidates. Her love of research, understanding what drives people, systems and decision-making, later led her towards social research, working on a wide range of research and evaluation programmes spanning education, community cohesion, tackling extremism, physical activity and health.

In 2021, recognising the transformative potential of being active not only to individuals, but also to our communities and our health and social care system, Dannielle moved to focus full-time on her work with Proper Active, aspiring to be a voice for positive change. 

Outside of Proper Active, Dannielle is a volunteer consultant with charity Sported, helping grassroots community organisations to maximise their effectiveness and sustainability.

Photo: From left - Kathryn Moffitt, Dannielle Roberts and Amanda Thornton.