Big welcome to Ellen Broome

The Board of Trustees are delighted to welcome Ellen Broomé as the next CEO of the British Dyslexia Association. Ellen will join the BDA on 1 October. We caught up with Ellen to find out a bit more about her.

Tell us a bit more about yourself.

I am originally from Sweden but came over to go to university a long time ago and never really went back despite being initially appalled by two British staples - salt and vinegar crisps and baked beans!

And even though I don’t live in Sweden anymore, I still try to have lots of fika (look it up it is a great thing). I live in London with my partner and have two kids aged 5 and 8.

Why are you particularly drawn to the work of our charity?

Having spent most of my career working with and for children, young people and adults from disadvantaged backgrounds or with disabilities – dyslexia has always been part of my work.

I believe passionately in the vision of a dyslexia-friendly society. There are great opportunities for the BDA to continue to grow its offer and further develop its policy and influencing voice. This is a really exciting role at an organisation with great potential and an important mission and I am so excited to start!

What have you been doing most recently?

Most recently I have been Managing Director of CoramBAAF and Coram Family and Childcare, leading on our work on childcare and early years and also children in care.

I am very proud to have been part of the coalition that led to £4bn additional spending on childcare support for parents and the expansion of childcare currently being rolled out.

Do you have a particular area of interest as you prepare to come into this role?

Working in this field for twenty years now I am particularly interested in issues relating to SEND, neurodiversity and schools and am looking forward to learning more about this from the BDA’s perspective.

Working to improve equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is also really important to me. At CoramBAAF, I have introduced a full EDI programme which has included introducing anonymous recruitment, monthly staff-led sessions, staff training, curating a series of EDI events for members, delivering a co-created EDI plan and setting individual, team and organisational EDI aims.

I am also committed to always involving beneficiaries in my work and centring lived experience: whether that is supporting them to take part in parliamentary inquiries, speak out in the media, improve services or develop organisational strategy.

Going forward, I would really like to build on the work that the BDA already does in these areas and do even more.

What motivates/gets you up in the morning?

Besides a cup of tea?! I want to change the world and make it a better place. I know that can sound trite but when I look around I see too many people who do not get the support or services that they need – including children and adults with dyslexia – and I want to influence policy and practice to make sure we can all thrive and fulfil our potential.

What do you do when you are not at work?

I am very sociable so I try to see friends a lot! I really enjoy reading, pottery and yoga and now that my children are a bit older I want to try and do a bit more travelling again. At the moment I am also training for my first half marathon – and it is much harder than I was hoping it would be.

What are you planning to do in your first few weeks at the BDA?

I am really looking forward to meeting everyone – both staff but also beneficiaries and our supporters! I am keen to hear what people are working on, what is going well and what we might need to work on going forward, and what we can do together to make the BDA an ever better place to work and increase our impact and profile.

You can read the Board’s announcement about Ellen’s appointment here