Adrian was a founding member of Slow The Flow in 2016 and got involved in promoting Natural Flood Management because he felt traditional methods of flood alleviation were not the only solution to reducing flood risk. Adrian also works for a vehicle leasing company specialising in supplying and managing electric vehicles, another subject he is passionate about. Adrian is our Outreach Officer so if your group or organisation would like to know more about Natural Flood Management or how Slow The Flow can help reduce flood risk, please do get in touch.

Amanda is a Chartered Landscape Architect with a particular interest in Sustainable Drainage (SuDS). She works for a small Yorkshire-based practice, 2B Landscape Consultancy Ltd, where she has developed proposals for rain gardens of various scales. Her house in Mytholmroyd was flooded in December 2015. She now lives in Halifax, where her garden contains many SuDS features. Amanda sits on the Editorial Advisory Panel for Landscape (the Landscape Institute's professional journal).

A mathematics graduate, Stephen, has had over 30 years in business with 19 as Managing Director of a local manufacturing company. Stephen has worked extensively with Calder Valley Youth Theatre and been a volunteer with Calderdale Youth Offending Team. More recently, he has worked as a senior support worker for Womencentre, Halifax.

Sam started as a volunteer for Slow The Flow whilst studying his A Level's. Natural Flood Management volunteering inspired Sam’s academic research career path, and he went onto study the impacts of Leaky Dams at Hardcastle Crags on macroinvertebrates (as an undergraduate), then water quality and particulate organic matter (as a postgraduate researcher) Sam also volunteers with several environmental and community charities whilst perusing a career in the environmental sector.

Andrew is a teacher with over sixteen years of experience in education. He began his career as a secondary English teacher in a variety of local schools and has also worked in the primary sector and more recently in SEND, where he has developed a bespoke horticultural curriculum to widen access and participation for pupils with additional needs. He is also a qualified Forest School Leader who has recently taken on a new position managing a Forest School nursery for pre-school children in Oxenhope. He has lived and worked in the Calderdale area for most of his career and is a keen walker with a good knowledge of the local area and its countryside.

Rachel Smith is a civil servant with significant experience in designing and delivering government policies, strategy and programmes. She is currently working at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on regional innovation policy, and previously held a range of roles at the Department of Education. She is passionate about education, the environment and finding nature-based solutions to society’s challenges.

Rachel Flood is a civil engineer with over 15 years’ experience within both the private sector and local authority. Her career has focussed mainly around drainage and flood risk and she is also a chartered member of CIWEM. She lives in Calderdale and has a keen interest in all things flood related particularly Natural Flood Management and SuDS.

Sophie has a background in Natural Flood Management (NFM), Nature Based Solutions (NBS) and River Restoration. Sophie undertook a masters by research in the effectiveness of NFM in Calderdale and the wider impacts NFM community groups have on their local communities. Sophie has been invited to speak at industry conferences about her research and is in the process of publishing the findings. She has also been highly commented in the 'Above and Beyond' category of the Future Water awards. Sophie is an active member of iCASP in which she supports Yorkshire NFM projects and cross sector learning.