Staff and board

Lynsey has worked across the third and public sectors and is an experienced charity leader.

In her previous role as Executive Director at the Scottish Cot Death Trust, Lynsey lead the work of the organisation and was committed to delivering high quality bereavement care for those affected by the sudden unexpected death of a child, and to offering a robust, evidence-based training programme for those working with families.

Prior to joining the Scottish Cot Death Trust, Lynsey was Director of Services with Humanist Society Scotland, a national campaigning charity where she had responsibility for community engagement and volunteering, as well as leading the busy ceremonies function of the organisation.  This followed roles in the public sector including leading a family support team and working collaboratively with partners across sectors to deliver the Perth and Kinross Parenting Strategy. 

Martha has worked in a range of roles in the third sector over more than 40 years! This included being part of the development of Talking Mats™ at the University of Stirling, co-founding Pass IT On (an IT reuse charity for people with disabilities) and being the Quality Officer at Befriending Networks.  She has also learned about being in the role of funder by sitting on grants allocation panels for Shared Care Scotland.   

Martha moved to ESS in 2013 and enjoys that she gets to work with organisations large and small in a range of different fields. 

“I love the moment when I can see that evaluation has changed from being something dull that organisations have to do, to something which makes sense to them, is useful and even fun!”  

She has a special interest in running Shared Learning Programmes – a way of working with funders and their grantholders over time to identify emerging themes, gather the range of learning, and support those involved to use and share that learning more widely. 

“I was once misquoted as saying that the only reason I get up in the morning is for self-evaluation.  This isn’t true!  BUT… my career motivation is to make a difference, so if I don’t know whether I’m making one, why bother going to work?”

Gary’s background is in education and project management of third sector programmes for children and young people. He completed his PhD at University of Glasgow. His research interests relate to social justice, citizenship, philosophy of education and trauma-informed practice. He initially trained and worked as a professional musician.

Gary is the Senior Evaluation Support Manager at Evaluation Support Scotland. He provides evaluation support to third sector organisations, including tailored support and more complex pieces of work, while also working on Business Development for ESS. He leads the Third Sector Research Forum and he works with colleagues at Scottish Government to improve funding relationships with the third sector. He also develops resources and delivers evaluation training workshops when demand is high.

Karen joined ESS as Finance and Business Manager in June 2026. She has a strong background in financial management, governance, and organisational support, working closely with senior leaders and trustees to help organisations operate effectively, transparently, and sustainably. Her experience includes leading on budgeting, financial reporting, internal controls, and supporting audit and independent examination processes.

Alongside her finance expertise, Karen has experience in HR, compliance, and the day-to-day running of organisations. She enjoys developing practical systems that support good decision-making, clear communication, and smooth organisational running.

Karen is motivated by working in organisations that focus on learning and impact; she is passionate about how good data, systems, and insight can help organisations understand their impact and improve what they do.

Shona joined ESS in February 2017. She spent many years prior to this working and volunteering in various areas of the third sector including youth work, criminal justice, and HIV & hepatitis C. 

Shona’s role at ESS involves developing and delivering our training programmes, as well as facilitating tailored evaluation support sessions. Her work is about helping organisations to plan their evaluation, keeping it simple and relevant to their context and the people they work with.

“My favourite part of my job is talking to organisations about fit-for-purpose evaluation; helping them to be clear about the difference they hope to make, how they know when they’re making it, and how best to capture that with their own situation and people in mind.

Often, many are pleasantly surprised to realise that they’re already doing it – they just don’t have it written down in a clear evaluation plan. That’s where I come in!”

Marianne joined Evaluation Support Scotland in November 2023 as Communications Officer. Marianne has a background in marketing and photography. Although new to the third sector, she has previously enjoyed participating in voluntary work with galleries and museums, and looks forward to learning more about the third sector!

Marianne supports ESS’s roles by updating and sharing information among the third sector. This includes maintaining the website and social media, publishing newsletters and bulletins, as well as promoting our training, workshops, events, and broad range of free resources.

Wing Yen, also known as Winnie, has been working at ESS since July 2016, firstly part time as the Workshop and Events Administrator and now full time as the Finance and Administration Officer.  With over 10 years’ experience working and volunteering in the third sector, and a degree in Finance, she provides administrative support to the whole ESS team, works with the Finance and Business Manager by assisting with the financial admin of the organisation, and she’s the friendly voice you get if you call the office!

“I love that lightbulb moment in Getting Started: Outcomes and Indicators when the trainer asks: why do you go on holiday?  (If you’ve attended the workshop, you will know which moment I’m talking about!)  It made me realise what ESS meant by evaluation and suddenly it made sense why we need to think about and embed evaluation from the start.”