Katie Sushila Ratna Ghose (born July 1970) is a British charity chief executive and campaigner. In September 2019 she was appointed chief executive of KIDS, a national charity for disabled children and young people. She was previously Chief Executive of the

Women's Aid Federation of England Women's Aid Federation of England, commonly called Women's Aid within England, is one of a group of charities across the United Kingdom. There are four main Women's Aid Federations, one for each of the countries of the United Kingdom. Its aim is t ...

and the

Electoral Reform Society The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an independent campaigning organisation based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the single t ...

Personal life and education

Ghose was born in Shoreham by Sea, Sussex, to an Indian father and English mother. She went to

Boundstone Community College Boundstone Community College was a co-educational comprehensive school for pupils aged 11 to 18, with around 1,000 pupils, including over 100 in the Sixth Form, which served the communities of Lancing and Sompting. The school closed on 31 Augu ...

in Lancing, Sussex and Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College. Ghose read Law at Somerville College, Oxford and during her time at Oxford, she was editor of the student newspaper Cherwell. She then studied for a Masters in Political Science at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

Career

In the early part of her career Ghose worked in politics, law and charities. She worked as a parliamentary researcher and senior caseworker for a Labour MP Greville Janner (1992-1994) and was then Parliamentary Officer for the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (1994–1995). Ghose qualified and practised as a barrister (1997–1999), specialising in immigration, family and Human Rights law. Following her two-year law career she wrote ''Beyond the Courtroom: a lawyer's guide to campaigning'', which was published by the Legal Action Group in 2005. On her return to the charity sector Ghose worked for the Child Accident Prevention Trust (1999–2000) and for

Age Concern Age Concern is the banner title used by a number of charitable organizations ( NGOs) specifically concerned with the needs and interests of all older people (defined as those over the age of 50) based chiefly in the four countries of the United Kin ...

(2000–2005) as their National Campaigns and Parliamentary Affairs Manager, leading campaigns to protect older workers from discrimination and to oppose unfair hospital charges. In 2005 she was appointed Director of the British Institute of Human Rights, providing charities, hospitals and care homes with practical support and training about human rights in England. She joined the Electoral Reform Society as Chief Executive in 2010, and was a regular media commentator on elections and voter disengagement. Ghose is currently an independent council member of the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

and a trustee of St George's House, Windsor Castle. She was a board member of the US democracy group Fair Vote (2010–2017) and a trustee and Company Secretary of Stonewall (2005–2011) and was chair of two charities, Asylum Aid (1997–1999) and Bail for Immigration Detainees (2002–2004). She also served as a Commissioner on the

Independent Asylum Commission The Independent Asylum Commission (IAC) was an organisation which attempted to "conduct a truly independent review of the UK asylum system from beginning to end." The commission was made up of groups of citizens from local churches, mosques, tra ...

from 2006–08.

Politics

Ghose served as CEO of Women’s Aid from 2017–19. She left by mutual agreement after video emerged of her online thanking

UKIP The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest p ...

and particularly the party's then-MP

Douglas Carswell John Douglas Wilson Carswell (born 3 May 1971) is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave and currently serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. ...

for their support for electoral reform . After serving as a parliamentary aide to Labour MP Greville Janner Ghose sought selection as a Labour Party Parliamentary candidate in a number of constituencies prior to the 2015 general election. Her applications to represent constituencies as diverse as

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

, Stoke-on-Trent North,

Brighton Kemptown Brighton Kemptown, often referred to as Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven by local political parties, is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Labour Co-op MP. The constit ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

were all unsuccessful.

2011 AV referendum

Ghose became Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society in the autumn of 2010, during which she worked for six months as Chair of the unsuccessful 'Yes! to Fairer Votes' campaign.

References

External links