The QCEA team
Representative
Alexandra Bosbeer
Alexandra Bosbeer has been Representative at QCEA since October 2012 and a member of the Religious Society of Friends for over twenty years. Alexandra grew up in the Netherlands and the US, and she has long been interested in movements beyond national or ethnic boundaries. In the 1990s, she helped organize citizen diplomat exchanges with Siberians. More recently, she worked around the globe, monitoring and managing the accreditation programme for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). She has also lived for fifteen years in the West of Ireland, where she taught environmental and social forest management to undergraduates and to professionals, as well as managing a small consulting business. She is a potter and photographer and has blogged extensively about social inequality in Central and North America.
Alexandra holds a BA in psychology and has been trained in social accountability auditing and facilitation. She also holds a PhD in Botany and an MSc in Forest Ecology and Silviculture, along with professional certification as an ecologist (Ecological Society of America) and as a chartered environmentalist (Society for Environment (UK)).
You can contact Alexandra by emailing abosbeer [at] qcea.org, where [at] is replaced by @.
Deputy Representative
Andrew Lane
Andrew has been involved with Quakers in Britain Yearly Meeting since 2007, including with groups such as Quakers in Criminal Justice. Until January 2014 Andrew was the policy advisor to a regional police commissioner, particularly working to promote diversity and inclusion within the police service. During his eight-year police career, he has worked to reduce gender-based violence and alcohol-related violence in his community. Both in the police and as a prison mentor, Andrew has worked with a range of victims and offenders; he points to this experience in testifying to that of God in everyone.
Andrew has degrees in International Politics from Aberystwyth and Peacekeeping from Birmingham. He has also studied at the University of Novi Sad in Serbia and Transnational Organised Crime at Staffordshire University.
At QCEA, Andrew focuses on peace and criminal justice. He can be contacted at alane [at] qcea.org where [at] is replaced by @.
Programme Assistant (Peace)
Tim Harman
Tim Harman grew up in the UK and became a Quaker in 2010. His background is in law. He holds both an undergraduate degree in law from the University of Cambridge and a master’s degree in law from the University of London. He has worked in legal roles in both Spain and the UK.
Following his sense of being called to work for peace, in 2012 he left his previous career and went to Trinity College Dublin to study for a master’s degree in peace studies. He graduated with distinction, winning a college prize for his dissertation on the politics of Northern Ireland. He now works on QCEA’s peace programme, where his work involves researching and analysing peace issues at a European level, keeping Quakers informed about those issues, and working with European policy-makers to help to develop policies that promote peace.
He can be contacted by emailing tharman [at] qcea.org, where [at] is replaced by @.
Programme Assistant (Sustainability)
George Thurley
George has been going to Quaker meeting in Britain for as long as he can remember , and became a member following his experiences on the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage in 2010. Since then he has volunteered in a number of capacities for Friends, particularly working with young Quakers in Southern England. He completed a BA in History at the University of York in 2014. He is very happy to be working on Sustainability for QCEA, as he thinks Climate Change and the enviroment are especially important areas, and issues that Friends can have a considerable impact on. Sustainability is also an area which is excitingly current and particularly so at the European level, so he is looking forward to exploring these issues more, and advocating for a more sustainable European Union.
He can be contacted at gthurley [at] qcea.org where [at] is replaced by @.
Office Manager and Friendly Presence
Gordon Matthews
Gordon Matthews is a lifelong Quaker from the south of England. He has worked for a variety of Quaker and ecumenical organisations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation in England, Charney Manor (Quaker retreat house and conference centre), Church and Peace (European peace church network), and Evesham Friends Meeting (as Meeting House warden). He has worked for QCEA as a programme assistant (for six months in 1987) and as Joint Representative (for six months in 2012/13). He is pleased to be working part-time as Office Manager, so that he also has time for freelance translation work. (He is fluent in German and has a good knowledge of French.) He posts “reflections of an English Quaker” on his blog at http:/letthesilencering.wordpress.com
You can contact Gordon about supporting QCEA, room hirings, or other topics by writing to gmatthews [at] qcea.org where [at] is replaced by @.
(And if you are wondering what the ‘Friendly’ is, it is a term used by Quakers to refer to other Quakers – members of the Religious Society of Friends.)
Oversight
Oversight of QCEA’s work programmes is the responsibility of the Council, a body made up of representatives of other Quaker organisations.