Karen Wespieser to join Driver Youth Trust as Director of Operations

We are delighted to announce that Karen Wespieser is to be the new Director of Operations at Driver Youth Trust. Karen will oversee key angles of DYT’s work and brings substantial experience and expertise to our mission to improve outcomes for young people who struggle with literacy.

Karen joins us from the National Foundation for Educational Research, where she is Head of Impact. She has wide-ranging experience and knowledge in the education sector and has been a leading advocate of improving educational research for over fifteen years. Alongside her role at the NFER she has been the acting Managing Director for the Centre for Education Economics for the last six months.

Karen is the founder of #UKEdResChat, a weekly twitter chat every Thursday at 8:30pm for those interested in research methods, ethics and impact in education. Karen is also a school governor.

Karen commented: “I am very much looking forward to this new challenge. Driver Youth Trust is an organisation that I have long admired and I am delighted to be able to join them in this new role”.

Chris Rossiter, Chief Executive of Driver Youth Trust welcomed the appointment: “This is an incredibly exciting development for DYT. Having someone of Karen’s standing in the education field will allow us to further grow our organisation and continue the exceptional work we are doing in schools and through our advocacy for young people with SEND and literacy difficulties. I am anticipating a significant increase in our research and educational thought leadership under Karen’s supervision, which will increase our impact in the political sphere.”

Karen will begin her new role with DYT on the 9^th July. Her twitter handle is @KarenWespieser