Our team

Senior management

Paula Sanchez, Chief Executive & Creative Director

Paula Sanchez is Chief Executive of the National Centre for Writing, bringing more than 25 years of leadership experience across the arts, culture, and creative industries. Throughout her career, she has built strategic partnerships and championed the role of creativity in supporting economic growth, social impact, and thriving communities across the region.

Paula has worked extensively with artists and creative practitioners to deliver ambitious programmes spanning festivals, public art, community engagement, and the development of young people. Her leadership is driven by a commitment to widening access to culture and ensuring creativity plays a central role in shaping vibrant, inclusive communities.

Originally from Essex and raised in California, Paula is a graduate of the University of East Anglia and holds a post grad degree from Norwich University of the Arts. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Amanda Salmon, Deputy Director

Amanda is the Deputy Director. Amanda re-joined the National Centre for Writing having previously worked for the organisation as General Manager. Prior to this, Amanda was General Manager for Dragon Hall under the Norfolk and Norwich Heritage Trust. She has a background in commercial events management, business development and general management in both the private and charity sectors. She loves to read, spending time outdoors with her family, and has joined a ‘Back to Netball’ team.

Operations & Commercial

Christina Gardener, Events Manager

Christina is a seasoned Events Manager specialising in events in unique heritage venues, she coordinates all weddings and commercial events at Dragon Hall. Christina honed her skills with leading cultural institutions, including the Design Museum, the Science Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and most recently, the Sainsbury Centre. Christina holds an MA in Arts & Museum Management and is passionate about the sustainability of the arts. She is a massive foodie and mixology enthusiast. Her many interests include swing dancing, travelling, reading, board gaming, and boating on the Norfolk Broads.

Leighton Williams, Operations & Venue Manager

As our Operations & Venue Manager, Leighton ensures that our historic home remains a safe and inspiring space for everyone who works here and visits us.

Outside of keeping the physical site running smoothly, Leighton is a theatre-maker and musician with a passion for history, folklore, and non-linear storytelling. Leighton’s own history with Dragon Hall goes back to 2003, having been involved in six theatre productions staged in the Great Hall, and getting married here in 2024.

Programme

Jacqui Mackay, Interim Head of Programmes & Creative Engagement

Jacqui currently leads the brilliant Programming and Creative Engagement team at NCW, enabling communities to enjoy the lifelong benefits of both writing and reading. She was the National Coordinator of international development NGO, Banana Link,  for 17 years before returning to work in the arts, first as Executive Director of leading multi-sensory theatre company, Frozen Light, and then, as Programme Director of Great Yarmouth’s Creative People and Places, Freshly Greated. Jacqui is also the Strategy Lead of local theatre company, The Common Lot, and won the Peter Wilson Special Recognition Award (Norfolk Arts Award) in 2025. She has four children and dreams of living by the sea.

Holly Ainley, NCW Academy Programme Manager

Formerly NCW’s Head of Programmes & Creative Engagement, Holly now leads NCW Academy, our home for creative writers, including online and in person courses, workshops and mentoring. Holly has a wealth of experience developing and supporting early career authors, after fifteen years spent working in the book trade: she was a commissioning editor at HarperCollins’ The Borough Press and independent publisher Myriad Editions, and latterly was book buyer and manager of the book department at Jarrolds Norwich. She also has experience as a literary scout for multiple overseas publishers and has programmed literary events and festivals in Norwich and beyond. She is currently a trustee of poetry publisher Nine Arches Press.

Nashwa Nasreldin, International Programmes Manager

Nashwa Nasreldin oversees the NCW Residency programme for writers and translators, as well as delivering various other international projects, always pursuing opportunities for partnerships and collaborations. She is a writer, editor, journalist and literary translator, working with words in as many different ways as possible. A former current affairs documentary producer, she has reported on stories from the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. She is an Emerging Translator Mentorship alumna and has since led both translation and creative writing workshops at the BCLT Summer School. She holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and founded the Bury St Edmunds Writers’ Workshop.

Rebecca DeWald, Emerging Translator Mentorships Programme Manager

At NCW, Rebecca looks after emerging literary translators and their mentors from her home in Glasgow. She is a bilingual emerging literary translator herself and an experienced academic, non-fiction and commercial translator (German, French, Spanish) with a PhD in Translation Studies. She is the current co-chair of the Translators Association Committee (Society of Authors), coordinates the monthly Translators’ Stammtisch and Translation Theory Lab at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow and co-runs Kalewater Cottage Creative Retreat in the Scottish Borders. Rebecca enjoys swimming and gardening, and sharing her sewing and knitting projects @sewexpensive.

Rosa Torr, Learning & Participation Manager

Rosa is Learning and Participation Programme Manager, overseeing NCW’s vibrant programme of creative engagement opportunities that encourage and champion writing and reading for all! As an experienced interdisciplinary producer, she draws on a cocreation approach to deliver meaningful and ambitious participatory opportunities. She is committed to advancing cultural engagement in the region and widening access for diverse communities. Prior to joining NCW, she was Communities Producer for Collusion where she managed town-wide youth-led projects, and before that Creative Lives Producer for BBC Radio where she coproduced series’ and regular creative features with hard-to-reach communities. As a writer, Rosa has an MA in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy and is currently Associate Artist at HighTide theatre company. She also loves archaeology and hopes to find a dinosaur bone one day.

Ellie Reeves, Programme Officer

Ellie is our Programme Officer, specialising in talent development at NCW. She coordinates a range of programmes which offer support for writers looking to grow their writing craft and creative career. After moving to Norwich to complete her undergrad at the University of East Anglia, Ellie started her career at Norfolk & Norwich Festival. She has since found a great love for live performance, spectacle, and poetry and has worked for Out There Festival and Latitude.

Ellie has pursued her interest in governance through the Norwich Theatre’s Young Cultural Leaders programme and enjoys broadening her network through their Creative Assembly, which brings together various groups to help shape the theatre’s direction. One day, she hopes to run her own festival. Ellie is most proud of having just completed her BSL level one qualification, and is looking forward to getting started with level two.

Katie Cooper, Learning & Participation Producer

Katie Cooper is Learning and Participation Producer, developing and delivering our community engagement programmes and workshops. Katie works with youth groups, school groups, non-English-speakers, refugees, older people and everyone in between. Before she came to NCW, Katie was an academic and university lecturer teaching literature and critical theory at UEA, Newcastle University and Teesside University. She holds a PhD in English Literature from Newcastle University and is still an active researcher and writer. She can usually be found rummaging archives and bookshops, or swimming in the sea.

Lucy May, Programme Assistant

After four years of marketing and commissioning at non-fiction publisher Pen & Sword Books, Lucy’s role at NCW is focussed on supporting our NCW Academy offer. She also provides administrative support for our residencies, live events and talent development programmes. Both her BA and MA in Creative Writing are from the University of East Anglia, where she was the President of the Creative Writing Society. She has been part of Hive Young Writers South Yorkshire, has edited the Society of Young Publisher’s magazine, InPrint, and has worked in bookshops and in schools. In her spare time, Lucy likes live music, clifftop walks and hand-making birthday cards.

Abbie Neale, Interim Learning & Participation Assistant

Abbie supports our community engagement programmes, having previously led her own workshops here as a poet and freelance facilitator. Since studying English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick, with a year abroad in Melbourne, she has worked across the charity sector as a fundraiser, coordinator, and administrative assistant. She has also worked as a copywriter in the Netherlands, as a playworker for after-school clubs, and as an actor for TV, film and theatre.

Marketing & Communications

Steph McKenna, Head of Marketing & Communications

Steph is our Head of Marketing & Communications, leading the organisation in shaping and delivering a growth strategy that expands our audiences, increases income, and strengthens the brand through audience engagement. A graduate of the University of East Anglia, she has previously held communications roles in the NHS and local government. She participated in the Collaboration: Place: Change programme as an Emerging Leader.

Steph is also a cultural critic, podcaster and editor with a specialism in horror film and literature. She is the host of The Writing Life podcast and co-host of Fresh Blood from The Evolution of Horror, the UK’s #1 Horror podcast, where leads on the latest book releases from the genre and interviews horror authors. In 2026 she founded Darkest Chapter, a new festival dedicated to dark, uncanny and horror storytelling. She is the editor of Outsider, a Stephen King zine project.

Caitlin Evans, Marketing & Communications Officer

Caitlin is the Marketing & Communications Officer, coordinating our social media, digital content, email communications, and website updates. She worked in customer service roles before joining NCW in 2022 under the Kickstart Scheme. Outside of work, she enjoys live performance, photography, and binge-watching bad television shows.

Daisy Walker, Digital Marketing & Content Coordinator

Daisy works on bringing NCW Academy courses, workshops and mentoring to a wider audience, supporting both established and early career writers find their voices and hone their craft. In her spare time, Daisy is an illustrator, sculptor, writer, and house plant parent, and she loves film, TV, and music. Originally from Cambridge, she has worked in marketing for a translation agency, a paving stone company and an accounting firm.

Meg Roser, Marketing & Communications Assistant

Meg is the Marketing & Communications Assistant. She assists with email communications, social media, and website updates. After studying English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University, she moved to Norwich in 2022 to study her MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature (her research interest is literature and food). Since then, she has worked as an English Literature tutor and in Marketing, Communications and Publicity at UEA Publishing Project. Alongside this role at NCW, she works part-time as a bookseller in The Book Hive. She spends her free time cooking, writing, working in her sketchbook and on painting projects, and reading lots of proofs of upcoming novels.

Development

Dan Scales, Development Manager

Dan works to secure financial support for the organisation’s projects and programmes, helping NCW increase its impact for writers, participants and communities, and fulfil its ambitions for Dragon Hall. Prior to joining NCW, Dan worked in development, fundraising and heritage roles across organisations including the De La Warr Pavilion (a combined arts centre in Sussex), Toynbee Hall, and Prostate Cancer Research. He is a current Trustee of Bexhill Museum. Outside of work, he can be found on the cricket pitch or enjoying live music in Norwich and beyond.

Finance

Bethanie Collins, Senior Finance Officer

Bethanie has been our Senior Finance Officer since August 2025.  She has a background in Local Authority finance and for the last 11 years, charity finance. She supervises the daily financial administration of NCW.  She enjoys traveling, especially by train around Europe.

Laura Hammett, Finance Assistant

Laura Hammett, our Finance Assistant, recently transitioned into the finance field after building a strong background in customer-focused roles across the arts sector. Now studying Accountancy with AAT, she supports NCW with accurate, organised financial administration. Outside of work, Laura enjoys exercising, music, and discovering good food and wine.