Meet the team
Carole
Carole is the founder and facilitator of Forest of Hearts, and jack of all trades, having a hand or taking a lead in all the goings-on here. With a vision of boosting biodiversity, improving people’s wellbeing and building skills and employability in our communities, Carole set about creating this charity to create change.
To this end, she feels a great sense of accomplishment having built a team around her to get things done. For her, some highlights of Forest of Hearts so far include: nesting barn owls at our Field of Life; preserving and aiding a nesting location for swallows that have travelled 6000 miles; building ponds and meadows that will help swallows and other birds to nest and feed. Being able to experience the changing of the seasons and reconnect with nature is a privilege of the job for her.
Aside from her job, Carole has a get-up-and-go lifestyle, and she is often out walking her dog, Stan ‘the man’, going travelling, or meeting up with friends for a proper social at the pub.
Jenny
Jenny is our Volunteer Manager. She is responsible for getting new volunteers registered with us and the hospitals we work at, helping them fill in the paperwork if necessary. She also helps out with all the gardening tasks. As a keen and experienced gardener, she embraced the opportunity to get involved with Forest of Hearts, seeing it as a way to use her skills to give back to the community.
She is always enthusiastic to meet new people! Among her fondest memories at Forest of Hearts is being part of the team that originally created the raised beds at Stratford hospital, ready for a mass planting day in 2018. She was heavily involved beforehand, along with other volunteers, organising all the plants and tools the corporate volunteers would use and helped ensure everything went smoothly on the big day. Jenny’s energising passion for volunteering has fundamentally helped to create the community feel at the centre of Forest of Hearts.
Jenny is the definition of green-fingered, gardening being a skill that she has cultivated since long before joining Forest of Hearts. She also enjoys cooking and eating out. Food and nature are most definitely passions of hers.
Hes
Hes is our Research Leader and Project Manager for our Living Walls project, which involves installing 100 linear metres of living wall around Warwickshire. At the moment, they are evaluating the impact of the project on wellbeing and diversity.
With a background in academic research, Hes is always interested in deep research around our practices and processes. They are most proud of working alongside the team in Green Therapy, growing community, and helping to forge new bonds between people and nature. Working to create greener lusher environments in clinical spaces like hospitals and other urban areas is a key accomplishment to them. They are very proud of putting together community gardens where we can grow and eat our own food. Hes takes great satisfaction from harvesting vegetables we’ve grown from seed, seeing other people’s joy in growing plants, and saying hello to the barn owl!
Outside of their role here, you’ll find Hes writing, practicing the art of Kung Fu (potentially while listening to a podcast) and going on adventures with mates.
Mark
Mark is our Carpenter. He is involved in all-things construction at Forest of Hearts, using his carpentry experience to create all sorts of things to facilitate our gardening work. Previously, he was working on an allotment. It was while doing this work that he was recruited by Carole – he happily took up the offer to continue to work in this way for a good cause.
He takes great satisfaction in seeing the the end product of a job: he finds that setting an aim and achieving it is one of the greatest rewards here. Bee hotels, bird boxes, and our own work benches are among some of the things Mark is most proud of building for us here.
Outside of the sawing, drilling, pouring and digging, Mark is a keen walker and goes on walking trips and holidays. He is also a cricket fan (Warwickshire bears) and a football fan. He follows the Villa for his sins.
Luca
Luca, Green Team assistant, helps to run our Green Therapy sessions, events, and assists with plant research. His initial reasons for joining Forest of Hearts were a desire to improve the environment, be outdoors in a hands-on role, work as part of a team, and help to encourage others to connect with nature.
The thing that has given him the greatest sense of accomplishment so far here is helping to install living walls and hanging baskets around Stratford hospital. Seeing the reactions of the visitors, staff and patients at the hospital was highly satisfying for him. Luca finds that meeting new people is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
Outside of Forest of Hearts you’ll find Luca gigging, running, pubbing and walking his dog, Bran.
Alexia
Our newest team member, Alexia, Green Team Assistant, helps to run our Green Therapy sessions and maintain all of our garden sites. She also does plant research to improve our planning processes, and helps to run our events.
Her initial reasons for joining Forest of Hearts were a desire to plant plants, gain gardening skills, learn about biodiversity, and learn about running events. For her, the most rewarding parts of the job are helping people with mental health issues and helping the environment to thrive.
Finding great satisfaction in creativity and hands-on activities, Alexia does photography and shoe-painting when she’s not propagating plants. She brings lots of energy and enthusiasm to the team, but she still has energy left over for the gym, where she’s a regular!
Lani
We are glad to have Lani as a Trustee of Forest of Hearts. Working as a fundraising officer for the John Muir Trust, a conservation charity which protects and repairs wild land across the UK, Lani first got involved with us as most people do - through the inspiring and energising Carole! She joined Forest of Hearts because she feels as though there is always something new to learn here, and she takes great satisfaction in seeing local climate and biodiversity work in action.
In this vein, she counts among her greatest accomplishments a 2021 project in collaboration with NatureScot to support seasonal rangers and implement visitor surveys. For her, the most rewarding part of being a trustee is getting to support all the projects our team is working on.
Outside of her conservation work, you can find Lani out and about in nature, often going running or surfing. She also really likes to go travelling (when she can)!