Pause National Team

Jules joined Pause in January 2017 as Chief Executive. She has worked in the not-for-profit sector for almost 30 years and has a background in campaigns, communications, policy and participation. She has always most loved the organisations that, like Pause, work to create real change, putting their beneficiaries at the heart of their work and learning from them to make a difference for others. Jules is a trustee of Blood Cancer UK and, to switch off, loves cooking, reading, walking, gardening and bird watching.

She’s very happy to talk about Pause or any of these things on LinkedIn, Instagram or Threads (@JulesHH26)

Ellen is a social worker and play therapist, with more than twenty years’ experience of working with children and families in statutory, voluntary and CAMHS settings. Having begun her career as a residential social worker, she has experience of a range of frontline work including child protection and court work, fostering and adoption work and of providing therapeutic services to children and adults as part of an award-winning innovative parental mental health service.

She has extensive experience of managing services for looked after children, frontline child protection and families involved in court proceedings and is a former Principal Social Worker for an inner London Borough. As a former manager of a hospital social work team, Ellen is very familiar with the circumstances of many of the women Pause supports and the devastating impact the repeated removal of their children has had on them.

She is passionate about the opportunity that Pause provides to work with women in a creative way to help them identify and reach their goals. At the heart of this is the relationships between Pause Practitioners and women, with the skills and experiences of both coming together to unlock potential.

Kate Tilley joined Pause in March 2017 as Head of Roll-out, becoming Director of Business Development in June 2017. She’s responsible for the mobilisation of the new Pause Practices and the Care Leaver pilots.

Kate joined Pause from the NSPCC, where she spent the previous ten years in various roles including rolling out evidence programmes for children and their families across NSPCC Service Centres and supporting the scale up of these services with external partners.

Kate has three teenage children who do a lot of sport, so spends most of her spare time as a taxi service but she does enjoy running and the gym.

Kaye joined Pause in January 2019. She’s spent most of her working life in charities that support people experiencing homelessness, many of whom face the same issues as women working with Pause.

Kaye has always worked behind the scenes, creating policies and systems that build an environment where employees feel supported and equipped to carry out their work. She is passionate about helping charities to function effectively, so they can focus on enabling clients to make real changes in their lives.

Lesley joined Pause as our Executive Assistant in August 2017 and provides executive support to Jules Hillier, our Chief Executive and the wider Pause team. She also supports the board of trustees, including the quarterly board meetings and is the person to ask about the Chair of Trustees diary commitments.

Lesley manages the London office in Blackfriars Road, making sure the office is a welcoming place to work and everyone has decent tea and coffee!

Lesley joined Pause with over 15 years’ experience within the corporate world, working at Capgemini and IBM. During this time, she supported global C-suite, board level executives and senior leadership teams across a variety of business units, such as communications, public sector and corporate social responsibility.

In her spare time she enjoys mixing music, cooking and spending time with friends and family.

Sol joined Pause in March 2019 as the Training and Events Coordinator.

She has an extensive background in project management, event management and administration. After many years of working in a commercial environment, Sol was keen to join the charity sector for the work that she does to have a positive impact. Sol now works with us as a consultant.

In her spare time, Sol enjoys hiking, running, travelling and cooking.

Prior to working at Pause, Gordana held campaigning, communications and community engagement roles in Aotearoa New Zealand in central government and the union movement. She joined the national team in 2025.

Outside of work Gordana enjoys reading, knitting, hiking and travelling.

James joined the team in September 2021, initially as our Data and Insight Analyst. He became the Impact and Evidence Officer in September 2025 and is responsible for supporting the development of our approach to internal evaluation and data collection. His role involves reviewing and analysing a range of impact and performance evidence to draw out learning.

James joined Pause with several years’ experience of evaluating Social Inclusion projects within the Higher Education Sector, mostly working within the Outreach and Widening Participation teams at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Outside of work, James spends most of his time making music, cycling, and being a dad to his two high school-aged children.

Karina joined Pause as the Involvement Assistant, a 12-month internship to assist with the coordination of Pause’s Getting Involved and Peer Support programmes. After a year in the role, she became the Involvement & Communications Assistant. Karina is very passionate about creating change in children’s social care policy and practice.

Before this role, Karina was a Peer Supporter at Pause. Karina has also volunteered at Change Grow Live, supporting those with substance misuse.

Outside of work, Karina enjoys boards games with her children, a freshly lit candle and good crime documentaries.

Kat joined Pause in September 2023 and is responsible for evidencing and sharing the impact of Pause’s work, as well as influencing national policy and system change.

She has over ten years’ experience of working in the third sector to influence policy change across a range of sectors, including children’s social care, criminal justice and disability, most recently at What Works for Children’s Social Care. She is passionate about ensuring that the voices of people with lived experience are at the heart of influencing activity, as well as policy recommendations being evidence-based. Some of her more notable projects include reforming statutory guidance to better support mothers in prison, influencing the Care Review and subsequent Implementation Strategy, and ensuring children with sight loss can live the lives they choose.

In her spare time, Kat enjoys baking, travelling and going for walks with her (very spoilt) dog.

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Phoebe joined Pause in 2019. Phoebe’s role is to oversee Pause’s involvement and participation programme, Getting Involved, and to ensure that women’s voices are central to all of the work that Pause does.

Before coming to Pause, Phoebe was delivering a project for young parents going through the child protection system. Phoebe has a background in advocacy in the charity sector, working with vulnerable people with complex needs.

Outside of work Phoebe enjoys cooking, travelling, bad reality TV and dancing.

Xenia joined Pause in 2016 and worked in various different capacities, before becoming Programme Manager in 2017. As Programme Manager, she oversees the development of new Pause Practices and manages the programme of established practices.

Xenia has over 15 years’ experience in business development, project management and fundraising. She has worked with education, health and youth charities, as well as spending some time in the private sector at the start of her career.

Outside of work, Xenia enjoys anything to do with music but has no musical talent whatsoever!

Harpreet joined Pause in 2017 and has been a Practitioner, Practice Lead, and now works as a National Practice Lead. Prior to joining Pause, Harpreet worked as a social worker in various children’s social care teams including child protection and proceedings, children looked after and adoption and permanence.

Harpreet is committed to the therapeutic, trauma-informed and anti-racist dimensions of the Pause approach, as ways of reaching women with complex needs. 

Outside of work, Harpreet is a Trustee for theMovement Charity and a volunteer for Shout.

Paula joined the Pause network in 2018 as Practice Lead for Pause Doncaster working to embed Pause practice locally in Doncaster. She joined the National team as a National Practice Lead in April 2021 and became Quality and Innovation Lead in August 2023.

Prior to this, Paula worked as a Youth and Community Worker and Participation Manager in a national charity for 15 years and is passionate about working with women and learning from them as ‘experts by experience’. She completed her MA in Social Work in 2015 and worked in Child Protection before moving into her role with Pause, which combines both her child protection experience and her extensive experience of working face to face with girls and women, raising awareness of their needs and campaigning with them to achieve change.

She is passionate about relationship-based practice as the foundation for change and providing opportunities that make a positive difference in women’s lives.

Outside of work, Paula is a volunteer for Re-engage and enjoys exercise and hiking.

Follow Paula on Twitter @PJK74