OUR TEAM
HEATHER HILBURN
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
In the course of a 25-year career in environment and heritage conservation, Heather has helped to create significant riverside regeneration and cultural sites including the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Tate Modern. As projects director for the Tower of London, she managed this Thames-side World Heritage Site from 2013 to 2019, creating experiences that connected with families across the nation, including the Poppies at the Tower installation.
Heather brings to TEP her expertise in urban regeneration, cultural programming, town planning, land management and green finance. Heather is an Essex Climate Action Commissioner and she sits on the Investment Committee for Access, a blended finance and social investment fund.
AMY PRYOR
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Amy is a marine and aquatic scientist with over 20 years of experience in the field of marine and coastal management, stakeholder engagement and system level strategic project design.
Amy excels at 'joining the dots' to design integrated, cross-cutting and multi benefit projects with a healthy marine and estuarine environment as the driver and successfully secures grant funding to support this work. She designs and manages a wide portfolio of projects that bring together different sectors across the land/sea interface and across socio-economic and environmental drivers e.g. flood and coastal risk, intertidal and inshore marine habitat creation, fish migration routes, catchment to coastal management (wholescape approach), coastal communities, fisheries, open access environmental data, training and skills and knowledge exchange. Amy works within several collaborations nationally and internationally and leads the national Coastal Partnerships Network to ensure that best practice approaches and resources can be shared between coastal and marine practitioners around the UK for improving coastal and estuarine management.
Amy leads on our strategic project design and fundraising, supports the CE in the strategic development of TEP and oversees the project teams.
CHLOE RUSSELL
COMMUNICATION OFFICER
Chloe brings a unique blend of Arts and Science Communication expertise to the TEP team. With a degree in BA(Hons) Marine and Natural History Photography from Falmouth and an MSc in Science Communication from Bristol, Chloe's educational background reflects her passion for both visual storytelling and the effective communication of scientific concepts.
Building on her MSc in Science Communication, Chloe has ventured into the realm of audio production, where she excels in producing and hosting entertain-educate podcasts. Her podcasts have garnered international acclaim, providing valuable insights and enriching the lives of listeners across the globe.
At TEP, Chloe takes the helm of podcast production, lending her expertise as both a presenter and editor to create unique and engaging episodes featuring special guests. Additionally, she spearheads TEP's social media channels, ensuring dynamic and meaningful engagement with our online community. Chloe's responsibilities also include curating our trusted monthly newsletter, penning trending website blogs, and providing invaluable support in organising successful events.
With her multidimensional skill set and passion for effective communication, Chloe plays a pivotal role in promoting the mission and achievements of TEP to a wider audience.
ALICE WATTS
NATIONAL COORDINATOR,
COASTAL PARTNERSHIP NETWORK
Alice is an Urban and Spatial Development Practitioner with an MSc Building and Urban Design in Development from The Bartlett, University College London.
She is interested in people-centred, collaborative approaches to design and development, with an emphasis on creating just and sustainable environments through co-design and management processes. She has worked on development projects both in London and abroad, with experience of developing multi-stakeholder learning networks in the context of collective settlement upgrading in Yangon, Myanmar.
As the National Coordinator for the Coastal Partnerships Network, she works to strengthen the network, seeking to offer increased opportunities for learning, collaboration and influence on a national level through encouraging an exchange of information and debate between Partnerships and establishing closer links with key coastal stakeholders. Central to this work is embedding the importance of an integrated, cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary approach to coastal management.
Alice is also the coordinator for the multi-organisational endeavour Year of the Coast, and co-hosts the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coastal Communities.
WANDA BODNAR
DATA & TRAINING MANAGER
Originally from Hungary, Wanda is a marine scientist with a wide range of experience working in academic and industry settings.
She holds a master’s degree in Marine and Lacustrine Science and Management (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB) and worked as a research assistant at the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ), and as a marine environmental consultant in offshore and coastal waters. In the latter position, she gained experience in developing and implementing marine mammal mitigation plans according to government and industry regulations. Since 2017 she has been focusing on marine geospatial data science.
From January 2018 till March 2022 her main project was the development of the Fish Migration Roadmap. Since April 2022 she has been working on several projects, including the Roadmap to Climate Resilience and Blue Connections projects.
In addition, she is representing TEP at the London River Restoration Group (LRRG), Thames Litter Forum and Greater Thames Seal Working Group, and helps create and curate TEP's 'Digital Resources' and ArcGIS content.
She is also a STEM Ambassador and became accredited as a Chartered Marine Scientist by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) in early 2023.