The Women in the Fire Service UK National Executive Committee (NEC) includes our Directors, Regional Representatives, Executive Members and Co-opted Members. This makes up our governing body – a maximum of 28 people. The NEC meets three times a year or more, to vote, share successes and report on projects. Our Local Representatives also attend these meetings, and although they are not part of our formal governance, Local Reps play an important part in the NEC.
Our committee meetings are a chance to raise issues and inspire change – bringing together people from Fire Services across the UK to share, reflect and learn. The NEC is also a great networking forum, where we celebrate inspired ideas, work and initiatives across Services. A great reminder of why we do it! The National Executive Committee meeting minutes are public and available here.
Meet some of our committee below!
Our Executive Members
Jenny Nangle
Jenny’s journey is a testament to passion, dedication, and the impact one person can have across various domains. Her career in firefighting began with an unexpected spark of inspiration from a neighbour, transforming into a lifelong commitment that saw her excel in diverse roles within the fire service.
Starting as a firefighter with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Jenny’s enthusiasm for training quickly became apparent. Her early role in leading and cascading training on station set the stage for her future as a trainer at Washington Hall. This role, which involved training both external organizations and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service staff, proved to be highly rewarding and shaped her trajectory in the fire service.
As Jenny moved into leadership roles such as Crew Manager (CM) and Watch Manager (WM), she made significant contributions, including her involvement with fire cadets. Her leadership in planning the national training program for the National Fire Cadets and managing a cadet group at Bacup Fire Station highlighted her commitment to nurturing the next generation of firefighters.
Jenny’s transition into fire safety brought new challenges and opportunities. Her training as a fire safety inspector and her year at SHQ working on legal cases broadened her expertise. Currently, as a fire safety manager for the Pennine and Eastern area, Jenny continues to make an impact, utilizing her extensive knowledge and experience.
Her involvement with Women in the Fire Service (WFS) over the past 20 years underscores her dedication to supporting and empowering women in the fire service. Jenny’s role as the North West Regional Rep, organizing regional events, and her international work with Fire Aid, the IOM, and various refugee camps in South Sudan, Lebanon, and Nepal, reflect her commitment to global fire safety and community support. More recently as an executive member for WFS Jenny hopes to continue the great work alongside amazing inspirational women.
Jenny’s story is one of continuous growth, learning, and sharing knowledge. The variety and depth of her experiences, combined with her passion for supporting others, have made her career both fulfilling and inspiring.
Karen Pointer
Karen joined Surrey FRS in January 1996 and was still one, of a handful of women, that had joined as a firefighter before her. She also worked for Kent FRS, however, decided to move back to Surrey in September 2022, where she managed several fire stations in the East of the County as the Response Group Commander. Karen has also worked with Joint Fire Control and now looks after the Prevention team in Surrey which includes the Community Safety Officers, Fire Investigation, Education officers and the Fire Volunteers. She is also the Service lead for National Resilience and Road Traffic Collisions.
Karen loves the fact that she is still operational and gets to meet with the ops crews on a regular basis. She has had the best career ever and has been lucky enough to teach, BA, RTC, FBT and core skills as an instructor and has had interesting roles throughout her career. One of her favourite roles, was working as part of the Blue Light Collaboration and introducing gaining entry for welfare and co-responding to my service.
The first time Karen went to an WFS event was in November 1996 when they held their first AGM. It made her realise that although she was happy in her own service, that it wasn’t always the same in other services and realised the importance of this group and the support it was able to offer women all the way back in 1996! Karen is a strong advocate of WFS, and is passionate about people, supporting our staff or anyone who sticks their head above the parapet!
As far as Karen is concerned, she has been able to have her cake and eat it, she has a successful career that she loves, and is happily married with two beautiful daughters. She is living her best life and loves that she is surrounded by such inspiring woman and would love to be part of that support for others.
Lynsey McVay
Lynsey is currently Assistant Chief Fire Officer in Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service. She began her career as a firefighter in Cumbria in 2000, moved to Cheshire as Group Manger in 2015 and onto Tyne and Wear as Area Manager in 2018, she has been ACFO since December 2020.
She has been involved with WFS for many years and is passionate about the development of women.
In her spare time Lynsey enjoys spending time with her son, family and friends and she enjoys going to the gym and walking.
Sue Mallinson-Smitham – Comité Technique International de prevention et d’extinction de Feu (CTIF)
Bio and picture coming soon
Our Co-opted Members
Beth Barton
Beth joined South Wales Fire and Rescue Service as an on-call duty system firefighter in 2021. Despite a desire to join the fire service from a very young age, it took until she was 39 to finally become an operational firefighter and she is currently a temporary Crew Manager on station, combining the on-call role with her primary employment as a consultant in intensive care and pre-hospital medicine – a job that includes working both in hospital and as a HEMS doctor on the air ambulance in Wales. As part of her job, she is also an examiner for the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care for the new multi-agency diploma in major incident management (DipMIM), as well as clinical exams and currently holds the national IBTPHEM Curriculum Committee chair, so has spent many years working alongside fire service colleagues but in a different uniform!
Beth has a strong interest and broad experience in delivering training, from teaching doctors and paramedics on national training courses through to volunteering training healthcare professionals and volunteers Uganda and carries this through to her fire service role where she regularly volunteers to assist delivery of practical training. In 2024 Beth joined one of the service vehicle extrication teams and was fortunate to qualify through the regional UKRO competition to represent the service at the national championships in Portsmouth as the only female extrication team member from the service, as well as joining with another female firefighter from her initial on-call recruits course to make SWFRS first all-female trauma team!
In 2023 Beth had her first experience of WFS at the national training and development event, which she found to be an incredible experience meeting women from services at all levels from across the UK in an incredible and beyond and hasn’t looked back! After volunteering to join the organising committee for the 2024 event, Beth also attended as a volunteer “purple shirt” where she was also awarded the “Rising Star” award at the annual WFS awards ceremony and was elected onto the National Executive Committee, before also supporting the first WFS Cymru event hosted by SWFRS later in the year.
Ceri Sumner
Ceri joined Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service as Chief Fire Officer in September 2022, and is also the national lead for Health and Wellbeing on behalf of NFCC
She has over 25 years’ experience spanning the private and public sector. In addition to her previous work within Norfolk County Council, including Director of Community, Information and Learning, Ceri has experience in management consultancy, as well as in house roles for firms such as Centrica and British Airports Authority as Organisation Development, Passenger Insight Lead and Head of Customer Strategy
Janette (Jan) Morris GIFireE, PGCert
Jan joined Avon Fire & Rescue Service as a Firefighter in 1998, one of only 8 women (less than 2% of the operational workforce) at that time. She enjoyed her time as a firefighter, particularly driving and was lucky enough to serve at a large, busy wholetime station in the centre of Bristol for several years before becoming a Leading Firefighter at another busy Bristol station.
Before taking up the role of Sub Officer in Training, Jan had stints in the Equalities Department and with the Arson Task Force, which was a joint initiative with Avon & Somerset Police. After enjoying her time in Training, Jan became a Watch Manager in charge of a Day Crewing Station, which became wholetime during her tenure. Jan undertook various Station Manager roles, her favourites being Technical Services and Avonmouth station, which enabled her to develop her operational knowledge further due to the operational risk on the station ground. In 2018 Jan joined HMICFRS on a two year secondment as a Service Liaison Lead, heading up inspections in Shropshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands fire services, before joining Gloucestershire FRS on secondment as a temporary Area Manager. During this time she was successful at achieving an Area Manager position in Shropshire FRS, where she stayed until leaving in May 2024.
Jan has been a committed and active member of WFS since 1999, and is passionate about inclusion and in using her knowledge and experience to help develop others to progress in the workplace. She is an active coach and mentor on the NFCC Coaching & Mentoring portal.
Nicky Thurston
Nicky joined East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service in 2002, to manage the training administrative function, she subsequently had roles in Learning and Development, giving her skills in coaching, assessing, training and supervision. In 2015 a redeployment opportunity changed everything and she went back to school gaining a Msc in Managing Diversity and subsequently a CIPD HR Management Diploma.
She joined Kent Fire and Rescue Service in 2019 as their EDI Manager. Having found her sense of purpose and her voice, Nicky is passionate about the success of WFS, she has advised the NFCC, the Inclusive Fire Service Group, HMICFRS and the Home Office on a range of inclusivity matters, she has worked with Fire Aid and Operation Florian overseas to improve gender outcomes and is an active member all the national employee groups.
Similar to many other women, Nicky has found the menopause tough going, but with some help from friends at WFS and a good GP things are improving, like her home, she is “work in progress”. Nicky has an extended family and a reasonably sized kitchen table so loves to be social with them, she is also excited to have newly acquired a gym membership!
Our Regional Representatives
Eastern – Daisy Byron
Daisy’s journey with Bucks FRS began in September 2003. Starting as an Operational Fire Fighter, Daisy transitioned into the role of Full-Time Green Book Fire Safety Inspector in November 2015 after medical retirement.
In August 2019, Daisy took on the position of HMO Lead Fire Safety Inspector with Beds FRS. In November 2020 she was offered a temporary promotion to Area Fire Safety Manager for Development, followed by a permanent promotion in May 2021. This marked Daisy’s first time as a manager, responsible for leading a team of 12, a role earned after successfully passing the Middle Manager Gateway. Daisy celebrated 20 years service across 2 services (with no break in service) in September 2023 —an achievement that fills Daisy with pride.
After being invited to WFS Training and Development Weekend in June 2022, this reignited her passion for firefighting. Inspired by the experience, Daisy stepped forward to become the WFS Regional Rep. While currently holding the rank of AFSM, Daisy eagerly awaits the opportunity to pursue the Group Commander Gateway when it becomes available for Support Staff, a privilege currently limited to Grey Book staff.
Outside of work, Daisy enjoys time with family, caravanning, embracing the challenges of long hikes and wild camping, music and dancing.
Kate joined Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service as a wholetime operational Firefighter in 2007 and currently works as a Watch Manager in the Community Safety department overseeing Road Safety, Water Safety and Youth.
She established and is Chair of her service’s network ‘WOLFF’ (Women of Leicestershire Fire & Friends) after experiencing a lack of information and understanding around female Firefighters and pregnancy.
Her first experience of WFS was a few years ago as she attended an amazingly inspiring day in South Yorkshire establishing the current purpose statement and values of WFS. This then led to attending the training & development event at the college a few times and sitting on the event planning team a couple of years ago.
Kate has been the Leicestershire WFS rep for a few years and has recently taken on the East Midlands role where she hopes to continue to work with the other local reps to build on more regional events.
Outside of work she lives with her partner Rob, and their two football mad boys! Kate is a massive musical theatre fan and last year took a leap into the unknown and completed her first season in a ladies football team. After never having played before she wished she had done it sooner as she is old enough to be every other player’s Mum!
London – Anna Snelson
Anna is a Sub Officer at Plumstead Fire Station on the White watch and has worked for London Fire Brigade for thirteen years.
She took over as the London Region Chair in June 2023, and also took on the role of the WFS Regional Rep for London. There were many reasons why Anna wanted to get more involved with WFS, and one of the things she loves about WFS, is that it brings people together that would not necessarily work together.
Anna first went to a WFS training event when she worked for East Sussex as a non-ops person. She took part in the “Be a fire fighter” workshop, and she just knew it was what she wanted to do as a career. Anna has benefited first hand from the support and guidance of the wonderful people of WFS and she hopes to continue on with their fantastic work.
Anna is also a wife and a mum of two gorgeous boys.
North Eastern – Lisa Howsden
Lisa started her career in Cleveland Fire Brigade as a Shorthand Typist, 38 years ago on 1st July 1987. She had a few different roles within the brigade, but 4 years ago made the best move to become a Fire Safety Advisor; she has had a lot of learning to do, but she really enjoys it.
Lisa is the Vice Chair of the Cleveland’s Women’s Network and was the WFS Local Representative, until she was voted in as the WFS North Eastern Regional Representative in June this year.
Lisa has been married for 33 years and has a daughter, Sarah who is 22 and a son, Callum who is 19; she couldn’t ask for better children.
In her spare time, Lisa is a Civilian Instructor for the Royal Air Force Air Cadets, 266 Squadron (Stockton). She also really enjoys walking, and over the last 3 years, she has walked Snowdon, Mam Tor & Kinder Scout and Haystacks in Buttermere with Women Wanderers 999, while raising money for the Firefighter’s Charity.
North Western –
Bio/photo coming soon.
Scotland – to be confirmed
South Eastern – Ellie Hayes
Ellie has worked for Surrey Fire and Rescue for just over 4 years in the Community Safety Department, where they look after the most vulnerable living within their community.
She became the South East representative for WFS in June 2024, and is very excited about the possibilities the role offers! Ellie has always worked in male dominated environments, from the Army Reserves to the Fire Service, and feels that it is so important for women to be heard and celebrated in the work place!
Ellie loves to hike, play rugby, camp, read and push herself to new limits, she’ll rarely say no to a challenge!
South Western – Olivia Crook
Olivia works for Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service as an Inspection and Improvement Officer, looking after HMICFRS inspections, reports, and Fire Standards. She is also an on-call firefighter at Clyst St George Fire station. She decided to apply to become a firefighter after attending the WFS national event in June 2024, and since then has seen the hugely positive impact that WFS and associated events have had on friends and colleagues.
Olivia became the South West representative in June 2025 and is looking forward to engaging with people from services across the region to help empower, support, and represent women across all roles.
When she’s not at work, Olivia enjoys being outdoors, spending time walking, climbing and paddleboarding. She is just about to complete the final two days of walking the South West coast path and is looking forward to deciding on her next challenge!
Yorkshire and Humberside –
Bio coming soon.
Wales: Mid and West – Hannah Lodder
Wales: North –
Bio/photo coming soon.
Wales: South – Clare Amor
Clare has been the South Wales Fire and Rescue (SWFRS) women’s representative for WFS for 10 years.
West Midlands – Sam O’Brien
Sam started her fire service career in the MOD Fire service back in 2000, serving in Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. In 2008, she transferred to Warwickshire Fire and Rescue where she worked her way up to temporary station Manager. During this time she was seconded to the HMICFRS.
Sam now works for Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue as a Station Commander for South District. She enjoys every part of response, recruitment, training, people management, competence and of course helping people at incidents.
Sam first attended a WFS event back in 2007 and loved every minute, she now supports colleagues in many areas of the job!
When not working, Sam is out with her dogs, renovating houses or running around after her kids!