Here’s who is speaking on Thursday 9th October at World Heritage UK’s annual conference at Saltaire WHS.
Anna Dixon MP
Anna is the MP for Shipley. Anna has worked at a national level on the NHS and social care over the past 20 years, influenced national plans and secured changes to policy on housing, employment support and industrial strategy. She chaired an independent commission on reimagining care set up by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and has held senior roles at Helpforce, The King’s Fund, the Department of Health, and Centre for Ageing Better.
Jonathan Davies MP
Jonathan is the Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire. He began his career as a music teacher before taking roles in local government and healthcare regulation.
The Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site (DVMWHS), the cradle of the industrial revolution, runs across his Mid Derbyshire constituency. One of his key priorities in Parliament is to raise the profile of World Heritage Sites and celebrate the work of the people who manage them.
In 2025, Jonathan re-established the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on World Heritage Sites and now serves as its Chair.
Lorrainne Smyth – Chief Exec, Action with Communities Cumbria
Lorrainne is a Community development and rural professional, originally from London, with 40 years’ experience of working with Cumbrian and Lake District communities.
She is aspirational about community engagement, but also pragmatic and keen that we do what we say we will, while genuinely listening, responding and planning for and with stakeholders.
Lorrainne is the CEO of ACTion with Communities in Cumbria. They are the rural development charity for Cumbria with 75 + years of community development history. You can see information about their work here: https://www.cumbriaaction.org.uk/
Lizzie Glithero-West, CEO, The Heritage Alliance
Lizzie Glithero-West has been the Chief Executive of The Heritage Alliance since 2016. Her previous career has been mainly in the civil service and she has expert knowledge of a wide range of policy areas including archaeology, heritage protection, museums and tourism.
Lizzie has also spent time as Private Secretary to Culture Ministers and the Permanent Secretary, as Head of Logistics at DCMS at the time of the General Election, and on secondment to English Heritage and to the National Museum Directors’ Council. Lizzie’s first love is heritage. She has a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology from Oxford, and an MA in History of Art from Birkbeck. In 2014 she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Lizzie is a mummy of two energetic little women, writes about Cultural Education and tries to keep up with her academic interest in Egyptian Revival in her spare time. Lizzie has published on Belzoni and the Egyptian Hall and on Cartier’s Egyptian Revival Jewellery in the Art Deco Period. She is a member of the Canal & River Trust’s Cultural Heritage Advisory Group, a trustee of the Egypt Exploration Society, and lectures at Oxford University on heritage.
Rachel Bottomley, Bradford UNESCO City of Film
Shanaz Gulzar, Creative Director, Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture
Shanaz is known for her skillset as an artist, producer and for her creative vision. With a commitment to the arts and to creating work that pushes boundaries of cultural expression, Shanaz has emerged as a prominent leader in the UK cultural sector.
Her career spans film, visual arts, theatre, public art and media, and she has delivered ground-breaking projects nationally and internationally, most recently as a producer at Manchester International Festival.
Shanaz has several TV credits, most notably working with the BBC to present the documentary film ‘Hidden Histories: The Lost Portraits of Bradford’ and bringing a contemporary artist’s perspective to the Yorkshire landscape in ‘Yorkshire Walks’.
In her capacity as Creative Director at Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture, Shanaz is co-leading a transformative cultural renaissance, with initiatives that celebrate diversity, artistic innovation, and community engagement. Shanaz oversees the leadership and direction of Bradford 2025 alongside Executive Director, Dan Bates.
Liam Smyth, Local to Global, UKNC
Liam Smyth is Programme Lead at the UK National Commission for UNESCO, where he is responsible for building a more resilient and adaptable network of cross-designation UNESCO Sites. He has previously led strategic programmes and research at all tiers of government and arms-length bodies like the British Council and Arts Council England. As a fellow of the University of Birmingham’s Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub, Liam contributes knowledge to the development of cross-disciplinary research-led solutions that address regional inequalities – specialising in the role of culture and heritage in place-based policymaking.
Steve Messam – artist
Steve Messam is an environmental artist known for his large-scale, site-specific installations that transform protected landscapes and historical architecture. Based in County Durham, he reimagines rural and urban spaces using colour, inflatable structures, and unconventional materials.
His acclaimed project PaperBridge (2015) used 22,000 sheets of red paper to create a functional bridge in the Lake District. Hush (2019) draped a former lead-mining site in the North Pennines with saffron-yellow fabric, highlighting the landscape’s industrial past. His inflatable installations have also redefined historic architecture, such as ‘Spiked’ (2021) at Fountains Abbey, N. Yorkshire, and ‘Bungalow’ (2023) in Sassoon Docks, Mumbai.
Messam has exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and Shanghai Jing’An Sculpture Biennial and awarded ‘Visual Artist of the Year’ at the 2021 Newcastle Journal Culture Awards. His work challenges perceptions of space and invites audiences to experience familiar environments in new and unexpected ways.
Kate Lapping – Head of Heritage, New Lanark WHS
Kate is Head of Heritage and World Heritage Co-ordinator at New Lanark, an 18th-century mill village on the banks of the River Clyde. She also serves as a trustee with Industrial Museums Scotland. She began her career in libraries and archives in Glasgow before moving into a range of heritage roles across Scotland, where she focused on how heritage and culture can support health, wellbeing, and community connection. At New Lanark, she is passionate about placing the local community at the heart of the site while also creating welcoming experiences for visitors from around the world.
Rubina Khalid – WomenZone
Rubina is the Co-CEO of WomenZone since 2006. She is responsible for the organisation’s strategic development, ensuring it adapts to evolving community needs. This involves securing funding and generating additional revenue streams to support the organization’s growth and expansion. Rubina work closely with local health, education, social services, and other statutory and voluntary agencies to build trusted partnerships. She is passionate about promoting the mental and physical wellbeing of BAME communities, drawing on her background in psychology and qualifications in areas like clinical hypnotherapy, NLP, and spiritual practices.
Pete Chambers
Pete is a member of an accessibility advisory group to the Saltaire Collection, working to achieve accessibility by design for the virtual and physical displays of the archives. As an active wheelchair user who lived in Saltaire village for 14 years (and was for a time a Co-Chair of Saltaire Village Society), he draws on lived experience to identify and remedy potential barriers to accessibility.
The 2025 WHUK Annual Conference is supported by:
