Our Collective
Dr Anna Ball
A community-led creative practitioner and learning facilitator, Anna specialises in narrative change projects that foreground group writing, spoken word, and visual storytelling, with a strong commitment to gender-sensitive and trauma-informed practice. In addition to her role at HEAL, she is currently one of eight nation-wide Story Fellows on the AHRC-funded StoryArcs programme, through which she is exploring the social uses of storytelling as a community engagement methodology.
Anna has developed a range of narrative change projects in partnership with community groups including Pamoja, Survivors Alliance and Streetwise Opera, and with cultural / civic spaces including the National Justice Museum; Nottingham Galleries and Museums; and Refugee Week festival.
Committed to the creation of horizontal learning spaces, she translates her skills into civic and cultural consultation exercises, utilising her training in Systems Change, Emergent Strategy and Theory of Change / Stories of Change for monitoring, evaluating and learning programmes across the civic and cultural sectors.
Since 2019, she has served as Producer for Nottingham Refugee Week, shaping collaborative programmes that centre lived experience and creative expression.
Anna has held roles at the University of Aberdeen (Advanced Research Fellow, ‘Survivor-Led Visual Narratives in Genocide and Human Rights Education’, 2025), and Nottingham Trent University (2008-2024, Associate Professor in Postcolonial Feminisms, Literatures and Cultures). Her recent work as a Creative Wellbeing Outreach Worker with Vanclaron CIC (2023) deepened her focus on socially engaged, healing-centred methodologies. Anna holds a PGCHE (Distinction, NTU); a PhD in Postcolonial Studies (‘En-Gendering the Border’, 2007), an MA in Cultural Theory (2004), and a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Manchester (2003).
Dr Allan Njanji
Allan is a filmmaker, visual and audio producer, researcher, and community advocate with a specialist focus on refugee self-representation. He serves as Trustee for Nottingham Arimathea Trust and Nottingham Refugee Forum and co-directs HEAL Collective. As Regional Campaigns Manager for a national refugee rights organisation, he leads advocacy initiatives across immigration, detention, and criminal justice sectors.
Allan has extensive media and communications experience, including leadership roles at Nottingham Refugee Forum and Money Sorted D2N2, journalism at NottsTV, and research assistance at Nottingham Trent University. Allan has also contributed as an External Grants Assessor for Lloyds Bank Foundation. He holds a PhD in practice-led documentary-making (‘Speaking Back to the Hostile Environment’, 2024), an MA in Documentary Journalism (2018), and a BSc and FDSC in TV and Film Production.
Dr Margaret Ravenscroft
Margaret is a producer, creative facilitator, researcher, and cultural programmer, specialising in group facilitation, communications, design and writing, with a focus on feminist architectures and spatialities of sanctuary. Based in London, she works within built environment creative and cultural programming, where she shapes strategic campaigns and cultural programmes that connect architecture, design, development, and civic society. Her work bridges creative industries and social equity, influencing practice and public perception.
Margaret’s PhD is in English, Media and Creative Cultures (‘Building Spaces, Building Selves: Revealing the Feminist Architectures of Everyday Places in Contemporary Narratives of Forced Migrant Women’, 2025), and she holds an MA in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community (Birkbeck, 2012) and a BA in English Literature and Spanish.