Meet the Leadership Team
David Woolley
Chief Executive
David has worked with people with learning disabilities for over 20 years, starting his career as a tutor designing training courses before joining Your Voice Counts in 2006 to support a user-led self-advocacy group. David moved into our Chief Executive Role in 2012, overseeing the development and expansion of our services to ensure more people benefit from our commitment to listening to and empowering people with lived experience of learning disabilities, autism and mental ill health to make positive changes in their lives.
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A keen collaborator, David has contributed directly to the development of integrated working across the health and social care systems in Gateshead and South Tyneside and champions the role of the voluntary and community sector through his ongoing involvement with Blue Stone Collaborative.
Jenny Rohde
Head of Operations
Jenny joined Your Voice Counts in 2019 and oversees the infrastructure of Your Voice Counts, managing our buildings, governance and the Board, organisational risk, health and safety, information governance and administration services.
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Jenny has previously held roles in education and the arts, including schools, museums and other charities and is passionate about creating systems and processes that consider the people who will benefit from them, with a particular focus on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Gareth Rowe
Head of Finance
Gareth is a Big-4 trained ACA Chartered Accountant and is passionate about making a difference to individuals and communities. After previous roles as Chief Financial Officer at Single and Multi-Academy Trusts, he made the move into the Third Sector in January 2020.
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Since joining Your Voice Counts, Gareth has been strengthening financial controls and procedures in line with sector best practice as well as managing our growing business development function and linking financial forecasting to our fundraising strategy.
Sharon DeJesus
Head of Advocacy
Experienced advocate Sharon manages our advocacy service, overseeing and developing the work we do to provide statutory advocacy services in the Newcastle and South Tyneside local authority areas.
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Working closely with our commissioners and other partners, Sharon is responsible for keeping abreast of best practice, driving innovation, and ensuring our policies, procedures and systems deliver the best outcomes for the people we support.
Sharon also provides complex case support and promotes the role of advocacy across and beyond the sector, striving for quality and championing co-production of services with the people who use them.
Leah Kennedy
Head of Communities
Leah leads our services for people with a learning disability and autistic people in Gateshead and South Tyneside. She joined us from Mental Health UK where she led national young-people programmes, combining strategic leadership with co-production alongside lived-experience experts.
Leah is passionate about ensuring that people’s voices do more than inform, believing they should shape everything. She is eager to build on the strong foundations of our work and is committed to developing and delivering impactful place-based projects in the communities we serve to make a real difference to people's lives.