Emily Macaulay (she/her)

Emily joined CONNECTED BY DATA from a service delivery and operations background, for the last nine years working for the charity that runs all public libraries across Devon and Torbay. Before that, after completing her Criminology degrees, she worked in the criminal justice system across Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for nine years.

During her time in the public sector and charity sector Emily has delivered on her passion for civic impact and social justice and led the team that won a Civic Award from Exeter Living in 2019. During the COVID lockdowns Emily secured Arts Council England funding to commission local artists to explore communities experiences of grief and loss with libraries being spaces people were already sharing their collective traumas.

Throughout her career, and in her personal life, Emily has a drive to promote equality, diversity and inclusion and continues to challenge herself to learn more in this area.

Outside of work Emily is a happy runner (though not always consistent!) and can often be found at a Parkrun on a Saturday morning. She is a Trustee for Consortium (the national specialist infrastructure and membership body for LGBT+ organisations) and The Reading List Foundation (helping exceptional Year 13 students from lower-income families succeed at University by paying for their first year textbooks).

A venue isn’t just the space where you hold an event or an activity – it’s part of the planning about how the session will run. A good venue will enhance the experience of participants and that likely benefits what you get out of it too. A poorly selected venue can be a barrier to engagement – if people even come at all. At CONNECTED by DATA we’ve tried to be intentional in our venue selection for every in person event or activity we’ve hosted (or in fact even if it is in person or online and where online…more on that later).

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