Our team
Staff
Gray Hutchins
Operations Manager
I was delighted to join The Clare Project in November 2018 after graduating from the University of Sussex, and then spending a few years working in business/charity development. My role focusses on overseeing our services across Sussex, alongside continuing the growth, development and sustainability of the charity. Outside of the office and in support of our work, I am currently the trans/TNBI Council Rep for Brighton & Hove Community Works, Chair the Brighton & Hove City Council Trans Equip Sub-Group, and sit on various statutory service steering groups concerning our communities’ health and well-being.
My favourite thing about working for The Clare Project is that it is trans/TNBI community-led, for the community itself. I am proud of the authenticity and diversity of our work, and how we continue to support, empower and elevate the voices of those in our community.
Outside of work I enjoy cooking (and eating), running, and hiking across the downs with my dog Charlie.
Carl Mogg
Bookkeeper / Engagement Worker
I was introduced to The Clare Project in the summer of 2017, when I was enlisted to help with the bookkeeping. After going in at the same time as the Tuesday drop in, it wasn’t long before I realised how amazing this little treasure is. A lifeline to many community members who were maybe isolated, or who just needed a cuppa and a friendly face. Uniquely run by community members too. This made it easy for me to agree to help as a co facilitator, which was also a really good opportunity for me to reintegrate and get back into work after many years of anxiety and depression. TCP is a fantastic place that gives community members support and opportunities. I still do the bookkeeping and help to facilitate both online and in person groups. Both are getting busier, with a lovely expanding staff team to offer support and training too. A lovely place to work and to hang out and I can even take my dog along if I need to 🐾 🙂
Victoria Oldman
Training Lead
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Hi! My name is Victoria, or Tori for short. I have worked in the trans healthcare and wellbeing sector for the past three years and am always striving to help out within the trans and non binary community wherever I can or needed. In a previous life I was a journalist and games developer but now spend my days mostly collecting vintage 8-track cassettes and embroidering poorly but enthusiastically! I love meeting new people, sharing stories and creating anything at all. I am inspired by my surroundings (I love being by the sea!) and those I meet every single day. I am thrilled to have joined the team here at The Clare Project as facilitator and look forward to playing a valuable part in the future – learning, growing, listening, sharing and supporting as best I can along the way.
Serge
Therapist
Pronouns: he/they
Serge is an accredited sex and relationship therapist, with a passion for working alongside the GSRD communities (Gender, Sexuality & Relationship Diverse). Through his internship training to his COSRT Psychotherapist accreditation he developed his professional practice while also being open to challenging medicalised or pathologising discourses and to resisting the normativity that shapes so much of psychotherapy. Serge has a private practice and he also continues to work part-time across LGBTIQ community contexts delivering therapy and well-being services alongside trans and gender diverse folks, and their partners, plus in gender diversity affirming peer supervision and training for therapists.
In addition Serge is a sighthound loving trans punk elder, writer, editor and producer with hotpencil press. He has for many decades been a co-creator of LGBTIQ+ celebratory art, workshop and performance events.
Lili
TNBI Care Coordinator
Pronouns: they/them
Hi, I’m Lili and I recently joined the Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre and The Clare Project as TNBI Care Coordinator after more than a decade of working in customer care. I spent time flipping burgers, selling stuffed toys, working at the bookies and marketing pleasure products in the 14 years since I moved to Brighton from Hungary. I got a Media Studies degree in 2015 from the University of Brighton where I focused most of my research on Queer and Gender Studies.
As a care coordinator I hope to improve the TNBI community’s experience with general as well as trans-affirming health care so everyone who wants to receive hormone therapy can access it using an informed consent model. I want community members to be able to address the full spectrum of their health and wellness needs. This means building ongoing relationships with patients and providing them with a personable and friendly service that is accurate, prompt and tailored to each service user.
In my free time I’m a massive geek with a fanart Instagram account where I share my various fandom-related artwork – I dabble in polymer clay sculpting, linocut printmaking, drawing and painting. I’m currently obsessed with Xena, Warrior Princess, but I kinda keep an encyclopaedia of pop culture in my brain anyways, with a speciality in 90s and 00s movie posters. I’m also an amateur birdwatcher – an activity I enjoy doing with my cat, Abbey, who I worship. I love rainy days, nature and shirts with quirky designs.
I bring buckets of enthusiasm and dedication to this role and I can’t wait to put my skills in the service of my local community to improve health care for trans, non-binary and intersex people in East Sussex and beyond.
Rose Aarya Hurley
Community Development Coordinator
As a trans-nonbinary person of colour, my lived experiences have taught me the nuances of oppression different groups face, and I have spent my life forming communities to create an exchange of ideas. I am deeply invested in anti-colonial thought and I have an insatiable desire to learn more about the different forms of gender expression throughout indigenous communities worldwide.
Outside of work, I spend my time reading political history/theory, making weird electronic music, watching 80s horror films and writing poetry! I also went for a brief period of building glitch devices out of tupperware to plug into CRT TVs. I still come back to this now and then in my usual ADHD manner! 🙂
Hazel Moon
Transgender Healthcare Improvement Consultant
I worked in healthcare for several years as part of Bupa Global and Bupa UK, as well as supporting their implementation of gender affirming care and guidance around trans identity and medical transition. I am currently studying to qualify as a Mental Health Nurse to help improve LGBTQ healthcare within the NHS.
Prior to joining the team I engaged with The Clare Project as a service user, it is the only organisation I have ever been part of that is wholly run by and for the TNBI community. I am proud to be a part of a team committed to the liberation and empowerment of our community.
August Reid
Interim Services Coordinator
Chatting with people over a cup of tea and a biscuit is my happy place and something you can also find me doing at The Ledward Centre, where I am a café/reception volunteer, and at Switchboard, the LGBT+ Helpline, where I am a listening volunteer, trainer and archivist.
Before moving into the LGBT+ support field, I worked for 13 years as a secondary school music teacher in London. I keep in touch with my musical side by singing in an LGBT+ choir and doing the occasional bit of conducting. My hobbies include ballet, local history and queer culture.
Beck Cedar
Group Facilitator
I quit everything I knew in 2022 to go back to Uni to learn how to make wine. I spend my time most days in the vineyard. If I am not there, I am enjoying reading, cooking, and reading cookbooks. Oh and I love a quiz (I once appeared on Pointless and The Chase).
Trustees
Andie Davidson
Chair of Trustees
Andie is currently a technical author and has worked in IT, engineering and social research organisations. She began involvement with The Clare Project in 2011 and blogged the experience of transition extensively. She has lived in Sussex for over 25 years and in Brighton and Hove since 2013. For a number of years she was a school governor and chair of governors in Worthing, where she brought up her family.
A keen amateur musician, Andie has played trumpet in many local wind bands. She is also a creative writer and has performed her poetry in a number of venues. A background in social activism only added to a willingness to speak out in public on issues close to her heart, and for inclusion and equality.
Charlotte Fonfara
Trustee
Moving to Brighton during the pandemic back in 2020, The Clare Project was an amazing way to meet people. I quickly fell in love with the organisation, the staff and all the lovely members of the TNBI community who frequent its social events. Realising that my passion towards improved access to healthcare and increased equality and inclusion across our diverse community closely aligned with that of The Clare Project, I became a trustee and hope to help the organisation maintain and build upon its current services in the future.
Outside the role I have volunteered for a number of NHS steering groups, have had a long career in management & design, and have been studying clinical psychology at the University of Sussex. I have a passion for architecture, art & design and most things outdoors, especially cycling in and around the South Downs.
Fiona Allen
Trustee
I retired and moved to Brighton in 2020, when my multiple sclerosis symptoms made it too difficult to continue in paid work, but this enabled me to do more voluntary work with organisations who are passionate about mental health, wellbeing, and suicide prevention, and I’m delighted to be part of the Clare Project as a trustee.
I have two adult children, and I love crafting – mainly mosaics, also cooking, swimming (in the sea when it’s not too cold), meditation, outdoors & nature. If MS gives me a break, I would love to get back into rock climbing and hill walking.
Julia Trangmar
Facilitator
Julia Trangmar sadly passed away from Covid-19 in February 2021, and her ashes were scattered in the gardens of Dorset Gardens in the Spring of 2021. We are in the proccess of requesting a bench to be placed there in her memory.
Julia’s generosity and dedication to The Clare Project was a lifeline for our community throughout some of the toughest years we have been subjected to. She was welcoming and kind in her approach, and always provided a listening ear to so many, whether as an agony aunt, or someone to chew your ear off about Bowie down at The Marlborough Pub.
The community was a huge part of Julia’s life, and likewise she was of ours. We would like to remember her for her support to both ourselves as an organisation, her determination and resilience in the face discrimination, and her immense kindness towards everyone she ever met.
We will hugely miss Julia, but will continue to strive for inclusion and equality in her memory.