Nicola Sharp, Head of Policy and Parliamentary Affairs, Refuge

In her role as Head of Policy and Parliamentary Affairs at Refuge, Nicola regularly engages with policy-makers and politicians, lobbying for changes to policy and legislation in relation to the issue of violence against women (VAW).

Nicola currently sits on a range of stakeholder and advisory groups across Government including, for example, the Domestic Violence Policy Monitoring Group at the Women’s National Commission, the Crown Prosecution Service’s VAW External Consultation Group, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Forced Marriage Unit Stakeholder Group.

Before joining Refuge in June 2006, Nicola worked in international relations. She lived and worked in Japan for two years after graduation, before taking on various policy and advocacy roles within the field of international development. These included working within the International Policy Team at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as well as within the programme department at the International Headquarters of the international development agency, Plan.

Nicola has a first class BSc (Hons) degree in Management Science; an MSc in International Policy Analysis with distinction; and an MA in Woman and Child Abuse with merit. Nicola has published and presented a number of research reports and papers both at home and abroad. Most recently she co-authored a journal article on Domestic Violence at Work in Occupational Health at Work.