About Julia
Dame Julia Cleverdon DCVO CBE is a passionate and practical campaigner who has gained an international reputation for 'connecting the unconnected', inspiring individuals and organisations to work together for the common good.
Dame Julia became Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund in November 2024. She has previously chaired Teach First, the National Literacy Trust and Place Matters – all charities working to tackle inequality in those communities who experience the greatest poverty, disadvantage and discrimination.
She is Co-founder of the #iwill movement supporting young people into social action through volunteering, campaigning and advocacy. Dame Julia has served as Board Trustee for the Fair Education Alliance, The Careers and Enterprise Company, the Youth Futures Foundation, Teach for All and as Patron of Right to Succeed. She chairs the National Statistician’s Committee on Inclusive Data and sits on the East Midlands Combined County Authority Inclusive Growth Commission.
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She began her career with The Industrial Society and served as Chief Executive of Business in the Community for seventeen years before working for the then Prince of Wales as his Special Adviser to the Prince’s Charities.
In 2015 Julia was interviewed by Kirsty Young on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Listen here as she is castaway and tells us about her life with nothing but eight tracks, a book and a luxury item.
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Learn more about Julia in this Financial Times profile 'Dame with a Campaign'.