Lindsay has been a resident of Gracemount since 2005 and has been an active member of the local school communities, where she has held roles as Chair of both Gracemount Primary and Gracemount Secondary schools.

Professionally Lindsay is a qualified accountant, internal auditor and project manager, having held a career within financial services for over 25 years.

During 2020, Lindsay founded the community group ‘Friends of the Mansion’, to raise awareness and gather support for the Gracemount Mansion project, and in November 2022 established GMDT as a charity.

Lindsay is using her skill set to Chair the GMDT board and support the Trust to manage the CAT of The Mansion and grounds, and deliver opportunities and activities on site for the benefit of the community.

John has been a local resident to Gracemount since 2004 and is currently Trustee and Treasurer for another local charity, The Gilmerton Community Centre.

Previously he was a Director and fundraiser for the Scots Music Group charity for seven years. Organising and hosting monthly ceilidhs. 

John has held various senior managerial positions for circa 40 years within Finance and Banking Organisations. Having qualified with the International Compliance Association in 2008, he latterly focused principally on compliance and governance and set up his own consultancy business.

John is acutely aware of the gap in community support and activities, covering all generations, in the Gracemount area, following the closure of the Mansion. He is keen to offer his knowledge and expertise to the Trustee Board and Gracemount Project.

Christine has had an extensive career within the public and voluntary sectors, and is now a freelance consultant in education and training.

Christine is Vice Chair of the Scottish European Educational Trust (SEET) and a member of SEET Finance Committee. 

Christine is also a member of the Goodison Group in Scotland which brings together experienced people from the worlds of Business, Government and Education to focus on particular themes to do with learning, skills, employment and productivity.

Christine has lived in the local Gracemount and Liberton area for over 40 years and previously attended classes in The Mansion.

Jill Purves is a local resident and is founder and director of Trees and Seas Outdoor Adventures, a community interest company based in the South East of Edinburgh.

Jill is passionate about supporting children to meet their potential by providing an outdoor safe space that gives them the freedom to learn through child-led free play.

Jill is also a trained and registered Therapeutic Forest Practitioner which provides her with the skills and expertise to support children and young people with Additional Support.

Trees and Seas operates at the Gracemount Mansion site, Bridgend Farmhouse and other venues across Edinburgh.

Chantel is co-founder and co-director of EqualiTree, a social enterprise that provides training in land-based industries and heritage crafts to women and ethnic minorities: groups that have historically been excluded and under-represented from this work. 

Chantel has a strong background in horticulture, botany, education, biodiversity conservation and data science.  Chantel also does freelance work for Innovate UK working on grant applications. 

Chantel is keen to support GMDT in utilising the outdoor space at Gracemount Mansion for the benefit of the community as well as providing the opportunity to groups who may not normally have access to all the opportunities that the Gracemount Mansion site has to offer.

Erica is a qualified solicitor who now deals with litigated personal injury claims and property damage claims for insurance companies.

She regularly appears in the Sheriff courts and is also a notary public.

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Erica has lived in the local area for a number of years and is Treasurer for the Parent Teacher Association at the local Gracemount Primary School.

Ken is a strategically focused Chartered Surveyor with over 45 years’ experience in the public, corporate and private property sectors across the UK, and years of experience in the management, refurbishment and development of all types of property both large and small.   He also has a great deal of experience in the management of Health and Safety at leadership level and wide ranging experience in running multi-disciplinary property teams.

Having recently semi-retired and previously served on boards, Ken is keen to use his experience to support the Gracemount Project, allowing him to give something back to the larger community.

Anna is a chartered town planner currently working at the City of Edinburgh Council as the team manager for Development Planning. She is a history graduate from the University of Edinburgh where she specialised in urban and architectural history and built on this interest by completing a Masters in European Urban Conservation at Dundee. Her career has focussed on a range of planning and conservation work. In particular, she was the principal planner for the listed buildings team within Edinburgh for several years.

Anna is on the Board of Trustees for the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and is treasurer for its Scotland Branch.

Anna has lived in the Liberton/Gilmerton area for over 25 years and is keen to support the project and bring a historic building and grounds back to life for the local community.