Royal School of Needlework

Pip Wood is an experienced Chair of Trustees. She has strong educational governance experience and brings a pragmatic, calm, committed and enthusiastic approach. A senior communications specialist, Pip has nearly 40 years’ experience in developing and delivering communication and media strategies in high profile FTSE100 companies and dynamic consumer-facing organisations. Working at Board level, she has a broad range of business experience and a particular skill in business transformation and change management. She is also an accredited coach who can support and challenge people and teams, empowering them to improve performance and deliver results.

Patsy has been a RSN Council member since 2020 and chairs the Education Committee. She has spent her working life as a teacher, senior manager and consultant in higher education and is now Chair of Governors at Leeds Arts University. She is also a member of the advisory committee of the National Arts Education Archive at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and a Director of the Sunny Bank Mills Museum and Archive. Patsy is a Principal Fellow of Advance HE (PFHEA).

Paula Leftwich is retired from a multi-faceted professional life.  The largest portion of her career was in education, where she served as teacher, training manager, college/university instructor, degree program director, and senior director of PreK-12 curriculum for one of the largest public school districts in the US.  She served as member and chair of the Florida Education Standards Commission.  She holds Masters and Doctoral degrees from the University of South Florida. Her dissertation probed social justice issues related to diverse populations’ achievement of national board teacher certification.  Dr. Leftwich has significant experience in teacher education, strategic planning, grant writing, and grant-funded program administration.  She values the opportunity to apply her experience in service to the Royal School of Needlework to advance its work to preserve and promote the needle arts heritage that has been lifetime activity and interest for her.

Sarah Mumford is a practising commercial lawyer specialising in legal risk and governance.  Sarah has a long-standing interest in education and has been a governor of several schools at primary and secondary level.  She has experience as a charity trustee in English ecclesiastical charities and a Scottish literary charity.  An enthusiastic, if amateur, stitcher and crafter, Sarah enjoys playing her part in the RSN’s future.

Dominic began his career as an archaeologist and historian first with the British Museum and then with the York Archaeological Trust where he was Assistant Director. He was a noted Anglo-Saxon and Viking specialist publishing, among many other things, on Anglo-Saxon embroideries. In York Dominic was one of the team that developed the ground-breaking Jorvik Viking Centre, and from there he developed his own successful business which designed, built, owned, and operated visitor attractions in the cultural heritage field. Having decided to return to the charitable sector, Dominic sold his share of the business. He was appointed the first Director General of the new National Museum of the Royal Navy (NMRN) in 2008. In his time with the museum, he merged the four constituent museums into a coherent whole. He brought HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, HMS M33, HMS Caroline and HMS Trincomalee into the group and acquired the Museum of Naval Firepower. He built the turnover of the business from £6.5m to £24m a year and attracted £180m in investment into the Group over some 15 years. Dominic retired in late 2023 and is now Chairman of the Wellington Trust which cares for the last surviving World War II convoy escort. He is also a Trustee of the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust and the Mercantile Marine Memorial Collection. Dominic is working on a book on the Spanish Armada of 1588.