Meet the Longitude Explorer team

Areas of expertise: Social media strategy, Digital Marketing, SEO, Communications

Seoana works across all themes centre-wide, helping to inspire more people to enter our prizes by facilitating the growth of an engaged community of solvers via our digital channels.

Her background is in publishing and digital marketing and she has extensive social media, content strategy and editorial experience. She has worked in a variety of industries, including roles at Grand Designs magazine, an Australian fashion company and within the communications team at Barking and Dagenham council.

Seoana is a self-confessed bookaholic who has a slight addiction to buying new books (her bedside table resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa). She also blogs about female mental health issues and runs a feminist book club.

As Communications Manager for Nesta Challenges, Shannon works across all themes centre-wide. Shannon aims to encourage more people to enter our prizes through digital engagement.

Shannon’s background is in digital content, marketing and campaign management for several science charities and health publications, including SciDev.Net and the Wellcome Trust, focusing on developing user-friendly content and design for website and social media.

Shannon has extensive social media, product management, design and editorial skills and a proven track record of tailoring content to different platforms, delivering complex strategies and projects.

In their spare time, they have also been involved in organising events for the local LGBTQI+ community for the past seven years, and in 2016 founded a campaign fighting for the rights of non-EU immigrant workers.

Jo has worked with the Longitude Explorer Prize team at Nesta since its inception in 2014, providing support on the development and outreach for the LEP challenge prizes.

Jo is a consultant working across the education, technology and construction industry sectors, with a key focus on future and digital skills.
Passionate about the development of the Next Generations of industry professionals, engaging young people & promoting opportunities available to them in the world of industry is a top priority & personal driver for Jo.

Spare time is given to a wide number of STEM initiatives, tech working groups, start-ups & individuals who share the same passion in driving youth engagement, diversity and the teaching of life-skills, to best position young people for existing & future jobs & careers. Jo is working group lead for Tech London Advocates (TLA) Education and Co-lead TLA PropTech Group; Ambassador for Education TLA Women in Tech Group; Member of Founders4Schools Advisory Committee for Diversity; Member of Women Shift Digital.

Areas of expertise: Operations, project and programme management, social and environmental impact, gender, international development

Nassin is a Programme Coordinator with Nesta Challenges.

Nassin joins Nesta from a social enterprise in Bhutan, which works to build a hazelnut industry and bring new sources of income to rural communities. Previously, she worked with diverse teams in the UN helping to coordinate and implement various rural development and humanitarian projects in Somalia and Kenya. She enjoys working with teams to achieve impactful positive outcomes, and finding creative solutions to problems.

Nassin studied Geography and Environment and has trained in Socio-Economic and Gender Analysis. In her spare time, she enjoys learning things, including languages, and getting out in nature.

Areas of expertise: Longitude Explorer Prize, Youth Engagement, International Development, Programme Design and  Management, Gender and Development, Social and Behavior Change Communication

Hannah is an Assistant Programme Manager in the International Development and Education and Skills team. The main project she’ll be working on is the Longitude Explorer Prize.

Prior to Nesta, Hannah was at Girl Effect, a creative non-profit, where her role was as a coordinator within the Impact function. She worked across a number of international projects, one of which being a first-of-its-kind mobile innovation for girls in Nigeria called ‘Girls Connect’.

Outside of work she is usually either researching future travel destinations, running/hiking or exploring interesting talks and events happening in London.

Maddy is a Programme Manager, working across a range of UK and international projects, including Longitude Explorer and Inventor prizes. She also works on the business development side of Nesta Challenges.

Before joining Nesta Challenges, Maddy worked at The Prince’s Trust, starting in Monitoring and Evaluation before working in Programme Development for four years. Here, Maddy developed a range of employability programmes to support young people and NEETs across the UK into employment. During a secondment in Adelaide, Maddy was responsible for the implementation of Prince’s Trust programme in Australia, working with local employers and partners in Adelaide to develop a programme for unemployed and underemployed young people to be rolled out across Australia.

Outside of work Maddy can usually be found exploring London’s food markets, attending gigs or trying out the latest fitness fad.

Areas of expertise: Co-creation, Youth, Thriving Communities, Prizes in Development, Community engagement, entrepreneurship, supporting innovators, Longitude Explorer, Programme Management, Prize design and implementation 

Constance has over 20 years-experience in the voluntary sector developing national and international programs which engage communities in addressing the issues that affect them. She has designed and delivered programs with the likes of USAID, World Bank, Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Cabinet Office Constance provides strategic innovation guidance and has delivered over 25 challenge prizes in fields such as agriculture in South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, Social Innovation across Europe, UK prizes focused on Waste Reduction and Ageing populations, as well as youth focussed digital enterprise challenges.

At the heart of her work ethos is a practice of co-creation with communities and innovators, building effective stakeholder networks across a range of sectors to strengthen the market potential of products, technologies and services for sustainable and impactful change that help communities thrive.

Constance is engaged in a number of judging and speaker panels and was on the board of Trustees for Youth Music, serving disadvantaged youth. She also demonstrates her entrepreneurial spirit by running her own micro business.