Meet the Executive
Elected every two years this is the team who lead LDDA's work throughout the year.
Katharine Macy - Chair
Katharine has been Vice Chair of LDDA for one term, and has now been elected as the Chair. They’ve previously served on the Young Liberals and LGBT+ Lib Dems executives.
They have a PhD in autism in the Stone Age and work as an Inclusion and Wellbeing Advisor for a law firm.
Katharine is autistic and grew up caring for their mother after a nervous breakdown. In their twenties, they developed spine issues leaving them with mobility issues.
Katharine wrote the original young carers policy and hopes to use their term as chair to build LDDA into a network that can be relied upon both by the wider party and disabled members.
David Buxton - Vice Chair
David Buxton co-founded LDDA with three other Disabled members and is the only surviving co-founder. Before setting up LDDA, he advised the late Paddy Ashdown, former Liberal Democrat Leader, on disability.
"With 40+ years’ experience, I’ve worked from community development to Chief Executive, locally and internationally. In 1990, I became Britain’s first elected Deaf BSL-using Councillor and later stood as a Parliamentary Candidate three times. I’ve challenged the Government through four Judicial Reviews on disability rights.
“Currently, I chair Epsom & Ewell Lib Dems, serve as CEO of Action on Disability, and am on the Board of the European Union of the Deaf.”
Maureen Rigg - Treasurer
Maureen has been a Liberal supporter or member for all her adult life and was a councillor for 12 years before retiring.
Her interest in disability matters started half a century ago when her mother’s arthritis led to surgery on her hip. Three hip replacements, a knee replacement and a girdlestone operation over three decades meant a wheelchair was her key to getting out and about and gave Maureen some insight into the issues. During that time another family member also began to need a wheelchair for outings while others provided insights into ME, epilepsy and asthma. She’s seen huge improvements in that 50 years but is also aware of the enormous amount that still needs to happen.
Anne-Marie Curry - Secretary
Anne has been been a councillor for Darlington Borough Council since November 2008. She has lived in 3 countries, 27 houses and says “the one I am living in is the third time I have lived in it. Due to moving regularly i attended 7 different schools in all of 3 countries.”
Anne got her degree through the Open University. Due to her up bringing as above, she doesn’t judge people on first sight. Anne can be chatty but more often she likes to listen to other people. Anne only got interested in politics when her daughter was a toddler. She did not follow her parents or brother and instead made my own mind up and joined the Lib Dems.
She has been involved in the party from being a member up to being on English Council. Recently, having really enjoyed her roles, she step back to look after her parents. The invite to take a role in the LDDA has been the first step in moving back into the politics she believes in.
Gemma Roulston - Membership Secretary
Gemma is both a carer for her family, 2 adult children and my husband, and a disabled person. She has osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, and episodes of depression and stress. She enjoys doing creative things, birdwatching, try to live as environmentally friendly as possible, as well campaign on various issues. She supports Middlesbrough FC, Yorkshire CCC and likes listening to Dr Hook, ABBA and other middle of the road music.
She has been Membership Secretary of LDDA since early 2000’s.
General Executive Members
Chris Wills
Chris has enjoyed successful careers in teaching, working for Local Government and with Central Government, and with the National Trust across the Lake District. On behalf of Cumbria County Council he contributed significantly to a reduction in road casualties across Cumbria, and notably increased the number of people who regularly cycle. This replicated similar results in the south of England.
Chris’ work in road safety and sustainable travel included pioneering cycle training for young people with disabilities. He has also worked closely with the international head injury charity Headway, and the premier helmet testing organisation the SNELL Foundation. In 2024, Chris stood as the Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Whitehaven and Workington constituency.
As a Cumberland Councillor, and as a Parish Councillor, he is committed to public service, and wants to use his experience, skills and energy to serve you as an active member of LDDA.
Martyn Cooper
Martyn’s background is as a systems engineer with a B.Sc. in Cybernetics, Control Engineering and Mathematics. After graduating he established the consultancy Technology for Disabled People (TDP) that focused on the use of current and emerging technologies for the benefit of people experiencing the full spectrum of disabilities. TDP is still accepting consultancies although Martyn is now semi-retired.
Martyn has a bipolar mood disorder which is well managed by medication and the support of his GP and the Community Mental Health Team. Progressive arthritis in the hips led to Martyn becoming a wheelchair user in 2016. He therefore retired early, which freed up time to become active in politics.
He joined the Liberal Democrats when Brexit was proposed because he is a passionate European.However, he has been a liberal since his teenage years. Martyn is the Diversity Officer for Southampton Liberal Democrats.
Alison Rouse
Alison has a background in project management, having had her own business for several years and also has experience in event management and psychology. She’s been a Liberal Democrat for a few years and recently served as State chair for England.
Having become physically disabled after surgery a few years ago, and having recently joined the ranks of those diagnosed with ADHD later in life, Alison hopes to use her time in the LDDA to share her internal party knowledge, to help LDDA make more impact, and to work with colleagues towards making the world (and the party) a more inclusive and accessible place.
Jonah Weisz
Jonah joined the Lib Dems in 2015, and has been a member of the LDDA for two years. In March 2020, a week before lockdown, Jonah contracted Covid whilst teaching Mathematics at a secondary academy in Highbury. In the ensuing months, Jonah was one of the first UK patients to be diagnosed with Long Covid - he considers himself fortunate, as he was able to draw on his mother’s experience of ME (a related infection associated chronic condition, also characterised by similar symptoms including fatigue, brain fog and fibromyalgia) to identify his condition.
Following the completion of his two years of teaching through the TeachFirst programme, Jonah left the profession to focus on recovery, and latterly changed career to work in political communications, in which he has specialised in working with Life Sciences clients. Subsequently, despite fully recovering, Jonah has continued to recontract Covid and has spent long periods on medical leave over the last few years due to returning symptoms.
When he has been able to, Jonah has used his experiences to advocate for patients who are less able to. He supports the #ThereForME campaign to raise awareness of infection-associated chronic conditions in Parliament, and has also volunteered with PAR (Psilocybin Access Rights) to break down barriers to important psychoactives research. In 2022, during a brief remission in his Long Covid symptoms, Jonah won the International Gay Rugby Bingham Cup, Ottawa ‘22. Previously, Jonah held a membership lead role in his constituency party.
Chris Rennard
Chris Rennard joined the Liberal Party in Liverpool as a teenager in 1973. He became Director of Campaigns & Elections for the Lib Dems (1989 - 2003), and then Chief Executive (2003 - 2009) working with Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy and taking the party from 19 to 63 MPs.
He has been a Liberal Democrat life peer since 1999. He worked for ten years with the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) as its Director of Communications and now chairs the conferences of the National Association of Equipment Providers (NAEP). He published a political memoir “Winning Here”, Biteback 2018.
Poppy Hasted
Poppy has been on the LDDA executive for a few years now. She used to work from home running a telephone and email advice line.
Her disability has her heavily reliant on carers and family and she is restricted to bed full time. She hopes to use her time on the LDDA executive to champion the voices of people like her who are restricted to bed or home most of the time, as she often feels forgotten or ignored.
She also cares passionately about ensuring employers provide genuine reasonable adjustments for disabled people, such as allowing people to work from home. She hopes we can use the lessons from the pandemic to support this.
Honorary President
Our Honorary President is Baroness Sal Brinton, the Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson on Health.
She has been actively involved in politics and public service for several decades. She joined the Liberal Party in the 1970s, and was made a life peer in 2010, taking the title Baroness Brinton of Kenardington in the County of Kent.
Baroness Brinton has held various leadership roles within the Liberal Democrats, including election as the party's President from 2015 to 2019. In 2010 she set up the Party's Leadership Programme for the four under-represented groups in politics (Disabled People, Women, LGBTQ+, and Ethnic Minorities), developing skills for candidates for various levels of elected office.
In the House of Lords, she has been a vocal advocate for disability rights, Europe, education, and healthcare, often speaking from personal experience as a disabled person.
