We’re incredibly excited to share some big news from the Design in Mental Health Network – Charlotte Burrows has joined us as our new Chief Executive.
Charlotte brings a wealth of experience, a deep commitment to equity, and a passion for transforming mental health outcomes through design and collaboration.
Her appointment marks the beginning of a new chapter for DiMHN, filled with opportunity, innovation, and connection.
“Charlotte brings a remarkable combination of strategic leadership, deep sector knowledge, and an unwavering commitment to equity in mental health,” said Phil Ross, Chair of Trustees at DiMHN. “Her ability to forge meaningful partnerships and her vision for transformative, co-produced changemake her ideally suited to lead the Network forward. We are thrilled to welcome her.”
Charlotte is already rolling up her sleeves and diving in, and we wanted to take a moment to introduce her properly to our wider community.
A bit about Charlotte…
Charlotte joins us from her role as Programme Director for Design & Innovation at Health Innovation South West, where she co-led a mental health mission having previously implemented a regional health equity strategy and helped to co-produce impactful mental health and maternity programmes.
Charlotte has been driven by one key principle throughout her career: designing better systems and spaces that work for everyone, especially the most often underserved. She brings both lived and learned experience to this role and a collaborative leadership style that we know will resonate across our network.
Here are just a few of her career highlights:
Creating a mental health mission as part of the Peninsula research and innovation strategy for the South West, forging partnerships across NHS, academia and the VCSE sector.
Secured significant innovation funding and worked closely with research and VCSE partners to co-develop grant proposals to tackle mental health inequalities.
Former Devon Maternity Voices Partnerships chair and non-Executive Director at NHS Devon CCG, championing prevention funding and equity-focused governance.
Director of Innovation & Growth at EDP Drug & Alcohol Services, developing new innovation services in prisons, growing commissioned services.
Advocate for mental health equity, speaking NHS leaders and digital innovators supporting the testing and implementation of digital and place based innovation for in mental health across the South west
Charlotte describes herself as a collaborative systems thinker with an a co-production approach – and it’s clear that these values will help guide us as we move into our next phase of impact and growth.
“I am honoured to join DiMHN at such a pivotal time,” said Charlotte. “Across my career, I have seen the profound impact that environment and design can have on mental health outcomes. I’m inspired by DiMHN’s commitment to challenging the status quo and championing human-centred, compassionate care environments. I look forward to working with our members, partners, and communities to expand our influence and co-create the future of mental health design.”
We couldn’t be more excited to have Charlotte leading the way. Her experience, insight and empathy are already energising conversations across the organisation – and we’re looking forward to seeing where this journey takes us.
If you’d like to connect with Charlotte or learn more about what’s next for DiMHN, please contact us or attend one of our upcoming events.
We’ll share more updates (and opportunities to get involved) soon.
In the meantime, you can connect with Charlotte on LinkedIn here to keep up to date with everything happening in the organisation.
Let’s keep designing better – together.
