Staff
- Caroline Watson, Founder and Director
- Caroline set up Hua Dan in 2004 and has spearheaded all areas of Hua Dan’s inception and development, including, but not limited to, project management, organisational development, strategy and vision, fundraising, marketing and communications, and HR. As a pioneer of arts-based approaches to social change, Caroline has lead the organisation through its first seven years of growth and is committed to growing an organisation that has a scalable and replicable international model.
- Caroline has received numerous awards for her work with Hua Dan. She has recently been nominated a Young Global Leader as part of the 2011 World Economic Forum. She was selected as an Architect of the Future at the 2007 Waldzell Meeting and was a 2010 Paragon Fellow, a fellowship offered by the Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship.
- Dong Fen, General Manager
- Dong Fen comes from Qu Jing, Yunnan province, and has been with Hua Dan since our very first workshop. She graduated from the famous Rural Women Knowing All school in 2004, having received training in waitressing, and has worked both as a waitress and as a beautician. She has been a passionate supporter of Hua Dan since we started and brings much enthusiasm and professionalism to our work here. She is particularly involved in the growth and development of Hua Dan’s career development training project.
- Zhong Na, Senior Children’s Trainer
- Zhong Na hails from Ningyang, Shandong province and has been with Hua Dan since 2005. Prior to working at Hua Dan, she worked in the hotel industry and as a child-care worker. Enormously gifted in working with children, she has set-up and steered the development of Hua Dan’s children’s projects. She has participated in teacher training projects to enable the impact of her work to spread over a wider area, infusing China’s education system with more creative, “whole-person” learning methodologies.
- Tao Yangyang, Creative Director
- Tao Yangyang comes from Nanchang city in Jiangxi Province, China. She has been working as a volunteer and a trainer for Hua Dan since 2005. In her time with Hua Dan, Yangyang feels she has greatly improved her communication and training skills and the ability to plan and manage training events. After graduating from the College of Art and Design at Nanchang University with a drama major, Yangyang now also works as an actress for film, television and theatre in Beijing. Yangyang’s friends call her “sunshine girl”, someone who strongly influences others, giving them strength and happiness.
- Fu Jingping, Treasurer
- Since 2000, Jingping has been engaged in financial work in NPOs, involved in financial investigation, project financial monitoring and assessment work in many foundation and NPOs. She is actively engaged in promoting the credibility of the domestic construction activity in non-profit organisations.
- Guo Jinlian, Sichuan Project Manager
- Guo Jinlian, from Meishan in Sichuan, worked in Pengzhou as a volunteer after graduation. She found to work as a volunteer not only to serve others, but also facilitates spiritual growth. Later she joined Hua Dan, and found Hua Dan helps people better to show the best part of themselves.
- Jessica Naish, Creative Art Adviser
- Jessica’s experience as a performer, director and lecturer is diverse, and unified by a passion for the collaborative, creative process of making theatre. Jessica specialised in devising theatre at the University of Kent. She has completed training in mime and physical theatre at the Desmond Jones school and in clowning at the WhyNot Institute in London. Jessica has also studied Forum theatre with Brazilian director Augusto Boal and Topeng masked performance with Ida Bagus Alit in Bali, Indonesia. For six years Jessica worked as a director of education and community projects at Sherman Cymru in Cardiff. As coordinator of the award-winning Acting Out Cardiff company, she has directed over ten productions with and for young people, ranging from documentary theatre, devised, physical and mask theatre, text and new writing pieces and children’s theatre. Jessica is currently Head of Learning and Engagement at Sherman, the leading mid-scale producing theatre in Wales. She has specialised in working with diverse, multi-cultural communities, and is actively involved in developing projects, which engage refugees, asylum seekers and host communities together in creative processes.
- Lu Haiyan, Children’s Education Programme Assistant
- Lu Haiyan, from Hebei Hengshui worked at a mobile phone factory in Beijing in 2008 for six months. During an activity with Compassion for Migrant Children, she learned about Hua Dan. Haiyan thought to herself: “The use of drama techniques captivated everyone. What if I can work with these energetic teachers after graduation?” Now she is an assistant in the Children’s Education Programme and is responsible for administrative work in the office.
- Xu He, Women Empowerment Programme Assistant
- Xu He, from Tongliao, joined Hua Dan in 2010. After graduation, she joined a non-professional drama troupe in Beijing, where she had some performance experience. Xu He has often said that meeting with Hua Dan is a very beautiful “accident”. Upon graduation, she did not know anything about the NGO sector. One day, she accompanied a friend to interview, when she read about Hua Dan in a magazine. Then she visited the website, and applied to join Hua Dan. Xu He said she was honoured to meet Hua Dan. Hua Dan has made her mature and full of passion.
- Du Jin, Women Empowerment Programme Assistant Facilitator
- Du Jin, from Tianjin, was a beautician and also worked on CNC. She learned about Hua Dan in 2010 and began work as a volunteer, but soon became full-time staff. In February 2011, she began to work as a facilitator for the Women Empowerment Programme.
- Hu Gang, Sichuan Project Assistant
- Hu Gang, from Chengdu in Sichuan, is a hand-painting POP designer. After the earthquake in 2008, he engaged in public welfare undertakings, and applied hand-painting and hand-crafts to youth activities. He is currently a member of the Hua Dan Sichuan team.
