Canon Sarah Snyder | Founder

Sarah has over thirty years of experience working with communities and senior religious figures around the world to promote faith-based ways of finding peace and rebuilding relationships.

A Cambridge University theologian specialising in Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations, and a trained mediator, Canon Sarah is also the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Adviser for Reconciliation programmes and resources. She has previously worked as the Director of Partnerships at Religions for Peace International, and directed conflict schools for the Cambridge Interfaith Programme at the University of Cambridge.

Her early career as a documentary producer for BBC Television included time spent living and working with the Tuareg nomads in the Sahara Desert, which sparked her fascination with interfaith work and the power of hospitality. She since founded Rose Castle Foundation as a global network that equips reconcilers to cross divides and transform conflict.

Neil Satchwell-Smith | Co-Director

Neil has over 20 years’ experience as a diplomat and development practitioner supporting dialogue and programmes to reduce conflict and alleviate poverty. He was a Head of Office and Senior Governance Adviser for the Department For International Development and a Director for Gatsby Africa.

"I am struck by how difficult human beings find it to engage and disagree well across divides, the lack of attention this receives in peacebuilding approaches and the significant and under-resourced role faith can play in building trust and restoring broken relationships.

No surprise therefore that I am inspired by the vision of the Rose Castle Foundation. My role is to identify how our experience with Abrahamic faiths and facilitating encounters across deep divides can best support those working in situations of conflict… an exciting prospect.

When not at work I love hanging out with my family, being outdoors and playing sport…though I find I’m increasingly better suited to watching it than playing it!"

Dr Robbie Leigh | Co-Director

Robbie is an Anglican theologian and educationalist. After completing a PhD in the Christian theology of reconciliation at the University of Cambridge, he became a teacher and was Head of Religion and Philosophy at Highgate School until 2021. He was a military intelligence analyst in the British Army Reserves until 2016. From 2013-2022 he volunteered with Global Covenant Partners, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the victims of religion-related violence. He continues to read, write, and teach Christian theology whenever he gets the opportunity.

"I joined RCF because I passionately believe that the world must harness the deep wisdom of religious traditions to cultivate peace and flourishing for all.

My interest in interfaith engagement and peacebuilding developed while undertaking doctoral research on the theology of reconciliation at the University of Cambridge. Participating in Scriptural Reasoning during this time was profoundly influential, and I became utterly convinced of the need to embrace the dignity of difference in order to meet the challenges of a complexly religious and secular world."

Hannah Larn | Head of Programmes

Hannah has over a decade experience working in peace and reconciliation, formerly working for the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation in community facilitation, empowering groups to take action towards peace in their own neighbourhoods. Her journey also led her to the United Nations headquarters in New York, encouraging decisionmakers to consider the perspectives of communities when designing the policy that impacts them. Hannah has completed her MSc in Humanitarian Studies with a focus on grassroots peacebuilding. She has experience working in Israel-Palestine, Kenya, Egypt, the US, and across the UK. Driven by her Quaker faith, Hannah has a belief in the transformative power of peacebuilding.

"As a Quaker I am very committed to carrying out our Peace Testimony, and for this reason I am delighted to be working as part of the wonderful team at Rose Castle Foundation to equip people around the world with the skills to carry out peace and reconciliation work.

I love having the opportunity to work so closely with so many people in the process of designing programmes for our partners and ensuring everyone involved gets the best experience possible.

When I'm not facilitating programmes at Rose Castle, I’m often back in Liverpool, enjoying the beautiful parks, restaurants and community spirit of this wonderful city!"

Lara Buchanan | Content and Facilitation Lead

Lara is passionate about reconciliation, learning from across deep difference and fostering respect and care for those who believe, think and live differently from ourselves. Lara’s passion for and commitment to peace-building is informed by her Christian faith: beginning in her life growing up in a South African church deeply involved in crossing racial and socio-economic divides, to engaging with questions and conflicts in her work within Christian theology in Oxford, to practicing as a mediator in the UK.

Lara is first and foremost a practitioner, believing that it is only in face-to-face relational encounters that we can hope to see conflict transform and understanding occur. However, Lara also believes in the necessity of deep reflection and on-going learning. Her studies in colonial and post-colonial History, Literature and Education at the University of Cape Town, in Theology at the University of Oxford and International Political Theory at the University of St Andrews have helped to shape her thinking in what it means to connect and develop understanding across deep divisions.

Jane Pogo | Women on the Frontline

Jane is passionate about promoting peacebuilding, non-violence, and social co-existence among local and international communities. She has experience in wholistic women empowerment as peace makers in their own homes and communities through practical skills that enables them to overcome trauma and build their self-esteem and confidence to fully reach their potential.

Jane has a Master’s degree in Peace Studies and International Relations and a bachelor’s degree in Community Development. She has experience as a mediator, a facilitator, and Coordinator of Women on the Frontline. She travels widely training trainers for grass roots reconciliation, development, and humanitarian work. As a mediator and facilitator, she is dedicated to being part of the Rose Castle Foundation and enabling the work of Women on the Frontline to flourish.

Jane is the founder of Divine Seeds of Dignity (DSD). The project enables women to heal from the trauma of war and equips them to flourish through peacebuilding, education, and sustainable income generating activities. The project also supports young women and teenage mothers fighting period poverty. 

Jane has also worked as Deputy Provincial Secretary with the Episcopal Church of South Sudan and as Manager of their Justice, Peace and Reconciliation Commission (JPRC). She served as Senior Radio Producer with Sudan Radio Service/ Eye Radio in Juba and UNOCHA’S Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) radio as a humanitarian reporter and journalist.

Georgia May | Rose Community

Having helped shape Rose Castle Foundation through its earliest stages of formation, Georgia has recently pivoted her focus to grow a community of practice - Rose Community - that is deeply connected to the Rose Castle Estate and our Cumbrian roots while serving Rose Castle Foundation's evolving pedagogy and expanding global network.

Georgia studied Geography and Theology at Durham University, which inspired a curiosity to explore the intersection between faith, conflict and the land. The Rose Community is living out the journey of applying Rose Castle Foundation's core methodology into the particularities of people and place, primarily through regenerative practices that address the agricultural and ecumenical setting that Rose Castle sits within.

"It has been an incredible journey innovating around faith and peacebuilding across an international landscape through the first decade of Rose Castle Foundation's life. A particular passion has been designing programmes that genuinely welcome both depth of faith and the dignity of difference into a shared place of hospitality, with our own creative spin that welcomes the delight of surprise and possibility!

Becoming a mother brought an instinct to focus closer to home and nurture a community vision that could embody the heart of all Rose Castle Foundation exists to serve. The Rose Community is committed to shaping a long term legacy of peace at Rose and I cherish the opportunity this gives me to go deeper into the living practices that shape our work.

I hope our own pioneering journey will be a support to - and, most significantly, enriched by - the communities we work with around the world who are on a similar journey but with their own distinctive challenges and opportunities of people and place!"