Who Is WIH?

Ela Palmer

Ela Palmer became obsessed by history and old buildings at a very early age, probably due to the mixture of opulence and adventure playgrounds at Chatsworth, a regular day out near to where she grew up in Derbyshire.

This love of all things old directed her choice of University career, first into Medieval History at Birmingham, then an MSc in Architectural Conservation at Edinburgh College of Art. Following a stint in Building Control and some heritage volunteering, she was taken on as Buildings at Risk officer at SAVE Britain’s Heritage and spent a couple of years fighting the good fight on behalf of threatened historic buildings.

She then took a role as Heritage Consultant at Arup, before moving on to work on a self employed basis. Ela now mixes Directorship of the Association of Small Historic Towns and Villages with a variety of consultancy roles, mainly on large development and masterplan schemes, and sits on a number of committees concerned with the historic built environment. She works from home with her dog for company.

Suzanna

Suzanna grew up wanting to be an adventurer, discovering ancient civilisations and interpreting cultural mysteries in distant lands, strangely enough she ended up in London. She is a Cultural Heritage consultant with over 10 years experience. She started out working on large-scale development projects across Queensland, Australia whilst working for a private cultural heritage company. Her work involved field survey to identify cultural heritage sites and undertaking consultation with local Traditional Owners for a range of public and private sector clients, including the Department of Defence, Main Roads Department, Arup, SKM and HLA-Envirosciences.

Since coming to the UK she has worked with the British Museum and with a London based heritage consultancy. Suzanna specialises in Geographic Information Sciences (GIS), analysing environmental and heritage information for predictive modelling of site locations and modelling resident responses to cultural heritage in their local communities. She currently works for Ove Arup & Partners in their Environment Team.

Syann Humphrey

At the tender age of 9yrs, Syann was introduced to archaeology by her father, who left both her and her sister finds washing for the day, one school summer holiday! For Syann, the day turned into a week, and from that point onwards, Syann has spent her time either volunteering, working, or studying within the heritage sector - her sister became a beautician!

Her interest in archaeology was present throughout her education, studying A-Level archaeology at St Vincent College in Hampshire, leading to a 1st Class degree from Bristol University, and a Masters from UCL a few years later. During this time Syann also worked for various archaeological units in England, settling with AOC Archaeology on completion of her degrees, where she headed a small consultancy team. Syann has worked as a Senior Consultant for Entec UK for the last year where she manages a variety of projects for various clients including Defence Estates. She is currently pregnant with her second child, and expects to start maternity leave in January 2009.