Romalyn Ante
Romalyn Ante is a Filipino-British, Wolverhampton-based poet, editor, and author. She is co-founding editor of harana poetry, a magazine for poets who write in English as a second or parallel language, and founder of Tsaá with Roma, an online interview series with poets and other creatives.
Her debut collection is Antiemetic for Homesickness (Chatto & Windus). She was recently awarded the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship 2021/22. Apart from being a writer, she also works full-time as a nurse practitioner, specializing in providing different psychotherapeutic treatments.
Dr Nirja Joshi
Dr Nirja Joshi as a practising GP has brought her love of dance into medicine by introducing 10 minute dance sessions into the workplace.
Through the pandemic, Nirja worked with the RCGP to produce a 10 minute dance fitness video to help to lift spirits for primary care staff in the UK and ensure they could get moving whilst isolating and often seeing their patients in silo. Nirja runs dance classes locally, and teaches different styles including dance fitness and Bollywood.
Nirja has also co-founded The WorkWell Doctors who focus on improving workplace wellbeing for NHS staff and volunteers for a charity ‘Duty to Care’ who provide free therapy for NHS staff.
Ailsa McKeon
Ailsa is originally from Brisbane, Australia, but now lives in London. Professionally, Ailsa is a barrister with a primarily criminal law practice, but she has always been an active individual.
She began Highland dancing at the age of 6 and started her competitive career at the age of 9. She competed at the highest (championship) level of competition for 13 years from the age of 14, and during that time, performed in both shows and competitions across Australia and in New Zealand, Canada, the USA, and Scotland (including at two world championships).
She retired from competition in 2017. While living for a year in the Turks and Caicos Islands, she started CrossFit; she is now a competitive CrossFit athlete and Level 1 coach.