Our team
Staff • Directors
All of our staff, volunteers, and the Board of Directors are committed to creating a safe, respectful, and empowering environment. Each person brings dedication, empathy, and a trauma‑informed approach to their work, to ensure our organisation provides high‑quality, person‑centred support to everyone we serve.
Our Board of Directors
Linda McLeod – Vice Chair
Joined September 2020. Linda is a senior manager whose work in education spans 30 years and includes university, college and community settings. Her commitment stems from the belief that education changes lives. Skilled in strategic development, policy, planning, collaborations and mergers. She also has lived experience of adoption.
Gaynor Clarke - Chair
Gaynor is a leading advocate for human rights, women’s rights, and feminist issues, with a particular focus on the right of access to records a vital foundation for identity, family history, and access to truth and justice. With more than thirty years’ experience across the public, private, and third sectors, she specialises in business transformation, policy design, programme management, and research, supporting people affected by profound injustice, including mothers impacted by forced adoption, their children and subsequent generations, and people with care experience.
Her work is grounded in a trauma‑informed, rights‑based approach, ensuring that systems and services recognise the lifelong impact of separation, loss, and institutional harm.
As Chair of Social Work Scotland’s Historic Abuse Subgroup, Gaynor leads national efforts to strengthen legislation, policy, and practice relating to the historic abuse of children with care experience, including those migrated overseas. She is dedicated to developing gold‑standard structures and systems, advancing redress, and ensuring survivors’ rights are fully recognised and upheld.
Suzanne O'Reilly
Suzanne has worked for a Local Authority since 2014 in a variety of different posts and has been the Records Manager since 2018. A large part of her work is to support Social Work Services maintain their historic records and she deals with requests from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She is passionate about good records management practices, ensuring access to records, both now and in the future and ensuring compliance with data protection legislation. Suzanne undertakes the role of Data Protection Officer for Birthlink.
Gaynor Clarke - Chair
Gaynor is a leading advocate for human rights, women’s rights, and feminist issues, with a particular focus on the right of access to records a vital foundation for identity, family history, and access to truth and justice. With more than thirty years’ experience across the public, private, and third sectors, she specialises in business transformation, policy design, programme management, and research, supporting people affected by profound injustice, including mothers impacted by forced adoption, their children and subsequent generations, and people with care experience.
Her work is grounded in a trauma‑informed, rights‑based approach, ensuring that systems and services recognise the lifelong impact of separation, loss, and institutional harm.
As Chair of Social Work Scotland’s Historic Abuse Subgroup, Gaynor leads national efforts to strengthen legislation, policy, and practice relating to the historic abuse of children with care experience, including those migrated overseas. She is dedicated to developing gold‑standard structures and systems, advancing redress, and ensuring survivors’ rights are fully recognised and upheld.
Linda McLeod – Vice Chair
Joined September 2020. Linda is a senior manager whose work in education spans 30 years and includes university, college and community settings. Her commitment stems from the belief that education changes lives. Skilled in strategic development, policy, planning, collaborations and mergers. She also has lived experience of adoption.
Suzanne O'Reilly - Acting Secretary
Suzanne has worked for a Local Authority since 2014 in a variety of different posts and has been the Records Manager since 2018. A large part of her work is to support Social Work Services maintain their historic records and she deals with requests from the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. She is passionate about good records management practices, ensuring access to records, both now and in the future and ensuring compliance with data protection legislation. Suzanne undertakes the role of Data Protection Officer for Birthlink.
Audrey MacDougall
Audrey MacDougall is currently the Government’s Chief Social Researcher and has worked for the Scottish Government since 2006 in a variety of roles in education, poverty housing, equalities and social security. She is skilled in and passionate about the production and use of evidence and analysis to inform policy and delivery and achieve better outcomes for the people of Scotland.
Audrey had a prior career in the private sector in finance and consultancy so she has experience of strategy development, finance, people management and collaborative working across both the public and private sectors.
Audrey has lived experience of adoption.
Staff Team
Post Adoption Service
Sally Lynch – Service Manager
Mary Reid – Social Worker
Care Connect Service
Laura MacDonald – Social Worker
Caroline Coll – Administrator
Laura Burnett – Support Worker
Oscar Del Rio – Support Worker
Laura Dunnett – Support Worker
Janet Henderson – Support Worker
Support Worker
Emma Mackintosh
