Violence Against Women and Girls in Scotland Conference 

Rona Mackay was re-elected in May 2021 with a 11,484 (3,384 increase from 2016) majority in Strathkelvin and Bearsden.

Prior to this, she was a journalist in national newspapers for more than 20 years, before becoming Parliamentary Assistant to Clydebank and Milngavie MSP Gil Paterson, with whom she worked for nine years before becoming elected.

Rona is a member of the Criminal Justice Committee and is the Chief Whip in the Scottish Government.

She is also a member of the Animal Welfare, Chronic Pain (Co-Convenor), Women’s Justice (Convenor), Fair Trade, Men’s Violence Against Women and Children, Cross Party groups.

She sat on the Children’s Panel for the East End of Glasgow for six years prior to becoming elected.

In 2001 she was the coordinator of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline in Glasgow and Lanarkshire, a charity which brought children from Belarus affected by the nuclear disaster to Scotland to improve their health.

Rona lives in Kirkintilloch with her husband.

ACC Steve Johnson is executive lead for Major Crime, Public Protection and Local Crime. His portfolio consists of the following business areas:

• ​Major Crime
• Public Protection
• ​Local Crime including Wildlife crime​.

ACC Johnson started his career in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm before joining West Midlands Police in 1995. He also served with Cumbria Constabulary.

He joined Police Scotland in 2016 as ACC for Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism with oversight of Specialist Crime Support and Intelligence Support.

ACC Johnson was seconded to the SPA in 2019 to lead its Strategic Coordination Unit before he was being appointed ACC West in late 2019.

Agnes is Chair of the Scottish Women’s Convention and has been an active campaigner in the women’s movement her entire life. These campaigns include equal pay and women’s representation in political and public life.

Agnes was involved with a coalition of women in Scotland for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and along with the STUC Women’s Committee campaigned for the 50/50 gender balance within the Parliament. She was an active anti-apartheid campaigner and visited South Africa with the first all women delegation, which was a joint ACTSA/STUC delegation.

Agnes is past Chair of the STUC Women’s Committee, Unite the Union Scotland Women’s Committee, UNI Global World Executive Board and their World Women’s Committee. Agnes is past President of the STUC, recipient of the STUC Women’s Meritorious Award and TUC Gold Badge for Service to Women. She was presented with Unite the Union Gold badge for ‘Service to Women and the wider Community.’

At the October 2024 National Black History Month Celebrations, The National BAME Committee honoured Agnes with the ‘Ally Award’ in recognition of her contribution to their representation, recognition and her commitment to anti racism.

Stuart Allardyce is a Director at the child protection charity, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation. He has responsibility for Stop It Now services in Scotland. He has worked in the child sexual abuse field as a social worker for over 20 years and is chair of NOTA UK and Ireland, the membership association for professionals working with adults and adolescents who perpetrate sexual harm. He is a visiting researcher at Strathclyde University and associate member of Child Protection Scotland. He is co-author of ‘Working with Children and Young People Who Have Displayed Harmful Sexual Behaviour’ (Dunedin Press, 2018) and the Centre for Expertise on child sexual abuse’s ‘Sibling Sexual Abuse: A Knowledge and Practice Overview’ (2021) as well as over 20 peer reviewed articles and book chapters. He was a member of the Scottish Governments expert working group on preventing sexual offending amongst children and young people and their senior leadership group on tackling child sexual abuse.

Kate Wallace has been Chief Executive Officer at Victim Support Scotland since 2017. With twenty years of extensive leadership experience in executive and non-executive positions within the public and voluntary sectors, Kate previously led Visualise Scotland—a service delivery charity supporting individuals with disabilities and complex needs. Before her tenure at Visualise, she served as the UK Programme Director for Barnardo’s 

Hi there, we are Sarah Winters and Stephanie Jardine, Detective Constable’s within Police Scotland based at the Domestic Abuse Coordination Unit at Dalmarnock. At the DACU we sit at Tier 3 of the Police Scotland Structure and manage the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Abuse/Forced Marriage business areas. Effectively tackling domestic abuse and our other business areas is a priority for ourselves and we ensure that all departments are up to date and sufficiently trained to deal with these specialised areas. Both Sarah and Stephanie have a keen interest in ensuring that Police Scotland is accessible to all communities and have previous experience working alongside partners such as the Heriot Watt University in projects to ensure business areas are more accessible. Sarah has 14 years policing experience and has worked in various departments such as response policing and crime management and has been a valued member of the DACU for the last 5 years.  Stephanie has 17 years policing experience including response policing, domestic abuse safeguarding and has been in the DACU team for the last 3 years. In her spare time Sarah enjoys reading, attending local yoga classes, and socialising with family and friends.  Stephanie enjoys spending time with family and friends, as well as reading a good book when she has time.

Hi there, we are Sarah Winters and Stephanie Jardine, Detective Constable’s within Police Scotland based at the Domestic Abuse Coordination Unit at Dalmarnock. At the DACU we sit at Tier 3 of the Police Scotland Structure and manage the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Abuse/Forced Marriage business areas. Effectively tackling domestic abuse and our other business areas is a priority for ourselves and we ensure that all departments are up to date and sufficiently trained to deal with these specialised areas. Both Sarah and Stephanie have a keen interest in ensuring that Police Scotland is accessible to all communities and have previous experience working alongside partners such as the Heriot Watt University in projects to ensure business areas are more accessible. Sarah has 14 years policing experience and has worked in various departments such as response policing and crime management and has been a valued member of the DACU for the last 5 years.  Stephanie has 17 years policing experience including response policing, domestic abuse safeguarding and has been in the DACU team for the last 3 years. In her spare time Sarah enjoys reading, attending local yoga classes, and socialising with family and friends.  Stephanie enjoys spending time with family and friends, as well as reading a good book when she has time.

Janice Stevenson is a Development Officer at LGBT Youth Scotland whose work has focused on LGBTQ+ experiences of domestic abuse and gender-based violence for over a decade. She currently leads the organisations GBV focused projects, including the LGBT Domestic Abuse Project, where she provides training, policy and practice support for GBV professionals seeking to build LGBTQ+ inclusive services, and the Voices Unheard Youth Commission, supporting LGBTQ+ young people to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ young people’s experiences of GBV, develop peer resources, and to engage with professionals and decision makers to influence positive change for young  LGBTQ+ survivors in Scotland.