Meet the Team

Katherine Davis – Chief Executive

Katherine joined EIL in April 2016, bringing with her experience of Chief Executive roles for regional and national charities and an executive management role for a large public-sector regulator. Having enjoyed several homestays in the USA, France and Belgium, Katherine has also travelled, studied and worked overseas, all of which have developed her passion for helping others access opportunities to immerse themselves in other cultures.

Dr Adam Blackburn – Programme Operations Director

Adam joined EIL in the Summer of 2025 with a background in higher education and in leading international summer-schools. His experiences of living abroad for 7 years and working on a university exchange programme have given him an in depth understanding of the challenges and opportunities participants encounter when living, volunteering, studying and working aboard. Adam leads EIL’s Programmes Team which includes School Cultural Exchanges (3-5.5 months) and School Cultural Immersions (2-4 weeks). Adam is a member of our Senior Leadership Team.

Karen Morris – Head of Programme Development

After starting her career in the travel industry, Karen has worked for EIL in a variety of roles for over 20 years which have given her extensive experience in managing intercultural exchange programmes from conception through to delivery and evaluation. In her former role as EIL’s Head of Programmes, Karen led on the delivery of high quality Homestay, Cultural Group, Volunteering and Cultural Awareness programmes for both ‘inbound’ international and ‘outbound’ UK participants. Karen currently leads on the development of new programmes and projects, has represented EIL overseas and is a member of EIL’s Senior Leadership Team.

Kay Edwards – Homestays Administrator (covering maternity leave)

Kay joined EIL in November 2025. She draws on her extensive knowledge, skills in marketing and commercial experience to coordinate host family sign-ups for EIL programmes. Kay is the lead on Individual Homestays and matches individual applicants and hosts.

Rosie Attwood – Homestays Administrator (currently on maternity leave)

Rosie joined the EIL team in the Autumn of 2024, bringing with her experience from previous posts in front-line customer care and high-level administration in both the corporate and public sectors. Rosie coordinates EIL’s Individual Homestays Programme for UK and international participants, leads on signing up hosts for programmes, and works closely with Programme Managers to keep participant and hosting records and data accurate and up-to-date.

Calvin Hewitt – Volunteers Manager

Calvin joined the EIL team in 2023 having spent seventeen years working in the tourism and heritage sector. This included roles at the National Trust, English Heritage and managing volunteer staff at Shakespeare’s Birthplace. From 2017 Calvin was the Senior Tour Experience Ambassador at a Herefordshire gin distillery and was responsible for delivering, monitoring and improving the distillery tour and making it the highest ranked tourist attraction on TripAdvisor in Herefordshire. At EIL Calvin leads on volunteer recruitment, retention and engagement, alongside coordinating the HOST UK Programme which is delivered through a community of dedicated volunteer hosts.

Basia Ligas – Communications and Development Manager

EIL welcomed Basia in May 2023. Her previous roles combined working with local authorities in Worcestershire as a community engagement officer with training for international youth projects. As EIL’s Communications and Development Manager, Basia’s role builds on her expertise in the fields of non-formal education, intercultural learning, international migration and project management. She also brings to EIL a great deal of personal experiences gained during her long-term volunteering project in Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), work placement in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and a number of short-term activities conducted in over 20 different countries worldwide.

Bookkeeping & Administrative Assistant

This post is currently vacant. We will be opening for applications shortly. Further details will be published on our Vacancies page.

Our post-Covid recovery continues and we are recruiting new posts. More details are available on our Vacancies page (under the ABOUT menu option above). At present we are recruiting the following roles:

Volunteer Hosts, Support Volunteers and Local Coordinators

We are looking to recruit more hosts, Local Coordinators and Support Volunteers across the UK to help us in our work. If you are interested in any of these roles, please check the Vacancies page.

Alternatively, if you have a question or would like to know more about hosting with EIL, email Calvin at host@eiluk.org or telephone the EIL office on 01684 562577 to speak to one of our friendly team.