Commonweal appoints two new Trustees

Commonweal Housing has appointed two experienced leaders, Nezahat Cihan and Colette Shields, to its Board of Trustees.

Since 2018, Nezahat has served as the Chief Executive Officer of London Legal Support Trust, an independent charity that raises funds to provide free legal advice services to support individuals facing injustices in London and the South East. In her role, she oversees the trust's grant-making processes and organisational development programmes for the free legal advice sector.

Additionally, Nezahat is Vice-Chair of the Cripplegate Foundation – a local grant-giving trust dedicated to addressing poverty and inequality in Islington and parts of the City of London. She has been a member of the Foundation's Board since 2014, serving as Chair from 2022 to 2024.

Nezahat has over two decades of experience in leadership positions at various UK charities, where she has demonstrated her skill in organisational and strategic development, fundraising, project management, monitoring and evaluation, and change management.

Throughout her early career, Nezahat held senior roles at several women's centres that provide accommodation and free support services for women fleeing gender-based violence. She served as Director at Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre from 2016 to 2018, following five years as Director of Operations at IKWRO Women's Rights Organisation, which supports Middle Eastern, North African, and Afghan women and girls in the UK.

Nezahat Cihan said: "I am thrilled to have been appointed as a trustee of Commonweal Housing, an excellent organisation that offers housing-based solutions to broader social issues. This work is especially crucial in today's climate, where we encounter numerous challenges and have limited solutions. I look forward to collaborating with my fellow trustees and the staff team to advance Commonweal's vision and mission to help address some of the challenges our communities face."

Commonweal also welcomes Colette Shields. 

Colette is dedicated to achieving social impact through the belief that data and technology can help build more inclusive systems. She specialises in assisting organisations to engage vulnerable communities, improve service delivery, and develop impactful stories that support learning and influence wider change.

Her career began in local government consulting, where she used data and policy insight to help councils redesign services, support vulnerable households, and deliver regeneration programmes (including town centres and housing development studies). She has since worked helping housing associations, charities, and civic-tech organisations to build and scale solutions rooted in lived experience, with a focus on strengthening engagement, improving outcomes, and embedding insight into service design.

Alongside her strategic experience, Colette is committed to frontline social impact and seeks to deepen her practical perspective during an upcoming period of NGO support work in South America.

Colette Shields said: “Commonweal’s action learning model reflects values I care deeply about. Real change happens when we combine lived experience with data-driven insight and the thoughtful use of technology to design better services. I am excited to help strengthen the evidence and narratives that influence fairer, more inclusive systems.”

Nezahat and Colette attended their first Commonweal Board meeting in December 2025.  

Ashley Horsey, CEO at Commonweal Housing, said: “Nezahat and Colette join the Board of Trustees at an exciting time as we celebrate Commonweal's 20th anniversary in 2026, and map out what the future of Commonweal's activities will look like. We are delighted to have two new Trustees serve alongside our experienced seven-member Board, bringing fresh perspectives and new ideas during this important new chapter for Commonweal."