22. Joan Blaney, Community Education & Training Academy

Joan Blaney was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and has been living in England for more than 40 years. She was educated at Prestwood Secondary Girls School and Wolverhampton University.

She has a huge amount of experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors as a small business owner, local government officer and founder of a number of non-governmental organisations and registered charities for young people and women.

She is also an experienced public speaker as well as an author, social entrepreneur and mother.
A former nurse and lecturer at Fircroft Adult College, Mrs Blaney has worked in the voluntary sector for about 20 years and holds a number of directorships with public and national bodies.

She was national director at the Centre for Policy & Practice with the Scarman Trust, before becoming director of the Community Education & Training Academy (CETA) an international registered NGO that promotes economic development in local communities, working in particular with women.

She is also principal consultant with JMB Services which provides training programmes, lectures and seminars in women's empowerment, enterprise and community development.

Programmes include women's leadership, business education and start-ups and capacity building for NGOs.

She is currently taking part in the Beads Campaign with her cousin, singer Beverley Knight, to raise £1million for Aids victims in Johannesburg. Her most recent project is The European, African and American Project (TEAAP), an international network of business associates working to reduce poverty in Africa.
Mrs Blaney has won a number of local community and business awards, one of the most recent being the European Black Women's Federation Award for Excellence.

In 2002 she received a CBE.