Miranda Prag
Director and co-founder

Miranda co-founded Mainspring Arts with Katya Balen in 2015, and has run it ever since. Outside of Mainspring, she is an artist, performer and boat dweller. She makes solo performance, touring nationally and internationally, and has also worked as a drama facilitator and access support worker.

Karis Okereke
Trustee

Karis has extensive fundraising experience in the arts, international development and charity sectors. She currently works in partnerships for ArtBrowser, a digital startup that supports artists and creatives, and for Certitude, a disability charity. Prior to this, she managed partnerships and client relations at the V&A Museum and worked charities including the Prince's Trust, the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, Panos London, Prostate Cancer UK and Leonard Cheshire Disability.

Joanne Limburg
Trustee

Joanne Limburg is a writer and creative writing tutor, who has published memoir, fiction and poetry. She was diagnosed with ASD in 2012 and has previously worked with Mainspring as a tutor and mentor on our Square Peg Stories writing project.

Simi Davies
Social Media Marketing Assistant

Simi has a background in photography, curation, graphic design and art direction. From empowering decolonial education in the mental health sector to climate justice, she uses her diverse skill set to advocate for causes she’s passionate about. Despite struggling throughout her entire education, she was diagnosed with dyslexia (with the potential for more) with just 2 A level exams left and has had many negative diagnosis experiences since. This is why she is motivated to educate people on neurodivergence and empower adults on the spectrum, especially those who have been failed by the system, that self diagnosis is valid and support is out there.

Lisa Gee
Trustee

Lisa works across arts, education and business sectors facilitating, lecturing/tutoring, writing and editing and making (fairly basic) videos. She has a background in digital communications, EDI, and publishing.  Lisa was diagnosed with ADHD (mostly H) in 2022, and is on the waiting list for ASD assessment.

Eleanor Hughes
Trustee

Eleanor works across the health and justice sector as a Speech and Language Therapist, identifying and supporting the communication differences of neurodivergent children and young people. She is passionate about removing barriers within society and enabling access, through a combination of workforce training, active-allyship and promoting the self-advocacy skills of others. Eleanor identifies as multiply neurodivergent. For her this means the way she thinks, processes and interacts is influenced by a combination of different conditions and traits. She has a formal diagnosis of Dyslexia and is on a waitlist for ADHD assessment. She is interested in creativity as a means of empowering self-expression and communication.

Katya Balen
Co-founder

Katya co-founded Mainspring in 2015, and was a co-director alongside Miranda until 2022. She is a children's author and freelance editor.