Penny is a graduate of Warwick University. She worked for many years with refugees both in the UK and in refugee camps in South East Asia.

Since 1998 she has been working with Gypsies and Travellers first as a Gypsy/Traveller Liaison Officer in Woking and then from 2004 as a Community Development Worker with Plymouth & Devon Racial Equality Council in Exeter.

In this post she has worked collaboratively with Gypsies and Travellers in Devon to produce a variety of publications including a guide to Gypsy/Traveller site planning applications for Town and Parish Councils in Devon, a booklet for schools (Every Traveller Child Matters Too) and a booklet about how to challenge the media. She has also worked with Romany Gypsies to produce two DVDs – The pride, the Prejudice (2008) and Porrajmos: The Untold Story of the Gypsy Holocaust (2011).

Penny also works with Gypsy and Traveller colleagues in Devon to run Gypsy/Traveller awareness raising sessions and training for schools, colleges, and both statutory and voluntary organisations.