Janis McDonald

Janis McDonald is currently the Chief Officer of the Scottish Council on Deafness. Janis has a nursing background and has worked in the Public and Third Sectors. Her thematic specialties include addictions, homelessness, equalities, and deafness. 

Working over several years in service provision, local and national intermediates, and a range of locations in Scotland, has allowed her to develop a range of skills, experience, and knowledge. She is now particularly interested in quality and standards, good governance, and communication equality.

Winston Denerley 

I am a third year British Sign Language Interpreting and Translating student at Heriot-Watt University. I come from a deaf family with deep roots in the deaf and British Sign Language (BSL) community, and this has allowed me to gain a wealth of knowledge about this beautifully unique and diverse community. The exciting thing is that I am still learning so much as the landscape of the BSL and deaf community, with its rich language and history, is changing so much all the time! During the Soap Box, I hope to pass over as much of my knowledge and experience to better equip you with essential equality skills for your businesses and projects.

John Denerley

I am John Denerley and I was Born Deaf to Deaf parents, with British Sign Language (BSL) as my first language. This has allowed me to have a long and welcome affiliation with the Deaf community including representing and contributing at a local and national level; I have been a policy campaigner and possess a background politics, education, and advocacy. I was a Convenor of the Scottish Council on Deafness (SCoD) leading the Management Committee in ensuring that it fulfils its responsibilities for the governance of the Council and attended the Cross Party on deafness to represent the interests of D/deaf and deaf blind people to the Scottish Parliament.

I am currently running a conservation charity centre as Galloway Wildlife Conservation Trust in Kirkcudbright for the past 18 years. I also am a Fellowship of Zoological of London. I am passionate about natural history as well as enjoying photography, reading, traveling and current affairs.

Ruaridh Lever-Hogg

Ruaridh Lever-Hogg is a young artist originally from Fort William in Northwest Scotland. Ruaridh graduated recently from Duncan of Jordanstone Art School, Dundee University, with a Masters’ degree in Fine Art.   He paints in oils on authentic tartan fabrics, treated and placed on traditional canvas stretchers. Ruaridh has spent his life working with arts organisations and so will be able to provide a valuable arts perspective to the panel. Also, his involvement with Edinburgh Deaf Futsal Club will bring an interesting sports perspective.