Home

Caroline is a trained actress, social entrepreneur, speaker, writer and a globally-recognised expert in the use of participatory theatre for transformative learning.

Caroline first came to global attention through her founding of Hua Dan, one of China’s first and leading social enterprises. Hua Dan uses the power of participation in drama-based workshops to reveal and develop individual and community potential. Hua Dan has a particular focus on working with China’s rural-to-urban migrant workers, particularly women, who work in the manufacturing and service industries, at the heart of China’s economic boom.

In founding Hua Dan, Caroline has pioneered the importance of participation in the arts and creative education in a country that has no precedent for anything other than a hierarchical, rote-learning education model; empowered female migrants from the countryside to lead and manage the organisation through a vocational training model; and refined a sustainable hybrid non-profit/for-profit business model for arts-based learning methodologies.

Since relocating to Europe a number of years ago, Caroline has been developing the work she did in China into a globally-replicable model for using theatre-based approaches for the empowerment of migrant, refugee and displaced populations, through Hua Dan's sister organisation, the Scheherazade Initiatives.

Caroline's remarkable Hua Dan story of setting up a social enterprise in China in the 2000s makes her an authoritative and inspiring writer and speaker on migration, China and the emerging world, innovation, social change and entrepreneurship, global governance, women's empowerment, arts for social change and spirituality and leadership.

She is a frequent writer and speaker and blogs on spirituality and transformative leadership on Huffington Post. Caroline also offers coaching and corporate consulting services.

Please contact Caroline for a booking.