The Project Twist-It Team

mary o'hara

Mary O’Hara is an award-winning journalist, producer and author specialising in social policy and social justice. Her journalism appears in publications including The Guardian and Mosaic Science. Most recently she was named Best Foreign Columnist 2020 at the Southern California Journalism Awards for her Guardian column, Lesson From America. She is the producer and director of the documentary short, Beyond the Railings and has also been a producer, booker, and consultant on the podcast Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.

Mary is author of Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK (2014) and The Shame Game: Overturning the toxic poverty narrative (2020), and is a contributor to the book, The Violence of Austerity and others including Council Skies by the artist, Pete McKee and Vulnerable Consumers and the Law, edited by Christine Riefa and Severine Saintier, published by Routledge (2021).

In 2019 Mary was an Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley. She is on the board of the charity, Arts Emergency, is the founder and chair of the David Nobbs Memorial Trust, and a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Follow her on Twitter @maryohara1 | Mary’s website is maryoharawriter.eu

Project Twist-It was devised by Mary. She also manages the project.

Lizzie Hodgson

Lizzie is the founder and director of ThinkNation, a youth org that empowers young people to explore the impact of technology on their lives through workshops, short films and events.  Lizzie has partnered with Project Twist-It to produce a documentary short where young people discuss what poverty means to them and to host real-world events.

ALEXIS HARVEY

Alexis is a writer, editor and researcher who has worked for high-profile organisations, including The Guardian, and now works through her company, Just Words. Alexis is working on Project Twist-It as a copywriter and is the researcher on The Shame Game. She previously worked as a researcher on Austerity Bites.

Chris kaboli 

Chris is a filmmaker and videographer who has worked with a wide range of clients. He is involved with Project Twist-It making video shorts. Chris previously produced videos alongside Mary on a multi-media JRF Austerity project.

Linsay Rousseau

Linsay is an actor, presenter, writer and former reporter. She has extensive experience as a journalist, including as a Carnegie Fellow for ABC News, a reporter and associate producer for PBS Frontline and a reporter and combat photographer in the US Army. Linsay is working with Project Twist-It as an assistant and social media curator.

Jessica Rae Huber 

Jessica is a film and television composer based in Hollywood. She has worked on an array of projects including The Walking Dead, Outlander, and Damien. Jessica composed the music that accompanies the short videos on Project Twist-It.

Linda Tirado 

Linda is author of the best selling book ‘Hand to Mouth’, which dissects the reality of living in minimum wage America. As well as contributing through interviews for Project Twist-It, Linda will work on vox-pop content.  

Billie JD Porter

Billie is a filmmaker and journalist. She features in our short film collaboration with ThinkNation where young people around Britain discuss poverty, exploring ideas around how we can begin to change the narrative. Billie also hosted the ThinkNation Project Twist-It event in December 2018. 

JessICA SAMSON

Jess is a Designer/Maker who recently graduated from the University of Brighton. Her work focuses around her love of colour, pattern and words. Jess designed the logos for Project Twist-It website and social media. 

Sandra Barron

Sandra is a freelance journalist who has worked in print and broadcast media in New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. She did story consulting and script editing for PTI's Beatbox Academy mini-doc and is producing the project's podcast series.

contributors & collaborators

Project Twist-It wouldn't be possible without a very talented and committed group of people contributing to various aspects of our content and activity, including interviewees, animators, engineers and artists. We are deeply grateful to all of them.