Simonne Wood was Woodbrooke’s Programme Coordinator for Worship & Spirituality from 2022 to 2026. Her teaching continues to focus on developing our spiritual life as Friends, both individually and in community, and relating our faith to our everyday lives.  In her retirement from paid work, she hopes to give time to deepening her own practice and learning, and through that to find new approaches to share with course participants.

Simonne’s lifelong spiritual journey has given her experience of Christian, Buddhist and Jewish spirituality, but she found her home in Quakerism in 2009. She continues to value interfaith collaboration. She spent 8 years in Aotearoa, New Zealand, before moving back to the South of England in 2022, where she is an active member of her local meeting.

Professionally, Simonne has a background in administration in academic and social enterprise settings. In more recent years, she moved into adult vocational education, with a specialism in online learning. Outside of work, Simonne has been active in a variety of social justice and environmental organisations over the years. In 2004, this led her to study for a Master’s in International Relations, with a dissertation focusing on the environmental damage caused by so-called “sustainable” development.