Iliana Myles

Iliana Myles - Founding Trustee 2018-2023

Iliana Myles now lives in the woody outskirts of Brighton in Sussex but was a Lewisham resident in 2018 when she began volunteering with Street Trees for Living - then operating as Brockley Society Tree Committee. She started in a backroom role, setting up GiftAid and taking minutes of committee meetings. She then became a founding trustee of STfL as secretary to the committee and will continue in that role until the end of her trusteeship in 2023.

Iliana was brought up in Athens and moved to the UK as an adult. She studied microbiology at uni and became interested in sustainability. This shows in her current work for a north London council where she manages building retrofits to reduce carbon emissions. Iliana is quietly passionate about how good administrative processes can make organisations more effective.

“I particularly enjoyed setting up GiftAid for the charity through HMRC. Also, setting STfL up as an independent organisation with the Charity Commission. Both took time and patience, but the work has paid off. GiftAid immediately directed more funds to STfL’s work, and independent charitable status has helped the project go from strength to strength.”

“In my role as volunteer trustee, I like to support and challenge the charity to improve. I like to think about what the charity needs at any one moment, and how collectively trustees can support that. I've enjoyed seeing the charity plant more trees than ever, year after year. How great that during the winter just finished STfL planted a record-breaking 294 trees!”

Summarising her role of trustee, she says “On behalf of STfL I must be always on the lookout for threats and opportunities. Most importantly I must be willing to act as a critical friend of the charity” – an apt description.