Clara Hesseler
Programme Manager at Forum for the Future and the School of System Change
Background
Clara is a programme manager with seven years of experience making complex things work. Her approach is always relationship-led and she is passionate about solving the kind of problems that don't have a direct solution. She is strong at reading people, understanding what they need, and finding a way through when things get complicated.
Since November 2022, she has held two concurrent roles across Forum for the Future and the School of System Change. At Forum, her work focuses on the intersection of climate and health issues as part of the Climate and Health Coalition that we convene; and at the School she manages a variety of our learning programmes. Driving systemic change at scale is what she loves about the work, and Clara equally enjoys zooming in on the detail and the organisation's own ways of working to constantly improve processes.
Highlights of her work at Forum and the School include running system change learning programmes on health system transformation and youth development, in partnership with the Johnson & Johnson Foundation and The Risman Foundation. As well as working closely together with Bayer to bring together medical and sustainability leads for cross-sector climate and health collaboration.
Clara's background is in political and multilingual communications. For her undergraduate degree she studied Multilingual Communications (English and French) at the University of Applied Sciences Cologne. In her bachelor’s thesis, 'The language of the Hambacher Forest', she analysed a political group’s linguistic development through sustained participant observation during their longstanding forest occupation.
Clara holds a master's degree (1:1) in political communications from the Goldsmiths University of London. In her dissertation, 'Democracy in Climate Crisis', she explored the (in)ability of Germany’s democracy to tackle the climate emergency, focusing on the relationship between the German Green Party and environmental grassroots movements. Researching the dynamics between grassroots movements and a political party in the context of a democracy that has been fundamentally weakened by neoliberal capitalism has highlighted the importance of systemic change for her.
Outside of work, Clara loves London for its creative scene – going to the West End to see a musical or play is always a highlight for her. She recently started doing stand-up comedy which is "so fulfilling and challenging at the same time!"
