Imogen Bond appointed m.d. of EmpathyLab as Miranda McKearney steps back

EmpathyLab has appointed Imogen Bond as managing director to oversee the organisation’s development alongside newly appointed chair Sarah Mears MBE. Meanwhile, founder Miranda McKearney will step back into a more ambassadorial role.

The charitable social enterprise works with schools and libraries to help children build empathy skills through reading.

"Working alongside Sarah and the team I am determined to deepen and strengthen EmpathyLab’s impact, and to highlight the absolute necessity of raising empathy-educated generations to come," said Bond, who will take up her role in mid-November.

Bond is currently national schools partnerships manager at the Royal Ballet & Opera and has 20 years’ experience making work for children and families. She led the Orange Tree’s education and participation department until 2020, engaging 10,000 young people each year.

Newly appointed chair Mears is one of five board directors who founded EmpathyLab with McKearney. They said: “Since we founded EmpathyLab in 2015 our work has impacted in a way we could only have dreamt of. Sadly since then, the need to mainstream empathy education has only become more urgent. Imogen’s appointment comes at a key moment, when we’re aiming to scale our programmes up in order to drive a national step change in empathy, understanding and skills.”

In 2017, the organisation founded Empathy Day, which 724,000 children participated in this year. EmpathyLab aims to benefit one million children a year by 2026, with its 2025 plans including a new Empathy Day Festival from 2nd to 12th June and policy work with the Publishers Association and the University of Sussex. It will also host a conference to announce the new Reading Feelings research, which it has conducted in partnership with Sussex’s School of Psychology.