Rebecca Ross-Williams

Rebecca has Scottish roots, was born in York and has two daughters and one son. 

Rebecca has had a lifelong passion for the arts and the social change they can bring.  She studied film and drama at Reading University followed by an International MA in Theatre Directing based at Middlesex University that led to a career in theatre.  This started with being director of several youth theatre companies, co-designing and establishing performing arts courses in BTEC, GNVQ and A–Level at Reading College and working as a free-lance drama practitioner nationally.

The post of Creativity and Social Change Director at Everyman Playhouse brought Rebecca to Liverpool in 2000, followed by the leadership of Liverpool Lighthouse as Creative Director in 2021.  In Liverpool, Rebecca has developed award winning work in the areas of civic engagement, arts and wellbeing and youth arts, using the arts to inspire, address inequality and make social change. 

Rebecca founded the Civic Engagement programme at Everyman Playhouse and in 2019 she worked with Mersey Care to establish a city centre Life Room which inspired her to develop Creative Sanctuary at Liverpool Lighthouse.  She founded Young Everyman and Playhouse (YEP) to provide a navigable route from first engagement to professional training/employment in the industry for young people and worked with Schools Improvement Liverpool Safeguarding team to create a robust safeguarding pledge, charter and handbook for the creative industry.  Rebecca is passionate about diversity and is working to develop Liverpool as a national destination for Gospel Music as a mainstream genre. 

Alongside her leadership role, Rebecca works with people seeking sanctuary and experiencing homelessness using drama as a tool to instil hope, confidence and wellbeing. 

Rebecca is a Governor at Harmonize Academy which is an outstanding alternative education provider, Chair of Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre and Trustee of Africa Oye. 

Rebecca was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside in 2020.