About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

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Denise Amankwah

Research Assistant, fairer start mission

Denise Amankwah is a research assistant at Nesta.

Previously, as an advisor at Speech and Language UK, she helped revise the organisation's language interventions and delivered training to hundreds of Early Years Practitioners. She also held focus groups with multilingual parents to ensure the interventions were suitable for all families.

Denise’s professional experience includes working as a Senior Early Years Practitioner in a socially disadvantaged area in London and as an Early Years Teacher at a private international school. She holds a degree in Linguistics from UCL and a Masters in Education specialising in Language and Literacy. While studying, she worked as a research assistant on several national projects focused on early language and literacy, drawing on her extensive background in early years education and research.

She is currently completing her PhD in Applied Linguistics, with a particular interest in multilingualism. In her spare time, she organises 'give-back' initiatives for schools in Ghana, her parents’ home country.