Alison Barrett MBE is the Country Director of the British Council in India leading all operations across Arts and Culture, Education and English Programmes. Alison has worked for the British Council for over 25 years in a variety of country, regional and global level roles in our Teaching, Examinations and Cultural Engagement departments building cultural and educational connections between the UK and our network overseas. Most of her career has been spent in the Asia-Pacific region including in India where she was based for 20 years between 1997 and 2016, so returning as Country Director is a great honour. From 2020 to 2022, she led the British Council’s Climate Connection – a global programme and platform for dialogue and action, connecting young people, policymakers and sector specialists from the UK and over 200 countries together to tackle the climate emergency through arts and culture, education and English. She has specific interests in Higher Education, teacher education and development and language education. Alison is married with two children.