Katie Cavanagh has been appointed chief executive of Action for Kids after serving in the role for a nine-month interim period.
Cavanagh joined the children’s disability charity in 2021 as director of fundraising and communications.
She became interim boss in November, when former chief executive David Coe left AFK to become interim chief executive at the poverty relief charity Z2K.
Cavanagh worked for the MS Society for four years between 2015 and 2019 prior to her time at AFK.
She was head of individual giving and legacies and direct marketing programme at the disability charity.
Cavanagh was the individual giving and legacy manager at the British Lung Foundation between 2013 and 2015 and has been a trustee at the mental-health charity Open Care since 2023.
“I am delighted to be taking up this role in a charity I love, leading a caring, expert team to support disabled and neurodivergent children and young people with mobility equipment and into paid employment,” Cavanagh said.
The charity has also appointed Miriam Deakin as chair, succeeding Gurmeet Dhillon, who has been in the role since 2014.
Deakin is director of strategy and policy at the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians Group and has been an AFK trustee since 2022.