Dean T Huggins is a Principal Consultant with Astar Management Consultants. He is experienced in providing consultancy and training for voluntary and statutory sector organisations on issues ranging from community development, team building and evaluation through to equality and diversity. He has a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry ( Kent University) and has had training in social research methodology and theory at Leicester University. Dean is an experienced NVQ Assessor, specialising in community development work.

Recently, he has worked on the development of training in community engagement for civil servants and on the development of an outcomes-focused performance improvement framework for voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisations as part of ChangeUp. He is currently involved in the development of a competence framework for workers in local infrastructure organisations.

Dean has worked with Nottinghamshire Probation Service on their Anti-Racism Training Programme for all staff, with Sandwell Community Health Council on sickle cell and thalassaemia and with the Federation for Community Development Learning on community development. In addition, he is currently delivering diversity and equality training to managers and staff at the Home Office and to NHS consultants in the Merseyside Deanery on behalf of two national consultancies.

Other areas of work have included team building for a variety of organisations, courses for men, counselling and non-line management supervision for senior managers in national organisations.

Dean has also been involved in drafting Equality Schemes for Non-Governmental Public Bodies in Northern Ireland and researching the levels of black and minority ethnic community participation of voluntary activity in Northern Ireland. With, the late, Fee Ching Leong, he wrote a training manual linking anti-racism to sectarianism in 1995.

Before becoming a consultant, Dean worked with Newcastle City Council as Principal Policy Officer (Community Development) and prior to that worked managing Koco Ltd (a community office, training and dining resource) in Coventry and was a member of Leicester African Caribbean Business Association. Dean has also been General Secretary of International Voluntary Service, a volunteer placement organisation which is part of Service Civil International.

He is currently chairperson of Ubuntu, the national network of black and minority ethnic community workers and activists organised within Federation for Community Development Learning.