Nicky Old is Director of Communications at the Local Government Association where she leads the in-house team covering media relations, public affairs and stakeholder engagement, campaigns and digital, events and communications improvement. Before joining the LGA, Nicky was Director of Communications and External Relations at Universities UK. Prior to this Nicky was Head of Corporate Communications and Chief of Staff for the CEO of the Education Funding Agency, part of the Department for Education, and also led on public affairs and communications for the Building Schools for the Future programme. Before working in government, Nicky was a Head of Press and Information for the University of Oxford. She originally trained and worked as a journalist.