Community Leader - Debi Gregory

How do you feel about winning/being nominated for the Spotlight Awards?

I struggle with praise, to be honest. That sounds like a line people use to try and be modest, but it’s true. So this is all a little weird to me. I know I should say thank you and probably feel some gratitude, but confusion and a general sense of being undeserving is all I’m managing. I hope honestly will make up for any shortcomings in my responses.

How do you feel about your influence within the Pagan/Witchcraft community?

I don’t particularly feel that I have much of an influence in the Pagan community. I’m incredibly fortunate to know some amazing people who trust me enough that when I have an idea, they support me in seeing how far we can take it. I’m passionate about raising minoritised voices and about ensuring accessibility isn’t an afterthought in Pagan spaces, and I’m also fortunate to have been able to volunteer with people who have taught me so much about what works and what doesn’t work in advocacy, so I can apply it to my own work. I guess I’m driven by a constant need to ensure that no one else ever feels alone and excluded like I did, and still do sometimes. I want to support Pagan spaces and Pagans in facilitating events and resources that empower people, rather than excluding them over things that are relatively easy to fix. I’ve been at it for about a decade now, and I think I can do better! So I’m going to try and keep one-upping myself and see what happens.

A little bit about yourself?

There’s not much to know about me; I’m rather boring. I love Jane Austen and pie. I love to read. I have a Pagan children’s book currently being re-illustrated (Sif Brookes) for re-publication and about to be academically published in a book about neurodivergence and life-long learning, for which I contributed, co-written with Fergus Murray, a chapter about neurodivergence in higher education. I’m also in the early stages of a research project with Dr Krysia Waldock on mapping modern Pagan lives, so academia has a solid foundation for including our community in faith research, which we’re currently left out of more often than not. I’m also hoping to start my Master's in October. However, I am rather severely disabled, so all of this is managed around pain management, self-care care and countless constant appointments and treatment changes. The ADHD is the only thing keeping me going most of the time!

Any upcoming events, news, or anything else to look out for?

The Grove of Aletheia has some stuff happening soon, which is quite exciting. We have a course for community groups, moot and event organisers, and community leaders on how to meet the needs of neurodivergent and disabled Pagans, which will be launched in the Autumn, I hope. We’re also working on two books, for which we’re looking for contributors for. One is on disabled and neurodivergent representation in Pagan lore, myth and stories. The other is a book of re-imagined fairytales and folk stories that look at Pagan narratives through a more accessible lens. We also hope to make a web series of the latter for easier accessibility and processing.

https://groveofa.wordpress.com/ https://ndstudentnetwork.wordpress.com/ https://linktr.ee/NeurodivergentBook2025 https://sifbrookes.com/ https://oolong.co.uk/ https://uk.linkedin.com/in/krysia-waldock https://kar.kent.ac.uk/107678/1/65waldock2024phdfinal.pdf