Ingrid Samuel joined the Board of Trustees of The Heritage Alliance in 2015 and has served as its Acting Chair since 2023. She currently works as the Director of Placemaking & Heritage at the National Trust, where she has strategic responsibility for policy development, advocacy, research, and practice across heritage, land use planning, landscape, architecture, and new design. She has a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Cambridge.

She joined the National Trust in 2011 after nearly a decade working as a civil servant in the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, where she held numerous roles including Head of Heritage & Architecture and Head of Properties & Ceremonial Branch. In 2022, Ingrid was awarded an OBE for services to heritage.