Charlotte is the Principal Manager for Mine Water Heat at The Coal Authority. She is a geologist/hydrogeologist by training and gained her PhD from Newcastle University in 1999. This focused on treating the polluted discharges flowing from historically abandoned lead-zinc mines in the North Pennines. Latterly she worked on coal mines designing low cost ways to treat mine water when it reaches surface.

Spending time above and below ground taking water samples from mines sparked her interest in the potential of using mine water for heat and she spent 11 years at Durham University undertaking geothermal research. Charlotte remains an advisor to Durham Energy Institute and has been promoting the geothermal potential of the UK for over a decade. Charlotte was awarded the Aberconway Medal from the Geological Society of London in 2018 which recognises distinction in the practice of applied or economic geoscience with special reference to work in industry and her work at the Coal Authority has recently featured on BBC The One Show and Countryfile.