Our People

Ellie joined Khulisa in March 2020 and is an experienced social business professional, profoundly committed to bettering the wellbeing and prospects of young people. She has over ten years experience in youth-focused initiatives, between leadership, delivery and voluntary roles for UK-based and international programmes. These include work with Prince’s Trust, Cambridge University’s Queen’s Young Leaders programme, Young Lambeth Co-operative and London Metropolitan University.

Ellie has experience in social enterprise and building her own ventures, and is motivated by organisational integrity as a means of leading sector change to drive improved social outcomes. She has worked on both the commissioning and fundraising side of development. She recently attained a first class degree in Politics and International Relations. Her strengths include business development, strategic capabilities and building great partnerships.

In her personal life, Ellie is proudly defined by her status and purpose as a parent to Lila. She also loves mountain climbing and writing short fiction.

Tara joined Khulisa in March 2021 as the interim Director of Finance and Operations. Tara is a CIMA qualified senior Finance manager who graduated in Business Studies and later in her career, went on to attain a post-graduate MBA from the University of Bradford Business School.

Tara has spent most of her career in the not-for-profit sector, primarily in organisations which seek to achieve positive and constructive outcomes for their target beneficiaries, such as education, health, disadvantage, or deprivation.

Tara seeks to build shared goals and values within and across functions through clear, efficient, and transparent processes, systems, and responsibilities. Significant to achieving this is the need to support frontline colleagues to design processes and procedures that are tailored to their needs and understanding, such that they can assimilate and act on the financial data through informed decision making.

Outside of working, Tara is a full-time mum to her two children, a sister, and an aunt to her large extended family, whilst also being a volunteer treasurer for her children’s school’s governor’s fund.

Cara joined Khulisa in January 2017 as Development Director. During her time as Director of Development and Communications, she transformed our brand, doubled our income, raised our profile and policy influence, established new partnerships and built the capacity of the team.

As Chief Executive, Cara's expertise in education (and her experience as both a classroom teacher and Chair of Governors) will serve Khulisa well as we continue to prioritise our preventative work with young people and as we expand our trauma-informed training for professionals.

Prior to Khulisa, Cara worked at Teach First as Head of Business Development where she managed relationships with key funders, led the development of a successful fundraising strategy and oversaw all fundraising operations and compliance. Cara is also a qualified English Teacher, but began her career in the private sector, working in various commercial roles at Procter & Gamble.

When she's not at work, you can find Cara in a yoga class, at the theatre, in a restaurant or travelling to a new part of the world. Cara is also the Chair of Governors at a Primary School in South London.

Alessia joined Khulisa in March 2021. She is responsible for managing the operational and financial aspects of Khulisa, for the team wellbeing and culture and the smooth day-to-day running of the charity.

Alessia is also a creative tutor for The Complete Works, a former theatre company that evolved into an alternative provision school. Alessia devises personalised learning pathways to re-build confidence in students that did not fit the standard education mould, due to their disadvantaged backgrounds or socio-emotional and mental health needs.

Alessia began her career abroad in the fashion industry: for the last three years, she has worked as Operations Coordinator for a business accelerator consultancy. Previously she worked on admin support roles at Vivienne Westwood, a company she chose to write her MA dissertation on the Ethical Fashion Initiative: a flagship programme of the World Trade Organisation.

Back in 2010, to combine her passion for creative practices and elements of her BA in Psychology, Alessia co-founded the Collettivo Latrones: a not-for-profit collective of journalists, illustrators and graphic designers. The collective used the universal medium of visual art and storytelling to engage with underserved local communities on the correlation between crime, local corruption and environmental abuse.

She holds a MSc in Communication for the Corporate and Public Sector. When she’s not at work, you can find Alessia taking care of her garden, visiting museums, taking contemporary dance classes, writing her southern-Italian storytelling blog as an excuse to indulge in good food.

Nora joined Khulisa in September 2020, after a year abroad travelling with her family in Central and South America.

She has worked in fundraising for over 12 years, for a variety of causes specializing in high net worth relationship building, major donor, trusts and foundation and joint ventures between private and public funding. Her communications experience includes, brand identify, cause related marketing, and audience insight.

She has a Masters in Development Studies from SOAS and enjoys time with her family, reading, swimming and travelling.

Annie joined Khulisa in March 2018 and is focused on building Khulisa's evidence base to expand our impact and influence within the sector. She is passionate about tackling social exclusion and inequality in the UK.

Annie has a Masters in International Development and has spent much of her life living and working overseas in Japan, Cambodia and South Africa. Prior to joining Khulisa, she also worked as Head of Evidence and Learning at a global NGO, and spent a year as an independent evaluator in the non-profit sector. She previously managed a flagship UK Government-funded randomised control trial exploring prevention of sexual abuse among adolescent girls in refugee camps. Annie started her career in the private sector at Accenture, specialising in the non-profit arm, Accenture Development Partnerships.

When she's not at work, Annie loves taking photos, travelling, cooking, walking the dog with her partner and going to gigs and festivals. She's also an active women's health advocate.

As Khulisa's Senior Evidence and Impact Officer Iman works to build our research agenda, assist in the monitoring and evaluation of our impact and the sharing of our evidence base and learnings with a number of research partners, sector peers and policy makers.

Prior to Khulisa, Iman worked at GT Stewart Solicitors as a Criminal Defence Paralegal specialising in criminal appeals.

She graduated from SOAS, University of London in July 2016 with a Masters in Law specialising in Human Rights and began her career working as a Project Management Intern with Team Up - a social enterprise engaged in furthering social mobility through education.

When not at work, you can find Iman trying new recipes, trying out new podcasts or practicing her Turkish.

Joely joined Khulisa part time in December 2018 as Khulisa's Youth Engagement Advisor. As part of her role Joely ensures young people's voices are being heard and to encourage participants to engage and get the most out of Khulisa's programmes. She believes that many young people are being failed and not taken seriously by the education system and that all young people should be able to express themselves.

Joely first got involved with Khulisa as a student at Wac Arts College in 2017 when she attended a Khulisa taster day. Seeing how Khulisa breaks down people's resistance to life made Joely want to be more involved. Following this she helped design and develop the #lookbeyondthelabel campaign and has been an advocate for Khulisa's work ever since.

Joely is passionate about photography, sports, travelling and socialising and hopes to use her experience and skills to work with children who have been in similar situations to her (both education-wise and life-wise) to help them achieve their goals.

Jodie has worked in frontline, managerial or senior leadership roles supporting looked after children, homeless young people, young parents and young offenders since 2009.

Prior to joining Khulisa she was part of the senior leadership team at Young Futures. Whilst there she founded a £1.2m therapeutic residential unit for high need young women. She also managed across community-based accommodation, delivery and therapy services working with high need looked after children, UASC and young parents across London. During this time she maintained an ‘outstanding’ inspection record of service delivery and quality, developed and embedded trauma-informed therapeutic services across the organisation and quadrupled partnerships and staffing.

Jodie initially trained as a Youth Worker and Criminologist and has most recently achieved an MA in Psychodynamic and Systemic Leadership and Consultancy from Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. Her interests lie in supporting and empowering disadvantaged young people and working with the system around them to increase understanding of the impact of individual, organisational and systemic trauma.
She is proudly working class welsh, passionate and connected to the core and loves to learn and be challenged. She spends her free time at the gym, dancing out of sync and walking her dog.

Caroline joined Khulisa in August 2018 as a Programme Manager responsible for delivery in prisons, schools and community programmes across the North West. Caroline previously delivered programmes as an associate for 12 months.

She has a Master's degree in Dramatherapy, and has worked with adults with mental health challenges, children affected by trauma, and young people within the youth justice sector.

Caroline is passionate about the intersection of neuroscience and mental health and strives to bring a trauma-informed approach to all her work.

When she's not working, you will find Caroline reading three different books at any one time, watching theatre and live performance, or walking her beloved dog in the countryside.

Derellanne is from Dublin, Ireland and have lived in the UK since January 2011. Her therapeutic background is in Humanistic counselling and over the past decade she has worked with Young People in Schools, PRU’s, residentials, and psychiatric inpatient units. She is coming from working with care leavers in semi-independent residential and community placements.
Outside of work (when not in lock down) Derellanne plays for an AFL team (Australian Football) and during lockdown she has enjoyed cooking new cuisines, listening to music, and completing puzzles. She is passionate about working with Young People and she is looking forward to joining the Khulisa team and having an opportunity to get to know everyone.

Tasha joined Khulisa in April 2021 and has over 10 years experience working with young people across the country from all different walks of life, from Prisons to schools, to the community and residentials. Most recently Tasha has worked closely supporting Children in care and young care leavers to improve their well-being, helping them to achieve their full potential, through 1:1 young person-centered coaching and support, group workshops or training of professionals.

Tasha has a degree in Psychology and a masters in youth and community work and is passionate about helping to solicit change in our most vulnerable young people, always using trauma informed, person centered, strength-based models.

When she's not working, you will find Tasha eating something, in her studio creating resin pieces, on an airplane somewhere or researching where next to go on an airplane somewhere!

Thalia started as a Programme Manager for Khulisa in July 2018 after working as an associate facilitator for a year prior to this. She is responsible for delivery in prisons, schools and community programmes across London and the South East.

Thalia is a trained Relational Transactional Analyst and Restorative Justice Practitioner and has over 10 years experience of working within a variety of different projects aimed at building resilience and self-awareness in individuals who have experienced trauma. She has over 7 years experience with the SAFE! Project providing 1:1 support for young victims of crime and also worked for the Empower project in Safer London with young people and families affected by Sexual Exploitation and Gang-related violence.

Thalia also worked for 3 years developing and providing preventative programmes for schools to build resilience, confidence and understanding of emotional health, healthy relationships, consent and risky behaviours. She is a published author and co-wrote a book called ‘What Does Consent Really Mean?’ which is a graphic novel exploring the topic of consent, pornography, sexting and healthy relationships. She is currently in the process of co-writing a resource book for schools to use in conjunction with this.

During her training Thalia founded, developed and managed a successful Community Interest Company called Plaintalking, which offers a range of accessible therapeutic services whilst providing a platform for other trainee psychotherapists to practice.

In her free time Thalia loves taking photos, practicing yoga, running, travelling and making extravagant fancy dress outfits.

Karl is a fully qualified youth worker (level 3) with 6 years experience working with young people, with 4 of those five years working with young people who are on youth offending orders.

He is skilled in the areas of conflict resolution, restorative justice and has recently trained in A.R.T (Aggression Replacement Training®) He has also developed numerous arts-based interventions of his own which have been used in a variety of youth offending services. with his latest group of young people having won a Koestler award for their identity project.

With a background in the arts, Karl is also a noted published photographer.

Matt started his career building nuclear submarines which took him all around the world, most notably Australia, Singapore and Thailand. He then studied to be a teacher specialising in environmental science and outdoor education.

Having taught for fifteen years he became more involved in working with children who struggled to stay in mainstream education. Having gained a diploma in psychology and training in numerous therapy interventions, he has used his skills both in schools, YOI and prisons. He has trained prison staff to deliver Inner Strength, a domestic violence programme, and has trained to deliver Footsteps a resilience wellbeing programme.

Matt is currently involved in training Positive Solutions, a structured model of supervision, incorporating cognitive behavioural therapy and drama dialectical behaviour therapy skills to Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria Probation Services. Matt is a lead facilitator for the Silence the Violence and Face It programme in Manchester and Bolton.

Julianne is a H.C.P.C registered Dramatherapist and Badth registered clinical supervisor. She has worked in education, healthcare and private practice. She is the resident therapist at The Tinnitus Clinic, London. Her clinical work also includes working with children and adolescents. She was an associate lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University for six years where she completed her PhD. Her doctorate research investigated the efficacy of employing strategies from Dramatherapy supervision with newly qualified teachers as a method of reducing attrition rates. She has also provided clinical supervision to hospice staff. She has designed and facilitated mental health awareness training for the Metropolitan Police and other frontline service staff. Julianne is a qualified secondary school teacher and taught drama for over ten years in secondary and further education. Julianne is a theatre practitioner and interested in the therapeutic benefit of autobiographical theatre. She enjoys yoga and walking her dog.

Lucy is a HCPC registered Dramatherapist and joined Khulisa in 2017. Lucy works with children and adolescents in both state and independent schools and has a private practice. Her clinical experience includes adult mental health NHS, community work with both victim and perpetrator of domestic abuse and work with special needs clients.

Lucy trained and worked as an actress. She continues to use her skills therapeutically and has co facilitated workshops for vulnerable young people at The Greenwich and Lewisham Young Peoples Theatre.

In her free time Lucy enjoys socialising, theatre , reading and travel- like other Khulisa facilitators she loves walking her dog!

Christina Anderson Joined Khulisa as a freelance facilitator in October 2018, delivering programmes in PRUs, Schools and Prisons across London and Manchester. Christina is a fully qualified MA Drama and Movement Therapist (Sesame), trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London. Christina is registered with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) as an Arts Therapist as well as the British Association of Dramatherapist (BADth).

Christina is Visiting Lecturer at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London and a Consultant Therapist at Frank Belford, looking at ways to explore challenges within the corporate industry, creating a unique approach using dramatherapy. The programme helps organisations reduce the amount of employee turnover and feel more secure about change. Christina has worked with a range of organisations and always open to expanding network both in the UK and abroad.

Christina has also written a chapter in the book “Talk Yourself Better: A Confused Person's Guide to Therapy, Counselling and Self-Help”.

In her free time Christina enjoys listening to Reggae music and attending Bashment raves, its her way of connecting to roots and heritage.

Daniela Gallini is an HCPC registered dramatherapist. After completing her BSc (Hons) in Psychology at The Univerity of Nottingham she specialized in working with the arts and drama at The University of Roehampton. She has a wide range of experience facilitating individual and group therapy to victims of domestic abuse, minorities living in London and cancer patients. She also has experience working with children and adolescents with a wide range of psychological needs including, depression, anxiety, and misbehaving conduct.

Daniela has a special interest in helping clients explore and process their anger and negative emotions through the arts and the use of mindfulness.

Chance is a Dramatherapist registered with the Health & Care Professionals Council who trained in Drama & Movement Therapy at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.

Chance is currently Lead Practitioner at Self Space, a contemporary mental health service that supports adults with varying mental health needs. As well as managing a client caseload, Chance delivers talks, trainings and workshops to organisations and agencies on mental health. He also works as a Dramatherapist at Kairos Community Trust (Peckham) a 12-Step, abstinence-based treatment programme, at Play for Progress (Croydon) delivering therapy to unaccompanied minor refugees & asylum seekers and within schools.

Chance came to dramatherapy with a background in theatre-making, film-making and storytelling and has performed in theatres and in arts spaces around the country. He has received publishing credits from Triarchy Press and commissions from Northern Film and Media, Channel 4 and The Baltic.

Becky Sheppard is a HCPC registered dramatherapist and member of the British Association of Dramatherapists (BADth). Becky has a BSc in Drama and Psychology and a Master’s degree in Dramatherapy.

Becky joined Khulisa as an Associate Facilitator in 2018. She has a wide range of clinical experience of offering group and individual therapy interventions. She particularly enjoys working with young people and has worked in mainstream and specialist schools. Becky has also worked within NHS adult mental health services and, following graduation, she set up a pilot dramatherapy intervention within a women’s acute mental health ward. Becky is also an experienced workshop facilitator, working predominantly with children and young people. Previously Becky worked for a theatre company based in schools and youth centres, with work focussed on re-engaging individuals with school and the curriculum. She has a real interest in promoting the participation and engagement of young people within organisations (and she wrote her under-graduate dissertation on this topic) and has also written an article about the use of therapist self-disclosure, which was published in the Dramatherapy journal.

In her free time, Becky enjoys travelling, writing and volunteering.

Jonathan Bines, is a Partner at JLT Specialty Ltd, one of the world’s largest insurance providers of insurance. Jonathan has over 12 years experience in the design and placement of both conventional and non-conventional UK and International Casualty programmes and is an expert in providing complex risk transfer solutions multinational clients. He has worked for Integro, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Marsh, is ACII qualified and as a Lloyds broker.

Shivonne is our Chair & the Managing Director at Women for Women International – UK and previously served as Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications for 5 years. She has worked in leadership roles in a range of charities and not-for-profit organisations for over 20 years, leading teams to success at Shelter, Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres, Comic Relief, Global Radio Charities and AMREF Health Africa. Shivonne was a member of the Fundraising and Communications Committee at Womankind Worldwide and she is an alumni of Civil Society magazine Fundraising's 50 Most Influential list (No:17, No: 9). Shivonne holds a degree in Development and International Relations from the University of Sussex. Shivonne loves her dog, her nieces, running, yoga, pilates and power-lifting.

Jean-Marc is a Managing Director in Risk for the Wealth Management & Investments business in Barclays Bank UK plc, which provides wealth management, investments and banking services to UK high net worth clients.

He joined Barclays in November 2011 in Singapore, relocating to the UK in 2013. Jean-Marc was previously with Goldman Sachs, in Hong Kong and London. He has also worked for JPMorgan and Bank of America in London and South Africa.

Jean-Marc holds an Honours degree in Economics from University of Johannesburg. He is married with two children, and is a passionate rugby and cricket fan.

Philippa is the director of programmes and learning at SSE Central. She has worked in learning and skills development organisations for 15 years, with a particular focus on enterprise training and employability programming for young people. She has held training delivery and programme management roles in the UK with the Prince’s Trust and internationally with World Challenge Expeditions. Prior to joining SSE she spent seven years launching and leading the UK office of Canadian charity Street Kids International, training local NGOs in the developing world to deliver participatory enterprise skills training for street youth.

Sharon joined Khulisa as a Trustee in March 2019 and will bring with her a wealth of experience in Clinical Governance, organisational and people development. Having worked in the field of psychology for 25 years, she is committed to supporting people and organisations to develop their full potential in their pursuit of excellence and social justice.

Prior to joining Khulisa, Sharon worked a clinician in the NHS, in the prison service and in low, medium and maximum security forensic hospitals, focussing her interests on the management of trauma caused by profound neurological difficulties, severe and enduring mental health conditions, sexual abuse, combat/war/civil unrest and chronic illness. Passionate about employment and civil rights, and social justice, Sharon worked for many years as a Union Representative and went on to become Vice Chair of a national committee at UNITE the Union which aimed to uphold employment rights and standards of professional practice for the psychological professions.

After many years of being a clinician, Sharon went on to work in executive management, leading two national charities through complex transformational change and also worked as a business consultant in multinational industries within the corporate sector, working with executive teams to respond effectively to regulatory and customer requirements, and supporting the agencies many of which worked in safety critical environments, to recover in the aftermath of industrial action or critical incidents. A licensed and registered Clinical Psychologist, Sharon now runs her own company, providing business consultancy, executive coaching and mentoring and training, trauma-focussed psychological therapy and medico-legal assessments to the statutory, charity and corporate sectors. She also works with professional regulators to ensure standards of practice are maintained, and mentors and advises a number of charity boards.

When Sharon is not working she loves to cook and entertain family and friends, paint portraits and sculpt. A keen traveller, she is determined to get New Orleans, Cuba and India under her belt in 2019 as well some exploring around the UK!

Rob Dickinson heads the Philanthropy and Partnerships team within The Children’s Society. Rob leads the organisation's strategic relationships with high value funders, individuals and corporate partners. He has a broad experience of the Charity sector, having previously led Business Development teams across the North of England, and managed service delivery across family support, young carers, and therapeutic teems in Lancashire and Greater Manchester. Rob spent 4 years as a trustee of Child Action Northwest, a regional foster care and early intervention service provider.

Rob is an associate consultant for Warren Larkin Associates and advises on system change within trauma focused service design, delivery and training.

Rob is a keen Blackburn Rovers supporter and father of 3.

James was the founding Principal of WAC Arts College, the first alternative provision free school in England specialising in performing arts and creative media production. He trained as a drama teacher at the Welsh College of Music & Drama and has had extensive experience in a wide variety of schools all over London.

Previously Headteacher for the Pupil Parent Partnership Community School, an alternative education provider that provided specialist education and therapeutic support services to excluded learners. Currently he is running his own business, Dpat Education Consultancy, which is engaged in school improvement, curriculum design, behaviour support, staff training, youth work, music production and DJing and has worked for Camden Centre for Learning, The New School, The Prince’s Trust, Lambeth Crime Prevention Trust, Southwark Youth Services, Lambeth Youth Services, Connextions Harrow, Connections Communication Centre Hammersmith.

James completed an MA in Education, Culture & Media at University College London/Institute of Education in 2019 and completed his NPQH at the Institute of Education in 2014. James lives in north west London with his wife, two children and dog Herbie (named after celebrated jazz musician Herbie Hancock).

Adrienne is a Senior Manager in Learning & Development (L&D) at PwC UK, the second-largest professional services network in the world. Adrienne is particularly passionate about leadership and management development, equality, diversity and inclusion, mental health and wellbeing practices in the workplace, learning design, and organisational psychology. Adrienne previously worked as Head of L&D at Mind the mental health charity and has extensive not for profit experience.

Adrienne holds an MSc in Psychology (from UEL) and an MSc in Environmental Politics and International Development (from SOAS), with a particular research focus on managing mental health at work and organisational psychology. Adrienne is member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and holds a Level 3 in Charity Leadership & Management from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Adrienne is originally from west coast Canada and is an avid rock climber and outdoor adventurist who can often be found scaling mountains and camping outside in her free time.

Dami is the Business Director at charity Finding Rhythms, an organisation delivering music based engagement supporting prisoners and young people at risk of offending.

He oversees fundraising, programme development and partnerships. Dami has vital role in the the growth of youth focused charities and hopes to bring this expertise to Khulisa. He is passionate about increasing social mobility opportunities through education to create a level playing field for the marginalised and disadvantaged.

Dami holds and MSc in Finance and Development from SOAS.

Daniel is senior leader in the voluntary sector with over 15 years experience of delivering services for young people across both the voluntary and the public sectors. His experience ranges from frontline youth work roles to designing and managing services.

This includes the development and implementation of Homicide, Domestic Abuse, mentoring, Education services in addition to a Harmful Sexual behaviour programme, which provided intervention for young men who held inappropriate attitudes towards sex and relationships.

Daniel holds a Youth & Community Degree and an MSc in Gender, Sexuality & Society.

He is extremely passionate about race equality, which is evident in all aspects of his practice and research.

In his spare time Daniel enjoys running, Yoga and playing football.

Nicola initially joined Khulisa in September 2018 as our Commercial Manager, focused on developing a commercial strategy for Khulisa to earn its own income. In December 2019, a promotion to Head of Commercial and Operations expanded this remit to ensure Khulisa’s operational processes effectively supported and implemented its commercial strategy, in addition to effective safeguarding of Khulisa’s assets e.g. ensuring compliance with GDPR.

Nicola sadly departed Khulisa in April 2020 to return to the Civil Service, but is staying in touch and offering her skills and expertise to us as a volunteer.

Nicola is a graduate of the Civil Service Commercial Fast Stream Programme and an accredited member of the Government Commercial Organisation and Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply. She has experience in demanding commercial roles across Government, having led procurement and commercial projects at both the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

She graduated from Cardiff University with a Law degree in 2014, beginning her career as an Industrial Disease paralegal with Slater & Gordon.

When not at work, Nicola loves eating out with friends and exploring the West Yorkshire countryside on bike or on foot.

Rohati has been part of the Khulisa family since December 2018, where she was Interim CEO and then became a Strategic Advisor to the Senior Management Team. Since April 2020, Rohati has been providing her skills and expertise as a Volunteer to support Khulisa to navigate and thrive in a very changed landscape.

Rohati brings 20 years strategic and operational experience of partnerships and programmes from a UK and international development context. Rohati is energised by mission-driven organisations that enable children and young people to fulfil their potential and believes that every actor in the system must play their part. Rohati has worked across a range of sectors and organisational cultures that share her values including: The Living Wage Foundation, The Prince's Trust, Local Government Association and PwC (Government & Public Sector Consulting).

For the time being, Rohati works on an Independent basis and when she is not working she can be found hanging out with her teenage sons, dreaming of cheese and meat platters and wondering if the world will ever be the same again.