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our trustees
LILY MAKURAH
Lily Makurah is our Chair of Trustees and currently works as the Director of Partnerships for Health and the Environment at the #IWill Campaign.
Previously, Lily was the National Lead on Public Mental Health and Public Health England where she was responsible for mental health promotion and the prevention of mental ill-health particularly for children and young people, and those of specific groups (e.g. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, refugees, people and disadvantaged individuals).
Lily has wide experience at public health policy planning, delivery and implementation gained over 20 years of working in local authorities, Department of Health, NHS and NGO’s. Lily’s career has taken her from Terrence Higgins Trust to tackling teenage pregnancy, adolescent health at the UK Department of Health, to the NHS Olympic Games Health Improvement Legacy. Lily holds a Masters in Public Health from Kings College London.
Christine Mellor
Christine Mellor is Head of Service at Childline, an online and telephone counselling service for children and young people in the UK aged under 19. Christine has been at Childline for the past decade, and prior to this, she was the Head of Safeguarding at a Local council.
Christine supports It's OK with our safeguarding policies and plans - to ensure we're looking after the young people we work with as best as we can.
wayne orr
Wayne is our Treasurer, he is a qualified chartered accountant, with a long career as a senior finance professional, building that career in both the private and public sector over the past 15 years. Having commenced his career with 2 social enterprise charities in south London, Wayne went on to work for Sodexo justice, Virgin Group, Mitie, NATS, HMRC, MOJ and Interserve. In 2014, Wayne re-entered the charity sector, joining Catch22 as their Commercial Director. Wayne has stayed in the charity sector, most recently as COO at The Princes Trust, where he joined from Parkinson’s UK. Wayne is passionate about seeing young people succeed, particularly those with a challenging background, and being part of their journey to help them fulfil their potential. Outside of work, Wayne has mentored young entrepreneurs, including one who went on to become a stylist for the Jamaican Olympic team. He has also run inner city youth groups, community football teams and set up a youth night club event in South London.
sarah
bickerstaffe
Sarah has worked across the health and care sector spanning regulation, government, parliament, research, consultancy, commissioning, and delivery. She is currently the Director of Policy & Strategy at the Care Quality Commission. She was previously a Fellow in Health at IPPR, Political Adviser to the Shadow Health Secretary, and Private Secretary to the Health Secretary. Sarah has always had a strong interest in mental health. Her work in Government included managing the national roll-out of new psychological therapy services (IAPT), and she has also worked to deliver the training course Mental Health First Aid. Sarah holds a Masters degree in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and a BSc in Psychology from Sussex University. She was part of the 2012 Obama Fellowship Programme.
nkasi stoll
Nkasi is doing a PhD in Psychology at King’s College London titled: “Mental Health and Wellbeing of Black (Black African, Caribbean, Mixed) University Students in the UK” which is funded by ESRC LISS-DTP and supported by Student Minds. She holds an MSc in Mental Health Studies from King’s College London and a BSc (Hons) Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Nottingham. Nkasi is the Co-Founder of Black People Talk and Chapter Lead of Black Students Talk, which provides peer wellbeing support groups for Black university students in the UK. Nkasi has over 10 years of clinical and research experience working in mental health and wellbeing services. Nkasi’s passion for research and setting up and improving services comes from her own struggles with depression, anxiety, and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder whilst studying at university. Upon completion of her PhD, Nkasi hopes to work in university student services to improve wellbeing services for under-represented and marginalised students. Nkasi is Jamaican and Guyanese, from London.
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LUCY CARMODY
Following her MSc in geography at Cambridge, Lucy’s career led from investment banking in Asia and NYC to ESG research for global institutional investors. Most recently she has worked with hedge funds and a family office in London, alongside investing in various social enterprises. Lucy has senior level experience in operations, communications and strategy in entities ranging from scrappy start-ups to global investment managers. She is most happy with strategic brand building and has enjoyed plenty of high-level experience with regulatory compliance, boards, charitable foundations, ESG and sustainability. Currently studying for her second MSc at Imperial College in Climate Change Finance and Management, Lucy spends her free time offering support to exceptional leaders in non-profits, freeing them to focus on mission, strategy and partnership development.
SARAH SHAIKH
Sarah is a mental health campaigner and an ambassador for the #iwill campaign, through which she promotes youth empowerment and social action. She is a huge advocate for peer mentoring as it is how she grew her knowledge of severe mental illness support and suicide prevention. Sarah‘s campaigning is rooted in policy reform for education so that schools and universities can be more conscious of how to prevent and identify students struggling with their wellbeing. Her areas of focus are LGBTQIA+ and BAME support as she draws from personal struggles growing up, and how she got through them. Sarah‘s family emigrated from India when she was young. Since then, she has lived in London and now is studying International Relations in Coventry, and pursuing a career in human rights and peacebuilding.
our advisors
Lisa
Stepanovic
A social entrepreneur, experienced businesswoman, activist and mentor. Lisa is best known as the founder of Social Ark, an East London based social business set up to support social entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs working in their local communities to develop their ideas and grow their businesses. Social Ark builds on Lisa’s many years of experience in running her own businesses and supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs on their journey, especially those from a working-class background who are often excluded from the opportunities to join mainstream incubator and accelerator programmes.
rosie oldham
Rosie is currently Head of Fundraising at London Wildlife Trust and has ten years’ experience in charity fundraising for causes including education, children and young people, health and the environment. She holds a Diploma in Fundraising. She volunteers with the Foundation for Social Improvement’s Advice Hub, giving advice on fundraising for small charities. Rosie has experience of the mental health care system in the UK and wants to see better support for young people living with mental health conditions. She is passionate about inclusion and allyship in the charity sector.
robin banerjee
Robin Banerjee is Head of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex. As a Professor of Developmental Psychology, he leads the CRESS (Children’s Relationships, Emotions, and Social Skills) research lab, which investigates social and emotional development in children and young people. Robin works closely with practitioners and policymakers in the areas of education and mental health.
GIAN
POWER
Gian Power ACA is an ex-Deutsche Bank and PwC employee and today is the founder and CEO of TLC Lions an organisation on a mission to ignite emotion in workplaces through storytelling. Gian started TLC Lions following a personal tragedy and today his work supports over 150 organisations globally. Gian sits on the board of mental health conference This Can Happen and is the winner of the NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Award 2019 and named as one of the EMpower top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives. His advisory board includes members of Harvard & MIT and Gian hosts his own round table quarterly in the House of Lords.
