Our People
We take an interdisciplinary approach to everything we do. So the diversity of our people - in terms of professional, personal and cultural background - is one of our greatest strengths.
We are creatives, businesspeople, educators, researchers, psychologists and anthropologists. We are spread across six countries and collectively speak 12 languages.
Most importantly, we are practitioners and implementers. We understand the challenges facing community-based mental health initiatives, because we have faced them ourselves.
Ember is a collaboration between the SHM Foundation and the Mental Health Innovation Network.
The Project Team
Anna Kydd
Co-Founder & Director
Anna has extensive experience as an innovator in global mental health, having developed and implemented models of mobile phone-based social support in Latin America, Africa and the UK. She is director of the SHM Foundation and sits on the Board of Trustees for both Blue Ventures and Altro Foundation.
Ashleigh Beukes
Head of Safeguarding
Ashleigh is a qualified social worker and therapist, with experience in play therapy, bereavement and counselling. Before joining the Ember team, Ashleigh worked as Head Therapist at Guild Cottage, a Treatment Centre for traumatised girls in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she’s originally from. Ashleigh has a degree in Social Work from the University of South Africa and is a qualified ballet teacher.
Francesca Zinetti
Head of Programmes
Francesca has extensive experience as a project manager for events, communication campaigns and art festivals for public and private institutions. What motivates her is to implement simple, effective and human-centred solutions to address mental health challenges every day, seeing the difference in one person's life at a time. Francesca graduated in Cultural Anthropology. She lives in Italy and is the Programme Manager for Ember.
Georgina Miguel-Esponda
M&E, Research Co-Lead
Georgina completed an undergrad in psychology before embarking on a career in mental health research. She completed a Global Mental Health MSc and later a PhD, investigating the barriers and facilitators for the implementation of mental health programmes in low-resource settings. Georgina leads the impact work at Ember, which mainly involves supporting innovators in the process of generating or communicating data to demonstrate their impact. She is from Mexico and is based in London.
Jara Lindsay
Graphic Designer & Illustrator
LinkedIn
Jara is a Spanish creative with a background in art, illustration and graphic design. She has particular expertise in branding, and has worked with a variety of corporate clients, from large national companies to local businesses. She enjoys looking for creative solutions to communication and design challenges and illustrating the world around her. Jara works within Ember’s design team and is based in Madrid.
Joshua Olins
Lead Designer
Joshua is an experienced graphic designer who leads Ember’s design team. He’s worked with both corporate and non-profit organisations to create websites, infographics, animations and apps according to their specific needs and goals. His knowledge of user-centred design enables him to take complex ideas and turn them into simple, beautiful pieces of communication. Josh is based in the UK.
June Larrieta
Head of Impact
June has a background in psychology with an MSc in Global Mental Health, and currently combines her work with Ember with her studies to become a clinical psychologist. Passionate about community approaches to mental healthcare, June works with Ember’s innovators to find effective ways to demonstrate their impact and support their monitoring, evaluation and research activities. She has recently returned to her home country, Spain, to be based in Madrid.
Luma Samawi
Impact Officer
LinkedIn
Luma works within Ember’s impact team to support innovators in evaluating and communicating their impact. As a PhD student at the University of Toronto, her research seeks to understand and improve the implementation of mental health programmes in low-resource settings. She has broad experience in global health, having worked across research, training, service delivery and policy in the Middle East and North America. Luma has a background in psychology, neuroscience, and global mental health. She is Jordanian-Palestinian, currently based between Amman and Toronto.
Malebo Ngobeni
Head of South Africa Programmes
Malebo’s background is in psychology. She has reams of experience developing and implementing mental health and social support programmes in Southern Africa, and delivering counselling services. In addition to her work on Ember, she manages the SHM Foundation’s Khuluma Project in South Africa, which supports young people living with HIV. Malebo's passion for her work comes from working directly with communities and meeting the needs of people on the ground.
Olivia Gutierrez Sarmiento
Project Manager
Olivia has worked across the public and private sectors in a variety of roles, from developing and implementing public policy and citizenship projects, to providing insights to businesses as a consultant within SHM Productions. She is passionate about information technologies and social networks and how these can help to build relationships. Olivia holds a Bachelor in Communication from Universidad Iberoamericana and is based in Mexico City.
Ranwa A.Alkateb
Designer
LinkedIn
Ranwa is a Syrian designer with a bachelor's degree in software engineering. At Ember, she specializes in branding, working on diverse projects that help innovators visually connect with their audiences. She also contributes to the development of various design assets for the team. In her spare time, Ranwa enjoys reading, volunteering, and learning new languages. She is currently based in Iraq.
Rini Sinha
Head of Strategy & Creative
Rini has worked as a communications consultant in India across a range of media, from mobile news apps to community radio shows, to ensure that information reaches people at the grassroots in low-resource settings. With degrees in English Literature, Mass Communication and International Development, she is constantly exploring new ways to create an impact through her storytelling skills. Rini is involved in communications and research at Ember.
Sama Basil Kamal
Project Manager
Sama has ten years of project management experience in the NGO and development sectors. She has worked with various grassroots organisations, international organisations and the United Nations. Her work focuses on youth development, gender equality and women and child protection. She holds an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, is a Swedish Institute Alumnus and was a research fellow for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. Sama’s main interests are technology, women's empowerment and activism. She is based in Brighton, UK.
Tanya Dhingra
Communications Consultant
Tanya has a diverse background in the Indian development sector, with extensive experience in mental health and education. She has held various roles, including clinical social worker, researcher, project lead, and marketing communications specialist. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a Master’s degree in Social Work with a specialisation in Mental Health. At Ember, Tanya is actively involved in communications and social media, leveraging her skills to enhance the organisation’s outreach and impact.
Tebogo Monese
Head of Khuluma Mentor Programme
Tebogo studied psychology, health sciences and social services. She has a background in psychosocial support programs within correctional services and she runs a project that supports young people living with HIV in South Africa. Tebogo is most involved with Ember’s work on wellbeing, which mainly seeks to give psychosocial support to the teams behind the mental health initiatives working with us. She lives in Pretoria, South Africa.
Vittorio Sandri
Head of Wellbeing
LinkedIn
Vittorio is Head of Wellbeing at SHM foundation, focussing primarily on designing customised wellbeing support for our innovators and spearheading our wellbeing strategy. He has a longstanding interest human psychology, wellbeing and the arts, which is what attracted him to the foundation. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from University College London (UCL) and is training to become an accredited breathwork therapist. In his free time, Vittorio enjoys cooking, going to concerts and artistic events with friends, and discovering new places.
Yasmine Uddin
Trainee Accountant
Yasmine joined SHM in 2018 as an apprentice with The SHM Foundation. Yasmine continues to work with the Foundation and her role includes everything from maintaining ledgers, preparing monthly accounts and projections, to working alongside project managers within the team to monitor and report on expenditure across various projects. Yasmine is studying currently to become a qualified Chartered Accountant. Prior to joining SHM, she worked as an apprentice at a law firm after completing her A-levels. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling and photography.
Zuzana Figerova
Head of Development
Zuzana has a background in business and education, having studied English Language and Literature, and obtained her Master’s in International Relations. She brings her experience of working in the private sector and passion for the international development field, and is particularly interested in co-design of programs in global health and education. Zuzana is head of development at the SHM Foundation. Originally from Slovakia, Zuzana currently lives in London with her young family.
The Ember Working Group
This is an advisory group that provides guidance and scrutiny on Ember’s selection decisions, made up of specialists from diverse sectors and disciplines.
Desmond Tau
Desmond is a mentor and facilitator for Khuluma, a programme that provides peer-to-peer social support to adolescents living with HIV in South Africa and elsewhere using mobile phones. His expertise lies in working with young people, implementing digital technology within interventions and in conducting participatory co-design processes.
Dr Rochelle Burgess
Rochelle is a leading community health psychologist who specialises in community-based approaches to health. She is a Lecturer in Global Health and Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Global Non-Communicable Diseases. She is the founder and Director of UCL's Global Network on Mental Health and Child Marriage.
Erica Toth
Erica is Managing Director of SHM Productions, an international consultancy firm. Erica has a passion for solving complex human-centred problems and has a keen understanding of how to drive sustainable change. Much of Erica’s work is focused on helping organisations and the people within them adapt to, and succeed in, an increasingly global world.
Gavin Gordon
Gavin is a solicitor who specialises in commercial law, corporate finance and private equity. He has advised private equity funds and corporate clients on cross-border deals and strategic transactions, and is rated among the leading private equity practitioners in the UK. Gavin is a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP.
Jules Chappell
Jules is CEO of Kokoro, a not-for-profit organisation that champions mental health as the foundation for a safer, kinder and more productive world. She started her career as a UK diplomat, serving in Jordan, Iraq, the USA and Ethiopia and was the UK's Ambassador to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador from 2009-2012. She currently sits on the Board of Climate Cares at Imperial College London and advises the Women of the Future Programme, Apolitical, the Unsung Foundation and the NFL UK Foundation.
Julia Pettengill
Julia leads the Schooner Foundation, a Boston-based private foundation advancing human rights and investing in mental health globally. She sources new investments with widely varied missions and geographic focuses, supporting the Foundation’s portfolio organisations as they grow. Julia currently serves on the boards of Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, the Network of Engaged International Donors, and the advisory council of Heal Initiative (UCSF).
Laura Sheffield
Laura is the Founder and Director of Corazón, London’s leading casual Mexican restaurants, with sites in Soho and Westfield. A native Texan by way of New York, Laura brings a wealth of experience in design, marketing, and business management.
Marcela Torres
Marcela is a world class entrepreneur who specialises in combining social sciences with technology in the startup and social enterprise sector. She is the Founder and former CEO of Holacode, and an advisor and board member of multiple startups across the globe. In 2018 the Economist named her the Voice of the Future of Mexico and the IFC one of 50 businesswomen who changed Latin America.
Maurice Biriotti
Maurice is the founder and Chief Executive of SHM Productions, an international consultancy firm, and a Trustee of the SHM Foundation. He has worked extensively within business, the arts, politics and the public sector solving complex challenges. He holds a Chair of Medical Humanities at University College London and is a visiting professor in the department of psychiatry at Yale University.
Natasha Adomako
Natasha is an experienced accountant and financial strategist. She is Head of Finance for both SHM Productions, an international consultancy firm, and the SHM Foundation. Natasha is passionate about adding value and improving rigour and efficiency by looking at financial situations with a fresh perspective. She brings this approach to her work supporting Ember’s cohorts with budgeting, financial strategy and business management. She’s from Dominica and now lives in London.
Natasha Muller
Natasha is an active impact investor with a focus on health, climate/food systems and gender. She is also a philanthropist and mental health activist. She founded NM Impact, through which she supports a global ecosystem of local change-makers, and Kokoro, which champions mental health as the foundation for a safer, kinder and more productive world. Outside of her work, she used to be a competitive equestrian show jumper and is currently an avid weightlifter, sports enthusiast and contemporary art collector.
Professor Linda-Gail Bekker
Linda-Gail is a physician-scientist with a keen interest in HIV, tuberculosis and related diseases. She is passionate about community development and engagement in the treatment of these diseases. She is Deputy Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation and President of the International AIDS Society.
Sarah Jeffery
Sarah is the Head of Health portfolio at Vitol Foundation and has over 15 years of experience working in the international development sector focused on global health both as a health practitioner, humanitarian responder and philanthropic funder with a particular focus on community based care and mental health.