Meet the team

Phil is the Director and heads up our Senior Leadership Team. He joined F&BF to apply his peacebuilding experience more to a UK context, and he sees a lot of potential in combining peacebuilding and inter-cultural approaches to strengthening relations. He is passionate about education and peacebuilding; he has worked in many contexts affected by violent conflict, including the Philippines, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the South Caucasus.

He has a degree in History from Cambridge University, a PGCE from Bangor University in North Wales and an MA in Restorative Justice from the University of Hull.

Kimberly is originally from a place called the Wirral (a small peninsula in between Liverpool and Chester). She moved to London in 2015 to start a degree in International Business at Middlesex University. As well as her studies, she worked part time in the hospitality sector, eventually moving full time, gaining a junior manager role. However she joined the Faith and Belief Forum as a Personal Assistant Kickstarter in March 2021 to begin her career.

‘In my spare time I love to travel, especially to Europe. I’ve visited France, Italy, Spain, Malta, Greece, Hungary, Germany and Portugal… can you tell I like travelling?’

Marcella joined F&BF in March 2020 as the Head of Operations within the new senior leadership team. She has a wealth of experience in senior operations management. She was initially attracted to our clear vision to be at the heart of building strong and lasting relationships, closing some gaps.

Anishta joined F&BF in March 2020 as the Head of Programmes within the new senior leadership team. She has worked with small charities as well as well-known organisations such as the Prince’s Trust, overseeing and designing large- and small-scale projects and programmes. She is also a big fan of ‘experiential’ travel!

Carly joined F&BF in March 2020 as the Head of Income Generation & Engagement within the new senior leadership team. She believes in empowering young people and equipping them with the resources to communicate, lead and drive change is crucial to our future.  The interfaith aspect of F&BF really speaks to her as her faith has been an important part of her life.

Harriet support the delivery of our operations function, including HR, finance, governance, compliance and office management. She began her F&BF journey as the Admin, Operations and Volunteering Intern from June – December 2017 and enjoyed it so much she’s been working here ever since! She undertook she undertook a BA in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol. In her spare time she likes listening to podcasts, practicing yoga and eating delicious food!

Nadia is a recent politics graduate with experience working in recruitment, hospitality and the charity sector. She enjoy all things politics and people – particularly engaging in dialogues surrounding religion, mental health and culture. Over recent years, she has developed a deeper connection with her Christian faith and identity which is what compelled her most to join F&BF.

Ben manages our finance function and budget processes. Outside of the office he is a yoga teacher specialising in gong baths!

Born and raised in London, Josh has a BSc in Geology from Bristol University and an MA in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS. Josh is an experienced facilitator, trainer and project manager and works with many interfaith and conflict resolution organisations in the UK; Josh is interested in creative approaches to dialogue and engagement, in particular the use of drama-based methods.

To relax, Josh enjoys cooking and reading; if he had more time he would go to the theatre more, and swim, especially in open water. Josh also enjoys traveling, especially in Europe. He was once in a play about the Tour de France and, in order to prepare for the role, had his legs waxed.

Eli working in our fundraising team with responsibility for stewarding our Major Donors and was the mastermind behind our first Gala Dinner in November 2018. 

Eli was in Israel, but grew up in London. She studied French, Spanish and European studies at the University of Birmingham, and was active in helping set up interfaith events on campus. She further developed interfaith skills in Israel on the New Israel Fund’s Social Justice fellowship, working at the Parents Circle Forum and Arous Elbahr association for Arab women in Jaffa

Raahim is supporting our income generation team.

Raahim graduated with a Triple Honours in International Relations, Arabic and French from the Universtiy of St Andrews, Scotland where he also served as President of the Muslim Students Association, General Secretary of the Coexistence Initiative, and delivered pizza in his spare time. With two fellow graduates in the summer of 2020 he founded Interfaith Exchange, a youth led transnational online multimedia initiative dedicated to making interfaith, philosophical and theological discussion accessible to a wider audience.

Raahim is a fan of exploring the less trodden path and often gets lost while wandering the countryside, but he considers it to be a metaphor. He also writes poetry. Raahim is currently enrolled in part-time traditional Shi’a Hawza Islamic Studies and spends his study breaks pestering his younger sister.

Tom graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2018 reading Biological Sciences. After starting his graduate career in Recruitment, Tom has since become more and more involved in non profit work and is now passionate about raising money and awareness for important causes.

In addition too volunteering for a number of other charities, Tom spends the majority of his spare time in the gym or playing a number of sports both recreationally and competitively.

Philip is in charge of F&BF’s communications, and manages everything from overall communications strategy to day-to-day PR, social and digital media. 

He grew up in southern Sweden and studied Religion and Theology at Uppsala University and Philosophy at King’s College London before starting a career in media and comms.

He is F&BF’s resident techie and IT guru and likes all things Japanese + reading and making music.

Jamison studied International Business and Chinese at University and as a part of that degree, went on to study in China for a year.

In his spare time he enjoys travelling, playing sports and learning new things. As part of my new year’s resolution, He started his journey at the Faith & Belief Forum in March 2021 and is look forward to working on various media projects.

Tim oversees our programmatic work in universities and the wider community. He grew up as the only child of two vicars, an experience which has left him fascinated in how faith affects people’s lives in different ways. He is particularly he is interested in youth-led interfaith, faith-based social action and intersections between the religious and the secular

Tim has a wealth of experience in student engagement and also previously taught English to Buddhist monks in India. He has an MA in Religion and Public Life from the University of Leeds and has published his research into non-religious identification where he interviewed attendees of the Sunday Assembly. 

Tim likes running, reading, politics and pop music but not tidying his desk

Siobhán works on F&BF’s Workplace and Community projects, with responsibility for coordinating the internship programme and Faith Awareness Training for LGBT organisations and groups.

Siobhán holds an MA Religion in Contemporary Society from King’s College London and BA Theology with Philosophy from the University of Exeter. She is an experienced facilitator and enjoys working with participants ages 8 to 80+. Siobhán also facilitates training for Near Neighbours, and runs independent Skills for Diversity trainings.

Siobhán is a vegan and animal lover and has previously worked in the Volunteering Department at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Jess supports the delivery of our movement building team. She began her F&BF journey in September 2016 as an intern, before working as a project consultant and now staff member! Jess has a Masters in Theology from Heythrop College and is interested in exploring the role of religious thought in the public sphere.

In her spare time, she likes to explore London, her favourite place at the moment is the South Bank and ‘the new’ Tate Modern.

Mahmooda has been involved in many initiatives in Birmingham and some beyond, to enhance relationships with people of all background. She’s a strong believer of human race having more things in common than differences. By working together as one humanity, putting aside differences, she believes we can achieve many great things and make this world a better place.

She has a degree in Industrial Information Technology and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. She has taught in secondary schools.

She’s worked with HOPE not hate for 4 years. She works for Ella Baker School of Organising one day a week, who she joined in April 2020. Currently, she’s also the Birmingham Branch Coordinator for Islamic Society of Britain.

In her spare time she enjoys gardening, travelling and going on tandem bike rides with her better half.

Josephine joined the team as the Community Engagement Kickstarter, working to build understanding and lasting relationships between people of all faiths and beliefs whilst gaining hands-on experience within our Community Team.

She is a British Progressive Jew, with a background in interfaith, social action and community cohesion. After graduating as a CCJ Student Leader, she worked for the largest faith-led social action charity, Mitzvah Day. In April 2020, she has since helped co-found the Faiths United Youth Network, a platform for young people of all faiths and none to unite to discuss and tackle the effects of Covid-19 in our communities.

She is a big ‘foodie’ and enjoys learning about different cultures and traditions through cooking, travel and learning new languages. She is currently studying Korean (Hangul) and can’t get enough of home Korean cooking! In her free time, she enjoys the great outdoors, including taking Milly, her neighbour’s dog, for hikes in the countryside.

Ben works on the ParliaMentors leadership programme as the head coordinator.

Ben is from North West London, and has graduated from Cardiff University with a BA in Philosophy. He loves playing tennis and hockey. He also enjoys reading and runs a monthly book club with an alum of the ParliaMentors programme. Prior to joining F&BF Ben taught at a synagogue and was involved in interfaith activity in the local community and on campus.

Rachel is part of the university team delivering support to the ParliaMentor propgramme.

She is a recent graduate of the London School of Economics Msc Conflict Studies program who specializes in reconciliation and dialogue. She was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, which is also where she completed her undergraduate degree in Peace, Conflict and Justice Studies & Philosophy.

Throughout her life, she has taken on many roles within the Toronto Jewish community as both an educator and a community-organizer, and she has run numerous programs in Israel-Palestine that promote awareness of, and solidarity with, grassroots peacebuilders. She loves traveling, and has spent lots of time in Sweden, East Africa, Israel-Palestine and now, London. Education and dialogue are Rachel’s main passions in life

Samatar was part of the Parliamentors programme for 2019/2020 and is very much excited to be back and part of Faith & Belief Forum once again. Throughout his time at university he has been part of several community organising schemes and so is hoping to implement both what he learnt as a recipient of the Parliamentors programme & throughout his time at university and in his local community. He cannot wait to be part of the Faith & Belief Forum team and dive into all the diverse social action projects.

Samatar went to Queen Mary, University of London and studied BSc Economics. He is also passionate about development economics and is hoping to do a Masters in it after this placement here.

Amy has responsibility for our School Linking Programme. She has 20 years of experience of working with children, young people and professionals in education settings. For the past 15 years, she worked for Save the Children in education and participation focused roles involving direct work and programme delivery with children, young people and parents. Most recently she has focused on designing, delivering and evaluating training for professionals ranging from Teachers, and senior school leaders, to Local Authority staff, inspectors, and corporate volunteers. Amy managed a team of trainers in the South of England who supported parental engagement programmes of work.

Having worked in the education sector for 20 years, Amy believes that empowering children, young people, parents and professionals to develop their voice and understanding of the world is key to change. She has seen the powerful impact that collaborative and person-centred education can have in making this change.

Amy is working towards her CIPD professional qualification in Learning and Development. She holds a post-graduate qualification in Youth and Community Work and undertook a masters level module in Children’s Learning and Development.

Jaishree is a Programmes Officer within the education and learning team delivering across schools-based work.

Before joining F&BF she worked as a freelance facilitator for a peace education charity, leading training about peace education, mediation and restorative approaches. She has previously coordinated mental health/ wellbeing projects at Girls Friendly Society and education projects at Action Tutoring.

Jaishree loves travel, has studied in France and has volunteered in Sri Lanka and Malawi as a VSO volunteer. Her interests include social justice, psychology, 5 Rhythms dance, health and wellbeing.

Katy works with the Education & Learning Team to create digital and online resources for schools. She first joined F&BF several years ago as a ‘returner’ intern, coming back to work after a period of bringing up children as well as working for her local community.  

Katy is a graduate of Edinburgh University, she began working on arts education projects in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She then developed a career in digital media, creating creative education online resources for organisations such as Channel Four and the BBC as well as digital campaigns for some of the UK’s well-known brands.

Whilst bringing up her family, she worked as a specialist music teacher in primary schools but is now back to making websites and digital resources for the education sector. 

Nevena is a Bulgarian based in North-West London. Recent Royal College of Music graduate, she enjoys playing the flutes (yes, all kinds of different ones!) and collaborating with fellow artists. Having been part of the RCM Sparks school and community programmes team, Nevena developed her passion for education, which she took further working as a visiting teacher for Hounslow music service. She likes to think that everyone and everything is a work of art and draws inspiration from every person she meets.

In her spare time, Nevena likes exploring contemporary music, art or simply hanging out with friends.