Our people

Across our staff team and our pool of Associate Trainers, Bernadette leads our team in the design and delivery of RedR’s programmes.

 

Bernadette’s career spans development, good governance, institution building, tech for good, and human rights. She has advised development agencies, governments and NGOs across social and economic development topics. She has a deep interest in development aid effectiveness, poverty alleviation, inclusion of marginalised groups, and partnering with private sector champions to enable the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals. She has worked across five continents, with a particular focus on Africa and Asia.  

 

Bernadette has held leadership roles including Chairwoman at Concern Worldwide UK, CEO at Oxford Policy Management, in tech start-ups Moonshot CVE and Apolitical, and as international development programme lead at McKinsey.  

 

She holds an MBA, MSc in Public Service Policy & Management, and a BA in History and Politics. She has further specialisms in Coaching, Sustainable Finance, and Gender Equity. 

Her role includes developing an effective team, and implementing learning and development initiatives to time, budget and scope.   

 

Mari Paz believes in the importance of people being empowered with the right skills and knowledge to roll out high quality interventions in humanitarian crisis.  

 

She joins RedR from a programmes and operations management background, working in complex contexts such as Liberia, Iraq, the Sahrawi Refugee camps, Somalia, Sudan, Haiti or the DRC. 

Will strongly believes that holistic engineering skills and solutions have a vital role to play in reducing the impact of disasters around the world. In particular, he is interested in the way in which we must consider adaptive measures to respond to the rapidly changing climate in every programme which is implemented. As a learning and development organisation, RedR enables those facing the world’s most challenging contexts to respond effectively with the skills and support that they need.

 

Will is a Chartered Structural Engineering (CEng MIStructE) with a post graduate Masters in Sustainability Leadership (Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment). He has previously worked with organisation such as Engineers Without Borders, Bridges to Prosperity, and Global Water Brigades. Within his role at RedR, he acts as the Head of Secretariat for the WaSH Roadmap .

With a background in humanitarian response and thought leadership in international affairs, Laura brings leadership expertise in team and programme management, fundraising and partnership development, as well as research and learning.

 

Laura joined RedR from Chatham House, and has previously worked in countries including Syria, Turkey, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and DRC. She holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Glasgow and a MSc. Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS.

Victoria’s role includes reviewing research methods for learning needs assessments, providing input on RedR training designing, curating RedR’s self-paced online learning platforms, and coaching RedR’s pool of experts and Associate Trainers.

 

She has over a decade of experience in international development and the humanitarian sector, including seven years based in West and Central Africa.

This includes the recently launched Climate Change Adaptation & Disaster Risk Reduction programme in Somalia and Afghanistan. He is also leading work on the Engineering in Emergencies third edition handbook.

 

Alex values RedR’s dedication to strengthening capacity of humanitarian workers, particularly because of the growing impacts of climate change. What attracted him most to the organisation was the commitment to integrating climate resilience into emergency responses, empowering local actors to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate-related disasters. 

Dimple focuses on fostering a positive work culture, managing recruitment processes, implementing HR systems, and supporting staff development to help build a high-performing humanitarian workforce. She is a strong advocate for thinking outside the box and encourages innovative solutions in all aspects of her work. 

 

Dimple is passionate about working in the not-for-profit sector, particularly at RedR, because she believes in the organisation’s mission to build a resilient humanitarian workforce. Supporting those on the front lines of disaster response is crucial, and as part of the HR team, she helps ensure the staff are equipped and supported to make a difference. RedR’s dedication to skills development and its global impact attracted her to the role, where she can contribute to making a positive, tangible difference. 

 

Dimple holds a CIPD Level 5 certification and has completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Human Resources. She has extensive experience in HR management, with a focus on organisational development, staff engagement, and implementing HR systems. She has worked with both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations.

Ellie believes that learning and development has a pivotal role to play in humanitarian response. It’s crucial in building resilient communities. 

 

Her background includes the planning, implementation and evaluation of learning and capacity strengthening programmes in humanitarian and international development contexts.

She works to identify prospective opportunities, develop high-quality proposals, and maintain robust reporting mechanisms to secure and strengthen our partnerships.  

 

Grace also maintains oversight of our fundraising operations, including troubleshooting and data clean-up activities for accurate reporting. She carries out end-to-end services for the delivery of our individual giving campaigns and coordinates engagement at special events. 

 

Through her work at RedR, Grace cultivates her passion for crafting simple and effective ways to present complex information. She recognises the importance of using data effectively to measure impact and convey meaningful stories to the diverse audiences in the humanitarian sector. Her work across business development and fundraising at RedR allows her to draw on these analytical skills, adopting methodical approaches in the delivery of new systems and strategies. 

 

Grace holds an MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies from the London School of Economics.  

Iyanu assists the team with event logistics, communicating with trainers and participants, and ensuring that resources and materials are in place. She also manages specific elements of projects, marketing, and building relationships with stakeholders.

 

Iyanu is committed to making a tangible difference in the world through training and capacity-building in humanitarian response. She is passionate about being part of a team that drives real change, and finding fulfillment in making a direct contribution to building resilience and saving lives in crisis situations. 

Kateryna also supports monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) components, particularly in relation to climate  and engineering projects.

 

Kateryna finds her work at RedR enjoyable because it enables her to contribute to a meaningful cause—supporting humanitarian efforts and strengthening the skills of professionals in disaster response. As a Ukrainian, she feels it is especially important to work on projects that address the ongoing challenges in Ukraine. RedR’s involvement in the Ukrainian context enables her to directly support the resilience and recovery, which is deeply personal and rewarding.

 

Kateryna led protection teams during the early months of the war in Ukraine, and spearheaded more than 50 successful community-based initiatives in conflict-affected areas, directly addressing the needs of vulnerable populations while promoting long-term community resilience.

 

Outside of her work, she has a deep passion for learning to medicine, human anatomy, and psychology. One book that left a lasting impression is Matthew Walkers’ Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Its insights into the vital role of sleep have greatly influenced her understanding of human health and well-being.

She recently helped launch the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction programme that is helping strengthen locally led climate resilience through training local responders in drought-affected rural areas in Afghanistan and Somalia.

 

Katherine is excited by the opportunity to work at an organisation that recognises that development is not about top-down action, driven by outsiders or parachuted-in experts, but instead strengthens local capacities.

 

Katherine joins us after recently completing a MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies at the London School of Economics, where she wrote her dissertation on the interplay between climate change, coping strategies and gender in South Sudan.    

 

She works across insurance, HR, finance, IT, security, and client management. A key element of her role is increasing RedR’s efficiency.

 

Meriel is committed to strengthening the capacity of staff in humanitarian organisations. She believes that a well-informed and well-resourced team create the biggest positive impact for the communities we work with.  

 

Meriel has joined RedR from the refugee and migrant charity sector, where she volunteered for a number of years.  

 

Aside from work, Meriel enjoys a weekend cycle in a London park and seeing the latest film at her local cinema.  

For Mohammed, RedR provides a perfect combination of humanitarianism and engineering, and truly bridges the gap between both sectors for the greater good. He values making sure that our programmes support local capacities, and therefore ensure sustainable response in contexts which are in much need for professionalised humanitarian and technical personnel. 

 

Mohammed originally studied Architecture and Urban Planning with a focus on communal development. This lead to an interest in social change work. He has worked as a humanitarian responder in Libya, managing teams to deliver humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities, and decided to further pursue a MSc in International Development with conflict and humanitarian action.

 

Mohammed enjoys spending time in the outdoors hiking and running, you can also bet to stumble upon him exploring artisan coffee shops trying to figure out the best spots for specialty coffee.  

He spearheads RedR’s post-disaster and post-conflict engineering initiatives, leading efforts across Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, Türkiye and Morocco to facilitate safe and effective reconstruction of damaged housing and critical infrastructure.

 

Noor is a civil engineer by training and a humanitarian engineer by practice. He holds a PhD from University of Bath UK 2021, focused on investigating the role of computational tools in designing housing for the displaced. Noor has more than 14 years of experience of dealing with issues related to human displacement, humanitarian engineering and sustainable reintegration. Noor is a seasoned humanitarian aid worker. He formerly worked with UNCHR providing shelters and community infrastructures to internally displaced people (IDPs).

Rasha believes in the power of localisation. She works to ensure that local communities have the skills and resources needed to lead effective humanitarian responses from local level.

 

Rasha has a strong background in project and program management within the humanitarian and education sectors. 

Sheri was initially attracted to apply for a role at RedR because of our work to help people that are in the greatest of need, believing in their vital importance to the wellbeing of people experiencing disasters worldwide. 

Sheri has previously worked in the financial investment banking industry, as well as in the finance teams of charity organisations.

 

When she’s not working, Sheri loves spending time with her family and her two dogs, as well as socialising and pilates.

 

 

She has worked particularly on our longstanding Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction project, as well as Humanitarian Skills for Engineers, strengthening practical humanitarian engineering capacity in Uganda. She also provides monitoring and evaluation support to the Humanitarian Data Literacy Project.

 

Valeria is passionate about strengthening local capacities, increasing intrinsic resilience to humanitarian crises. RedR capacity-strengthening programmes emphasise the inclusion of first-line responders, who are mostly members of the local communities where there are important humanitarian needs, making localisation actionable. 

 

Valeria has extensive experience on public health research in Global South contexts and has worked for the World Bank, Médecins Sans Frontières and several National Institutes of Health. She has a background in Nutrition and Sociology and holds an MSc degree in Public Health for Development by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 

 

During her free time, Valeria enjoys climbing & hiking, traveling, reading, and making pottery. 

Sophie brings oversight and governance experience from her background in financial services to enable the delivery of RedR’s mission: to optimise capacity-building to drive effective humanitarian action. She says, “it is very exciting to be part of shaping a revived, dynamic and forward-looking charity which can give so much where the needs are”.

 

Sophie has worked in various top-ten financial institutions in the City in multiple areas – from financial management to project management and, in the last few years, driving operational performance within banking operations. Sophie holds an MSc. in Finance from Strathclyde University and became a chartered accountant while starting her career with CitiGroup. She recently managed large transformation programmes at HSBC and now leads the Consumer Duty programme at NatWest.

After privately supporting various humanitarian relief causes over the years, she draws upon her experience in the insurance industry to help RedR fulfil its ambitious mandate to deliver local training and resilience building to ensure effective, timely responses to humanitarian and other crises.  Heather brings 20+ years of experience to this role,  supporting and refining the organisation’s financial operations to ensure it maximises its resources in order to deliver on its mission.

 

Heather has a degree in business from Wilfrid Laurier University in her native Canada and holds the Chartered Professional Accountant (Chartered Accountant) designation in Canada.  She has spent most of her career in the non-life insurance industry, spanning Canada, Switzerland and the UK, where she has held several senior finance roles, including CFO.

Sally is a chartered engineer and chartered environmentalist, is a fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers (ICE), the Institution of Asset Management (IAM) and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES).  As a keen champion for sustainability and climate change, Sally promotes a proactive response through a number of industry bodies. She founded and chairs the climate emergency group at WES, co-chairs the climate emergency programme at the IAM and also sits on the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction Carbon Code advisory group. A regular speaker at conferences and events, Sally organised and chaired a joint panel session at COP26 in Glasgow on sustainability and the climate emergency, co-ordinating representation from the IAM, WES and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations. She was awarded the IAM President’s special award and the Isabel Hardwich medal in recognition of this work. She also delivered the ICE Prestige lecture in Feb 2022 on water and sustainability.

 

Prior to working at Mott MacDonald as the global head of sustainability and climate change, Sally led the net zero carbon strategy for infrastructure at the UK Environment Agency and was flood exec for the Northwest, and before that was director for the low zero carbon hub in Wales.

 

Sally spent 10 years as a company director for Engineers for Overseas Development, an engineering charity that provides development opportunities for graduates to become professionally qualified. Their community led projects are based in sub-Sahara Africa and help to alleviate poverty and improve the quality of people’s lives. She was also a trustee and board director at WES, as well as being selected as ICE Wales Cymru Chair in 2010.

Rob has been a member of RedR since 1999, where he worked with us to build community water supplies in Papua New Guinea. Robert enjoys working with RedR, its members and stakeholders to better support affected communities in this role.

Rob is a Chartered Civil Engineer and MBA with 30 years of experience in management, design, construction and management consultancy on transportation, buildings and multidisciplinary developments. He has successfully delivered in the roles of consultant, contractor and client in the private, public and charity sectors.

Rob also brings experience of being an active member on an employee advisory board. He presently considers membership standards as a reviewer for the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has a keen global interest and has visited more than 100 countries.

Samwel has spent 22 years as a global career Humanitarian Safety and Security Trainer and Advisor. He served as a Police Officer with the Government of Kenya for seven years, and has subsequently spent 15 years as a Security Advisor and Trainer in international humanitarian agencies, serving in the hostile environments. He is Training of Trainers certified with SSAFE and RedR UK as an Associate Trainer.

Alongisde this experience he holds Bachelor’s degrees in Criminology and Security Management, as well as  Development Studies in Project Management, and a wealth of other relevant qualifications. His expertise lies in assessing all spheres of humanitarian and development projects with safety and security mainstreamed as a cross-cutting aspect.

Ben Webster has worked in the humanitarian sector since 2003 and within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement since 2012.

He has worked in emergency contexts in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean and held roles such as Head of Emergencies and Head of Climate Adaptation and Early Action at the British Red Cross.

Ben is now the Head of Secretariat for the Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP), which aims to make 1 billion people safer from disaster by 2025, and is passionate about improving and scaling-up anticipatory action for the communities most affected by disasters and crises. He brings a deep knowledge of the humanitarian sector, of its structure and actors, of its challenges and of its opportunities.

He has worked in a range of contexts, from remote and challenging humanitarian field settings to Whitehall, Brussels and Geneva. Jack’s range of experience includes remote atoll development, responding to natural and man made disasters and grappling with the humanitarian response to complex conflicts.

 

He has extensive background in front line emergency and humanitarian management in South and South-East Asia, the Middle East and the South Pacific; and shares with his generation a lively recall of the ground lessons to be learned from the Balkans conflicts.  Jack combines deep field experience with equally seasoned familiarity with Government and the workings of international bodies and networks.

 

His interests include cycling, choir singing and walking in the Jura.

Libby supports RedR in fundraising, monitoring, evaluation and research. She is a freelance consultant based between Ethiopia, Jordan and the UK. Libby has led large-scale development and humanitarian program evaluations for clients including Catholic Relief Services, the International Organization for Migration, the World Food Programme and G.I.Z, as well as various other NGOs and UN agencies.

Libby began her career in business development, funding and communications functions for the non-profit organizations FoodCycle and Water & Sanitation for the Urban Poor. After completing a Masters in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam, focussed on research methodology and data analysis, she began working on research projects in the Netherlands and abroad – cementing her passion for monitoring and evaluation in the development sector.

Libby has previously lived in Uganda, Rwanda, Burkina Faso and the Netherlands, and has worked on projects across East Africa and South Asia.

In her spare time, Libby is a mentor for secondary-school leavers, runs a swimming school for children and fosters stray animals from the street. Her dream is to combine her passions of helping disadvantaged people – especially children, older people and those with disabilities – and rescuing abused or at-risk animals, by setting up an animal shelter that would provide opportunities for mutual learning and healing in a safe space.

Richard brings experience of successfully developing and delivering strategies for both large and small organisations, a broad expertise in how infrastructure is delivered and a long-standing association with RedR and its goals. He is excited by the breadth of RedR’s current operations and is particularly interested in how technology can be leveraged to make its work more accessible and sustainable.

 

Richard became a member of RedR in 1996 having spent four years attending training courses at the weekend.  In 1997 he became a Chartered Civil Engineer working at Knight Piésold Consulting.  In the same year he was seconded to Oxfam GB and with their emergencies team in Congo Brazzaville and later with the development team in Rwanda, and supported by RedR through both these assignments.

 

Richard’s career then took him to the financing of engineering and infrastructure, and he worked for 18 years for Barclays and NatWest (then RBS) initially building a business focused on the financing of infrastructure and latterly taking responsibility for part of NatWest’s large scale financing business.

 

From 2016 to mid 2022 he spent six years building a technology company focused on supporting individuals in the UK who struggle with their finances. He is currently working on a number of projects in the technology and financial sectors.

Born in Malta in 1965, Tyrone was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and spent his early Army career supporting the Armed Forces in Germany, Northern Ireland, Nepal, Bosnia, Belize, Hong Kong and Iraq; he also qualified as BEng (Civil Engineering), MA (King’s College), CEng and FICE.

 

In June 2018, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed as the Commander Home Command and the Standing Joint Commander (United Kingdom).  This three year period saw him:

 

1. Appointed as SRO for the Army’s £1.5B recruiting programme which delivered consecutive years of 100% recruitment following very poor performance.
2. Led Defence’s contribution to the Government’s COVID-19 response for which he was Knighted and presented the APM’s Outstanding Achievement Award.
3. Was responsible for delivering all aspects of His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.

 

Tyrone serves as His Majesty’s Chief Royal Engineer / Chairman of the Sapper Trust which manages six separate charities valued at circa £35M and has been an Honorary Vice President at RedR UK since February 2017.

 

Tyrone is married and has two grown up children; his limited spare time is filled with family, working on their new small-holding, playing squash, and standing in ‘The Shed’ supporting
Gloucester Rugby.

During this period he reported on many momentous events in Africa and Asia, including conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Lebanon, Sudan, Angola and Mozambique and major humanitarian operations in Ethiopia, Somalia, Niger, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Haiti and elsewhere. He has reported widely on the challenges of tackling poverty from Central America to China.

 

Mike reported first-hand the release of Nelson Mandela. He was also BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent for six
years.

 

He is now a trustee of the BBCs international development charity, BBC Media Action, and continues to make long-form radio programmes.