Here’s where you can find our staff and trustees.

Staff

Ali Harris

Ali joined Equally Ours as Chief Executive in 2015. She started her career in asylum rights, and has over 25 years’ of leadership experience, championing people’s equality and human rights for organisations including Oxfam, Stonewall and Citizens Advice, as well as through grassroots community organising. She’s led work to tackle hate crime against Black and racially minoritised people, LGBT+ people, and disabled people for over 20 years. She pioneered new ways to support survivors of violence against women and girls. She developed innovative disability rights programmes in the war-torn Balkans. She’s a former co-chair of the Powerhouse, an organisation of women with learning disabilities in East London, and management committee member of the Detention Advice Service. As of October 2021, Ali shares the Chief Executive role with Clare Moody.

You can follow her at @alifharris.

Clare Moody

Clare joined as Co-Chief Executive in 2021. Her experience includes working as an MEP, sitting on the European Parliament’s Equality Committee and specialising in gender budgeting. She is a consultant with expertise in industrial, research, and science policy, and political engagement. She is on the board of Fair Play South West. Clare spent 20 years as a trade union official, leading negotiations on delivering equality in the workplace.

Cat Whitehouse

Cat is our Head of Strategic Communications, overseeing consultancy and training on narrative change. Cat has a decade of communications and training expertise, underpinned by a decade in violence against women services. She passionate about including people with lived experience in communications, an approach she has embedded in work across the mental health, sight loss, homeless health, and regeneration sectors.

Ellora Kowalczyk

Ellora is the Enterprise Development Project intern. She assists with the running of the alumni network phase of the project, including curating a monthly newsletter and developing a catalogue of organisations within the EDP. Ellora’s previous experience involves creating and presenting a set of guidelines on teaching and assessing race and racism within higher education at a decolonising workshop.  

Kamille Leon

Kamille is our Office and Resources Manager, and joins us from Savanta ComRes. She is a dedicated volunteer for the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, where she works alongside the patients’ family and friends to register people for Stem Cell, Blood and Organ donation. Kamille has been awarded Registration Volunteer of the Year. When she is not organising the office Kamille enjoys spending her free time attending the theatre, visiting exhibitions, creating shows, fundraising and participating in Charity runs.

Kathryn Quinton

Kathryn is our Communications Director, leading our respected strategic communications programme to shift public opinion on social issues to influence policy. The programme comprises audience insight, frame and message development, content and campaign creation, and sector capacity-building.

Khadija Hossain

Khadija is our Programme Officer for the Funders Race Equality Alliance. Their work focuses on delivering programmes and operational activities of the Alliance. They work closely with funders to increase knowledge and investment in racial justice, pushing for greater racial representation in the philanthropic sector. Khadija’s previous experience includes embedding race equity initiatives in higher education, strengthening marginalised student communities through culture and liberation events, and advocating for co-produced curriculum strategy at the University of Sussex.

Liz Shannon

A London native, Liz leads on all things policy and parliamentary. She has a strong campaigning background: from widening access to education at UCU, to getting Fair Trade off the ground at Oxfam.

Lukia Nomikos

Lukia is our Community Engagement Officer. She is responsible for engaging our member organisations on key policy areas, supporting knowledge exchange, and amplifying member voices to inform thinking and policy-making. Lukia’s previous experience includes working with various charities focused on refugee rights and impact management in several different countries. Lukia has a Masters in International Relations from the University of Warwick and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Bristol.

Tanishtha Sen Gupta

Tanishtha is the Head of Programme for the equality strand of the Enterprise Development Programme. The programme encourages equality organisations to explore incorporating trading in their practice as a way to build financial resilience and foster innovation across the sector. Prior to this, Tanishtha’s was responsible for engaging our member organisations, supporting knowledge exchange and amplifying member voices to inform thinking and policy-making. Tanishtha has a Masters in Human Rights from the School of Advanced Studies UoL, and Refugee Studies from London South Bank University.

Tansy Hutchinson

Tansy is our Head of Policy. She leads on policy and research and manages our network on hate crime. She joins us from the House of Commons where she provided specialist policy support to the Women and Equalities Select Committee, having previously worked for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and race equality NGOs in Northern Ireland and Europe. Tansy has a Masters in Human Rights Law from Queens University, Belfast and 20 years’ experience of working on policy, research and campaigns in Northern Ireland, Europe and Great Britain.

Tracey Agyeman

Tracey is Head of Programme for the secretariat of the Funders for Race Equality Alliance. Her work includes providing expertise and leadership across the network of over 30 funders, including Lloyds Banks Foundation, Comic Relief and Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation. With the Alliance, she has developed the racial justice audit, Taking Stock analysis report and their longer-term strategy, which will soon be available.

Prior to joining Equally Ours, Tracey worked at the European Women’s Lobby and UNESCO.

Trustees

Jess McQuail (Chair)

Jess has spent nearly 30 years in the UK and international not for profit sector working as a campaigner and senior leader. She is Director of Just Fair, chair of a national children’s charity and an independent charity consultant. Jess is a passionate advocate for social justice, equality, and human rights and has held several CEO, Director, and board roles. In her spare time, she is a keen swimmer.

Cat Burton

“In 1972, British Airways had a woman pilot, but they didn’t know it and, at the time, neither did I.”  This is how Cat Burton reconciles her 44 year career as an airline pilot with her transition in 2014, with the full support and help of her employer. Cat was born in 1952 and progressed from Air Cadet to senior longhaul airline captain in the firm belief that transition would be a career breaker but sees her final years as her best ever. She was British Airways Flight Operations Diversity Champion and their most senior woman pilot when she retired in 2017.

Colin Davidson

Colin is a specialist discrimination and employment lawyer with Cole Khan solicitors, a law firm standing for equality, diversity and civil rights. Colin has a particular interest in fighting disability discrimination and securing adjustments in the workplace. He is also a Trustee of the Discrimination Law Association, of which he was previously chair.

Ibrahim Ali (Treasurer)

Ibrahim is our Treasurer, he is a Chartered Accountant and is currently the Finance Director at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, having previously worked in various roles for a listed management consulting company and prior to that in audit.

Julie Bishop (Vice-chair)

Julie is the Director of the Law Centres Network, working to defend the legal rights of people who can’t afford a lawyer. She’s also worked in IT, and taught philosophy at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Kudsia Batool

Kudsia has a wealth of experience in leadership and negotiation, with a great record of winning for working people. Her mission, and that of the TUC, remains making sure all people can work with dignity, respect and a fair share of the wealth they create. But in today’s fast-changing digital world, our methods must keep up. Kudsia leads the development of TUC strategy so that the trade union is a modern movement, fit for the challenges and the opportunities of the 21st Century.

Natalie Cresswell

Natalie is the equality and human rights policy manager at Age UK, the charity for older people. She has a background in anthropology and holds a Masters in International Politics. She has previously held policy and research roles focusing on health policy, gender equality, and human rights in the UK and internationally.