Our Team

Programme Coordinator - CTT programme
Ella Mobbs
Since leaving her job as a civil servant and becoming a CELTA qualified teacher in 2021, Ella has been volunteering in education projects that support people on the move in Greece. She loves seeing the empowerment and self-confidence that safe learning environments can bring, and is particularly interested in supporting initiatives that prioritise community members as skilled, responsible leaders in education.
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With her skills and experience, Ella works to raise up community teachers and ensure they receive good quality training to set them up for success in their classrooms and beyond.

Programme Coordinator- Capacity Building
Harriet Walsh
Harriet is the programme coordinator at refugeeEd. She liases with volunteers, education specialists and organisations in Greece.
Harriet is a qualified teacher and has worked in the Greek migration context for the last two years. Harriet has expertise in mindfulness and trauma informed approaches to teaching.
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Her skills and experience help refugeeEd to ensure that children and adults on the move have access to a good education by promoting collaboration and providing support and expertise to local organisations, teachers, and volunteers.

Founder
Helen Brannigan
Helen is a former primary school teacher, who set up refugeeEd after spending time in Greece teaching, developing and setting up education programmes. While there she realised how important education is in a crisis, providing structure, hope, opportunity and community.
Helen was amazed at the compassion of grassroots education providers, and saw the need for more collaboration between providers and with experienced teachers, so we can all strengthen the education on offer.
She also works for the UK's Department for Education, and she enjoys making music, writing, reading, meditation and hiking.
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CTT Trainer
Dalia Ashraf
Dalia is the Senior Academic Coordinator at Pharos University in Alexandria.
She is a Delta qualified teacher and CELTA tutor. Dalia has experience teaching different age groups, and she has trained pre-service and in-service teachers in different contexts: language centres, schools, and universities.
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CTT Trainer
Noha Abu Karam
Noha Abu Karam is a CELTA certified English teacher, assessment specialist, business course coordinator, and certified teacher trainer in Pharos University in Alexandria. She graduated in 2002 from the College of Education and since then she has been working in the education field in Egypt and overseas.
She has presented in many events like NILE TESOL 2020 and 2021, Pharos University Annual Symposium, IH Cairo webinars, and Pharos University podcast. She is a certified National Geographic educator and a big advocate for outdoor classrooms, PBL, CT skills and the importance of raising cultural awareness inside ESL classrooms.

CTT Trainer and Mentor
Mo Nabil
Mohammad Nabil is an ESL educator with over a decade of experience.
He has a passion for sharing knowledge and empowering teachers.
He is the founder, director and CEO of Educast International, a Professional Development platform that provides Educational services for teachers.
Mohammad is also an Educational Consultant, Teacher Educator, a podcaster, and Conferences-events manager.

CTT Trainer
Dawud Hill
Dawud is a Teacher, Teacher Trainer, IELTS Examiner and Academic Manager with over 10 years of experience in the MENA region. He has worked for large institutes and organisations, such as British Council and Laureate Education. He has also worked on projects with the Qatari Naval Forces, Qatari Ministry of Education, Saudi Ministry of Health, Saudi Aramco, HSBC Egypt, and more. These projects involved material design, teacher training, and project management.
"it has been the most rewarding work I have done in my whole teaching career. Both training online and face-to-face in Greece, being a part of RefugeeEd has helped me develop myself and others in ways I never thought possible."

CTT mentor
Angela Signorastri
Angela comes from an Italian family who moved to London in the 1950s. She was lucky to grow up in a very multicultural part of the city where she developed great friendships with people from all four corners of the globe. She never really believed in the significance of geographical boundaries and to this day genuinely feel we are all citizens of the world.
Music and language are her great passions, and she has sung in many places and have worked in international education for over 20 years. Her plan is to put my teacher training skills to use with RefugeeEd to support developing teachers help others feel they belong wherever they may find themselves today.
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Education Specialist
Jaz Henry
Jaz is of British and Guyanese descent and grew up in Luxembourg. He is currently a master’s student in Integrative Counselling and Psychotherapy, a Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist, and mental health first aider. He is a staunch advocate for mental health awareness and for many years he has considered it his role to spread the word about mental wellbeing through the power of human connection and self-empowerment.
He moved to Thessaloniki for his master’s to work directly with refugees and NGO workers, where the impact of trauma and burnout respectively are in constant need of care. He believes in support for supporters to foster a collaborative and empathetic process for all involved.

Education Specialist
Polly Mercer
Polly has been an English Language teacher since 2003, and has worked in South Africa, Australia, UK, Japan, Oman and the UAE. She has worked mostly teaching English for Additional Purposes, and has been involved in a variety of Student Success and ACademic Support programs. Polly is also a qualified Career Services Provider, and is very passionate about developing employability skills as part of English language learning.
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Education Specialist
Kelly Gillespie
Kelly has her BA in English from UC Berkeley and a MS in Education & International Development for the University of Bristol. She lived in Thailand for 1 year, teaching EFL and has worked with non-profits that specialise in human rights (including refugees). Kelly is passionate about empowering women through education, and exploring various teaching methods and pedagogies that can achieve this. In her free time, Kelly enjoys reading, writing, surfing and cooking.
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CTT Trainer and Mentor
Pola Papadopoulou
Originally from Greece, Pola has been living in Sweden for 10 years. She has a BA in English Language and Literature and a Master's in International and Comparative Education, with a focus on leadership in language centres. She also holds an Advanced Diploma in TESOL and the Cambridge Delta. Pola has been a member of the IATEFL digital committee, her focus currently being on designing a course for English language educators and has held CPD workshops for teachers with various organisations.
With 10 years of teaching experience, she has taught in Greece, the UK, Sweden and online and her niche is Business English and IELTS. She currently works as a Program Manager at Stockholm School of Economics.
'My love for teaching never wavers and I want to inspire other teachers to embrace it as much as I do. Since I joinedRefugeeEd as a volunteer trainer and mentor, I have tried to find ways to motivate and help teachers on the ground and I could not have expected such great personal development and sense of fulfilment.'

Trustee and Chair
Bella Evidente
Bella has 30 years of diverse professional experience that
combines diplomatic, strategic, technical, managerial, and
operational leadership in humanitarian and international
development contexts.
She comes from a long history of service with the United
Nations, having served in different leading capacities and in
highly challenging duty stations in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. During this period, she delivered large-scale emergency relief and humanitarian assistance and instituted a series of reforms to environmental, economic, and social inclusion programmes of governments and stakeholders.
Bella is a strong advocate of continuous learning and is
passionate about cultivating capabilities, curating knowledge, and connecting people. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor activities, exploring places, and discovering new cultures and food.
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Trustee and Board Secretary
Nicole Walsh
Passionate about social justice, Nicole is a Programme Manager for a sustainable development research organisation. Nicole enjoys designing inclusive and robust governance frameworks.
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Nicole's day job includes delivery of the full project life cycle for large scale grants including contracting, due diligence, value for money, and securing compliance with complex funder requirements.
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Nicole loves to apply a growth mindset to her work and is currently undertaking a CIPD Advanced Diploma in Strategic Learning and Development.
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Trustee
Liz Robinson
After working in multi-sectors roles in humanitarian aid and international development, Liz deliberately pivoted to focus on the education sector. Based on her experiences working and living in the Middle East and South Asia, she came to believe that education is the key to maximizing collective and individual human potential, as well as cultivating social transformation, especially for young people on the margins.
Now based in London, Liz works for an NGO focused on foundational literacy and numeracy.

Trustee
Nora Marketos
Nora is an education and migration specialist advising NGOs, EdTech companies and public institutions in the area of impact strategy, multi-stakeholder partnerships and program management as an independent consultant.
She has most recently completed her EMBA, and has a Master’s Degree in Social Anthropology, Arabic Literature and Political Science, as well as a Master of Advanced Studies in International Cooperation.
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She has over 15 years’ experience in international development, humanitarian work and education programs in Africa, Europe and the Americas, working for a range of different organizations including the United Nations and international NGOs.