Our Team
Programme Coordinator - CTT programme
Emy Yates
Since graduating from the University of Cambridge in 2017, Emy has been volunteering and working with organisations that support people on the move in Greece, France, and the UK. With a particular focus on project coordination, programme design, education, and employability, Emy is interested in supporting programmes that empower and are informed by individual and community needs.
Emy is also a CELTA qualified teacher. Emy believes it is important to stay informed of the challenges that people on the move face so as to effectively advocate against the violences that are inflicted while working on sustainable solutions.
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Field Coordinator
Sofia Madentzoglou
Sofia is the field coordinator at refugeeEd. She is a graduate from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a bachelor of French language and Literature while being an undergraduate student at the University of Macedonia doing a masters in Business Administration with a focus on CSR, HR and Change Management.
She is a certified Neuro Linguistic Programming master practitioner from the Hungarian NLP Institute and holds diplomas in the English, Spanish, French and Portuguese languages. She has been working in the NGO sector for the last 10 years as a project manager, coordinator, trainer and mentor in European and International projects.
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
Dawud Hill
Dawud is a Teacher, Teacher Trainer, IELTS Examiner and Academic Manager from East London with over 10 years of experience in the MENA region. He's 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. He has been been a CTT Trainer and mentor with RefugeeEd since Sep 2021.
"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
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.
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.
Founder and Chair
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.
Trustee
Kim Tester
A lifelong and eclectic volunteer coming from a family of teachers, Kim has always been committed to education and learning and helping others to realise their potential.
Originally leading on commissioning health professional education for the NHS in Wales, Kim changed profession in 2000 to focus on broader people and equality matters. In seeking out a Trustee opportunity with a human rights focus, as she approaches retirement, she applied to refugeeEd.
She believes her professional skill-set is a good match for assisting the charity to target educational specialist volunteers who are the life-blood in enabling its mission to be fulfilled and enabling Article 26 of UDHR to be upheld in the Greek refugee context.
Trustee
Jennifer Willis
Jenny is our finance trustee. She uses her accountancy background to ensure that all of our finances are well managed.
Jenny is passionate about education. When she is not working in her day job at the Civil Service or balancing the books for refugeeEd, you might find her bell-ringing in one of England's historic churches.