Our patrons & advisory board
Our Patrons
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, MP BSc, MA GDL
Bell was born and raised in Streatham, growing up on a working class estate in Brixton Hill. She attended the independent Streatham and Clapham High School after winning a scholarship and went on to study Biomedical Science with Ethics & Philosophy of Science , Medical Law & Ethics before later branching in to law.
Bell was the National Black Students' Officer for the National Union of Students (NUS) from 2008 to 2010, national co-ordinator of the Student Assembly Against Racism, and the national convenor of the NUS' Anti-Racism/Anti-Fascism campaign during her time studying.
She has sat as a school governor at Saint Gabriel's College, Camberwell since 2018 and assumed her seat in Parliament in December 2019 before being made Shadow Minister of State for Immigration. Alongside her work as a sitting MP, Bell has a proven history of working with charitable organisations and promoting their causes. Bell is co-chairperson of Labour's left-wing Socialist Campaign Group, a trade unionist and fights for what she believes in.
Myles Pilling, MA
Myles’ career has seen him work across a myriad of positions within the education system, having been a teacher in SEN (Special Educational Needs) schools for 27 years.
After leaving the teaching profession he became an IT SEN adviser; providing equipment, software, education and training for pupils with special and/or complex educational needs as part of the Specialist SEN Service (SSENS) team at Wiltshire Council - where he worked for ten years as an ICT SEN Consultant.
For the last seven years Myles has been running his own assessment, consultancy and training company AccessAbility Solutions where his role is Specialist SEND ICT Consultant, he is a County Co-ordinator for AbilityNet's network of volunteers in Wiltshire and Myles is also a member of BATA (British Assistive Technology Association) and leads the organisation's Education Special Interest Group, a part-time external lecturer for Bath Spa University on their MA Dyslexia course, and a SEND Consultant for Tablet Academy.
Claudette Athea Douglas
Claudette Athea Douglas is a playwright, poet, actor, ordained interdenominational Christian minister and Chaplain.
Claudette created and delivered the accredited training course Racial Justice Footprints, which was a new direct initiative to support SLAM Mental Health Trust (South Lambeth & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) to address the systemic lack of BAME practitioners working in mental health and providing opportunities to impact on policy, procedure and institutional understating and devolvement. This knowledge was created to inform and educate BAME practitioner and volunteers who wanted to pursue this area of work.
She is the multi faith chaplaincy coordinator at SOAS University in London and group chaplain at London and South East Colleges. She has worked as a cultural and spiritual activist for over three decades where she specialises in using creativity and community participation solutions to bring about equality, justice and peace.
Patrick White, MB CHB BAO MRCP FRCGP MD
Patrick completed his undergraduate training in Ireland before moving to Scotland to become a GP trainee where he first developed an interest in research and published a paper about the care of epilepsy in general practice.
After moving to London in the early eighties he undertook a Primary Care Research Fellowship at St George’s Hospital School of Medicine whilst working as a GP. He was also a lecturer in general practice and primary care at King’s College Hospital School of Medicine.
More recently he leads a research programme in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To do this it’s necessary to design new projects and seek research grants from funding bodies such as the NHS National Institute of Health Research and charities such as the Dunhill Medical Trust. The second element of his work involves the recruitment of new GP academics into the department as academic registrars and clinical fellows. Patrick is responsible for their management as they progress through their training. Linked to this is the supervision of students undertaking their Master’s degree in Public Health.
He is Aldo involved with teaching, including contributing to the Master’s degree in Palliative Care (within the Department of Palliative Care, Rehabilitation and Policy).
Lalit Kalra, MD PhD FRCP FRACP
Lalit Kalra, or Kal, has held senior clinical and academic leadership positions as Head of Stroke Services and the Professor of Stroke Medicine at King’s College Hospital between 1998-2016. He was responsible for establishing one of the leading comprehensive stroke centres in the UK, securing over £10 million of research funding and publishing over 300 research articles which have contributed to stroke policies and guidelines in the UK and other countries.
Kal was head-hunted in 2017 to take up the role of Medical Director at Auckland District Health Board, an integrated care organisation and the leading tertiary care provider in New Zealand, with an annual budget of 2.5 billion NZD. The key aspect of the role was facilitating the medical workforce to engage in a major systems transformation taking place in the organisation. He developed frameworks for service accountability, alignment of personal professional and service objectives, quality assurance and leadership development within the senior medical workforce.
Having joined the Senior Leadership Team as the Director of Community and Long-Term conditions in 2018, Kal was accountable for developing strategy, service priorities, business planning, risk management and staffing of 11 hospital and community services and 600 staff. He introduced systems to improve effectiveness, efficient and well-being within multidisciplinary professionals and investing in developing staff talent and leadership skills. In 2020, he was tasked to undertake a strategic review of the NZ Disability system and produce recommendations for a “one system” approach across health, social and voluntary services sectors to be implemented by Northern Alliance District Health Boards as their 2021-2026 priorities for Disability.
In these roles, he has demonstrated the ability to plan strategically and engage different disciplines to deliver effective and high quality services. Kal is a team player who respects the contribution of other team members and believes in building relationships, timely communication and transparency. As a leader, he have taken accountability for delivering outcomes, and developed a workplace culture that values and respects people, recognises talent, celebrates achievement and develops leaders for the future.