Our team
Our work is run by a small and dedicated staff team, and over 300 volunteers. Around 50% of our staff come from a refugee background.
Dr Hari Reed
Joint CEO
Dr Hari Reed - Policy and Advocacy Coordinator
Before taking up the position of Joint-CEO with Sarah Totterdell in May 2025, I was the policy and advocacy coordinator at Asylum Welcome for four years. During this time, I have led our campaigning and influencing work at national and local levels. I have worked on local Sanctuary schemes, collaborative research projects, and involving people with lived experience in all we do. I moved into the sector after completing a PhD at the University of Birmingham, studying the 2015-16 ‘refugee crisis’.
Sarah Totterdell
Joint CEO
Sarah Totterdell
I am a feminist leader with extensive senior management experience across the charity sector, including in the Macular Society, Oxfordshire Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre, Oxfam and as Deputy CEO of Women in Prison. I was part of Asylum Welcome’s senior management team for a year as the director responsible for our resettlement and related programmes, before taking up the position of Joint-CEO with Dr Hari Reed in May 2025.
Ghani Abou Alchamat
Operations Manager
Ghani Abou Alchamat
Anne Maxfield MA ACA
Finance Manager
Anne Maxfield - Finance Manager
I qualified as a chartered accountant in 1991 and have since worked in various financial roles across the public sector, charities, and not-for-profit organisations. This includes leading the finance team at a children’s hospice charity, a campaigning media company, and a theological college. I also have extensive management accounting experience from working for the NHS and the University of Oxford. In addition to paid work, I have contributed to charity finance committees and acted as an independent examiner for several local charities.
Jenny Dunn
Fundraising and Communications Manager
Jenny Dunn - Fundraising and Communications Manager
I joined Asylum Welcome as Fundraising and Communications Manager in December 2024, having previously worked in marketing and communications for international development organisations.
I am passionate about tackling poverty and injustice through storytelling and encouraging people to be part of making a difference. After working to support global communities affected by poverty and displacement, I’m delighted to now be raising life-changing funds and sharing stories of change for people in my own community of Oxford.
Simon Dawson
Adult and Family Advice Service Coordinator (On secondment)
Simon Dawson - Adult and Family Advice Service Coordinator
I joined Asylum Welcome in June 2020, having previously volunteered with Asylum Welcome’s Campsfield Detention Support Team, and Adult & Family Services, as an advisor in 2016-17. I then moved to the British Red Cross Refugee Support Service where I worked as a casework coordinator across the Thames Valley for 3 years.
My passion for humanitarian work began while volunteering for a disaster response charity erecting temporary shelters for earthquake survivors in Sumatra, Indonesia, and a school building project in Haiti. My interest in displaced persons, refugee and asylum rights, developed while studying a BA in Social and Political Studies at Ruskin College and then carried through my MA in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick. I am delighted to have returned to Asylum Welcome and embark on this new and exciting chapter.
Meena Patel
Asylum & Immigration Advice Coordinator
Meena Patel - Asylum & Immigration Advice Coordinator
Prior to taking up this post, I worked as a senior manager at Southall Black Sisters (SBS) for 34 years. My work primarily entailed supporting black and minority women and children escaping violence and abuse and addressing related matters such as homelessness, immigration, and mental health problems. I have extensive frontline experience in providing advice and undertaking casework including representing high risk domestic abuse cases at multi-agency risk assessment conferences, and in advising and supporting women through their immigration/asylum, criminal and civil/family legal and appeal processes. Aside from advice and casework, I was involved in training, policy and campaigning work.
Fareed Fakhoury
Youth Service Coordinator
Fareed Fakhoury
Displacement reshapes you; it changes how you listen, observe, and connect. As a Syrian Palestinian, I carry both loss and resilience, and it is this duality that informs my work with asylum-seeking and refugee youth. I joined Asylum Welcome following over a decade of work across conflict-affected regions in Syria, Turkey, and beyond, focusing on protection, gender-based violence, and community health.
Whether facilitating our weekly youth club or navigating the complexities of the immigration system, I see each young person not as a case, but as a constellation of potential in search of belonging. With a background in medicine, public policy, and humanitarian coordination, I now lead a team of volunteers supporting young people through transition, trauma, and rebuilding a sense of home.
What grounds me? Quiet moments of trust. A shared laugh. A spontaneous art project that draws everyone in. It is in these small, often unplanned moments that meaningful change begins.
Jan Dogar-Hurd
Schools Advocacy Coordinator
Jan Dogar-Hurd - Schools Advocacy Coordinator
I joined Asylum Welcome as a volunteer Education Adviser in August 2020. I immediately felt aligned with the values of Asylum Welcome and through my experience and passion for education, supported clients and their families to access educational opportunities.
I believe that education is a vital pathway to personal growth and have embodied that belief in my career as a teacher, educational leader and volunteer.
I have worked in schools in Pakistan, Philippines, Hong Kong and Australia. Throughout my career I have always found opportunities to get involved in local charities, as a Board Member and Outreach and Fundraiser for The Children’s Academy of SW Florida, a school for children of the working poor, a mentor for vulnerable teenagers for The Smith Family in Australia, a trainer of local teachers for The Teachers Resource Centre, Karachi, Pakistan and a support parent for a local orphanage in Taipei.
Two years ago, I returned to the city where I was born and brought up. I loves Oxford and I am committed to contributing to its development and success.
I am now the Schools Advocacy Coordinator for Asylum Welcome. Together, with a team of 15 volunteers are working with local schools and refugee and asylum seeker families to increase access and engagement in the home school partnership, helping families to better support their children’s education.
Rhiannon Lovell
Huntercombe Project and Education & Employment Coordinator
Rhiannon Lovell - Huntercombe Project and Education & Employment Coordinator
I previously trained as a musician, before changing careers to work in safeguarding. I joined Asylum Welcome in August 2019 as a volunteer adviser with Europa Welcome (our EU Settlement Scheme advice service) and now run our Education & Employment service as well as our service visiting foreign national prisoners in HMP Huntercombe.
Siân Long
Outreach Coordinator (Oxford)
Siân Long - Outreach Coordinator (Oxford)
I joined Asylum Welcome as a volunteer seven years ago and have recently joined the staff team, working on part-time outreach in the Oxford hotel.
As a volunteer, I worked in Adult and Family Advice and then also with the outreach team when asylum seekers were first placed in hotels in Oxfordshire in October 2022.
Our work in the hotels involves being a point of contact for newly arrived asylum seekers and those who receive the right to remain in the UK in preparation for moving forward. We provide information, practical assistance such as phones, sim cards, bikes, and assisting in navigating an often-complicated immigration system. I am also a self-employed child protection consultant, when not working at Asylum Welcome.
Claire Kay
Outreach Coordinator (Witney & Banbury)
Claire Kay - Outreach Coordinator (Witney & Banbury)
I first joined Asylum Welcome as a volunteer in 2021, and it has been a privilege to work alongside such a dedicated and talented team of staff and volunteers. I am delighted to now be working as an Outreach Coordinator.
In my previous career as a lawyer working for the Ministry of Justice and Court Service, I have seen at first hand the benefit of clear and accurate advice on individual outcomes. I am passionate about helping Asylum Welcome’s clients navigate the complex and often hostile asylum system.
Emma Jones
Communications Coordinator
Emma Jones - Communications Coordinator
My name is Emma, and I joined Asylum Welcome as Communications Coordinator in the autumn of 2022. I’m currently Co-Chair of Oxford Against Immigration Detention (part of the Coalition to Keep Campsfield Closed) and was one of the co-founders of Sanctuary Hosting in 2015. Previously, I helped campaign for Oxford to become a City of Sanctuary and have worked on various sanctuary-related projects, including the 2016 conference “From Fortress Europe to Sanctuary Europe” at the Refugee Studies Centre.
Tania Baldwin-Pask
Sanctuary Hosting Service Manager
Tania Baldwin-Pask
I joined the Sanctuary Hosting team last November. I come from a background of working in advocacy, mainly for Amnesty International in London, as well as for a short period at Freedom from Torture. I am a trustee of a local organisation which supports asylum-seekers and refugees in the UK and abroad. Since joining the team, I have been busy with the practical details of Sanctuary Hosting’s merger with Asylum Welcome and reviewing the services in Reading and Oxfordshire.
Eden Habtemichael
Sanctuary Hosting Service Coordinator
Eden Habtemichael
I am a journalist from Eritrea and recently worked with the BBC as a Senior Broadcast Journalist for the Horn of Africa. I was one of the founding members of Sanctuary Hosting in 2015, having spent 13 years supervising community-led services and founding the Women’s Service at Refugee Resource. I was named “Woman of the Year” by the UNHCR at the 2017 ‘Women on the Move Awards’, in recognition of my work to empower refugees and migrant women in the UK. As I speak Tigrinya and Amharic, I help the community through translation and interpreting. I am passionate about my work and the need to help people out of homelessness and destitution and into independent living.
Sawan Hassan
Digital Inclusion Coordinator
Sawan Hassan
I have joined Asylum Welcome as Digital Inclusion Coordinator. I have been also volunteering with Asylum Welcome in the Youth Project since June 2022. I graduated from Computer Science in 2018. I am dedicated to making a meaningful impact as a digital inclusion coordinator. I am excited to continue my mission of creating a more inclusive digital landscape, empowering individuals from all backgrounds to thrive in the digital age.
Dr Samer Altoutou
Senior Coordinator, UK Resettlement Schemes
Samer Altoutou
Returning to Asylum Welcome after working for various humanitarian and charity organisations, feels great. I previously managed services for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in London for The Salvation Army organisation, and before that, I worked for the British Red Cross and Migrant Help organisations, respectively.
At Asylum Welcome, I oversee the resettlement programmes, welcoming refugee families to Oxford City, and ensuring they have the support they need to settle in the local community. My interest in supporting vulnerable people developed while studying and completing my post-graduate academic studies in the field of law.
Mohamed Mohndis
Resettlement Programme Coordinator
Mohamed Mohndis
Manar Khalifa
Resettlement Support Worker
Manar Khalifa
Tracey Lott
Volunteer Coordinator
Tracey Lott
I joined Asylum Welcome in March 2024 as Volunteer Coordinator and feel very fortunate to work alongside a strong community of over 200 volunteers who are at the heart of all we do. I’ve worked in the voluntary sector for over 20 years, managing services and volunteers at various local charities focused on support, mental health, and wellbeing. I have a long history as a volunteer myself, which led me to change career direction after previously working in metals research.
Waed Alwad
Schools Advocacy Service Assistant
Mohamed Hage
Mohamed Hage
Office Manager
Mohamed Hage
Tim Thompson
Fundraiser
Tim Thompson
“The entire team is trained to handle everyone as an individual and they are non-judgemental. I loved this most about Asylum Welcome. Very caring and kind staff. I always felt at home whenever I was at Asylum Welcome’s offices” – client at Asylum Welcome.
