Our trustees
Our trustees bring a wealth of experience to the organisation including expertise in asylum law and policy, local government, mental health and child protection, as well as finance, fundraising, communications and the media. Around 20% of our trustees have a lived experience background.
Val Johnson
(Co-Chair)
Val Johnson (Co-Chair)
Val recently retired from a career in local government at Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council. Her roles included Neighbourhood Renewal Manager and Policy and Partnership Manager, and she worked closely with the Health and Wellbeing Board, Community Safety Partnerships and the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Board.
Val coordinated Oxford City Council’s Resettlement Programme for Syrian refugees and was very supportive of Asylum Welcome’s role in that programme.
Tony Samuel
(Co-Chair)
Tony Samuel (Co-Chair)
Tony has been supporting Asylum Welcome with its fundraising programme since 2015. Tony was recently Director of Fundraising and Communications at Freedom from Torture, raising funds through a wide range of fundraising projects to help survivors of torture who are refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.
Before that, Tony worked for a range of small and large charities, including Oxfam in the 1990s, and for a number of marketing agencies. For 10 years Tony was also a Trustee of Asylum Aid in London, which provided legal support to asylum seekers in the UK.
Tom Espley
(Treasurer)
Tom Espley (Treasurer)
Tom has been Treasurer of Asylum Welcome since 2019. He is Global Canopy’s Chief Financial Officer. Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Tom has spent 15 years working and volunteering to support NGOs and Social Enterprises with their financial management. He has a passion for social & environmental justice.
Dr Tina Leonard
Dr Tina Leonard
Tina worked as a medical research scientist with a particular interest in evidence-based decision making, disseminating good practice and improving the quality and effectiveness of services and organisations. Tina has been a volunteer with Asylum Welcome since 2008, mainly helping with fundraising and other ‘behind the scenes’ activities.
Clare Miller
Clare Miller
Clare co-founded Turpin and Miller solicitors and worked as an immigration solicitor there for 14 years, specialising in asylum and detention. Individual clients are frequently referred back and forth between the law firm and Asylum Welcome, so Clare worked alongside the charity throughout that time to support and represent people through asylum and immigration processes, and to make the case for release of those in detention.
Susan Ní Chríodáin
Susan Ní Chríodáin
Now, in Oxford, Susan has her own business ‘Beyond The Numbers’ and has a keen interest in Asylum Welcome’s work.
David Levy
David Levy
David has a background in communications and media, working for the BBC as a journalist on ‘Newsnight’, Editor for ‘Analysis’ on Radio 4 and then as the BBC’s Controller for Public Policy.
Most recently, David was Director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism within Oxford University where he is a Fellow of Green Templeton College. He has experience as a Board Member for several organisations, including the UK Statistics Authority and Reporters without Borders. He has a long-standing interest in asylum and refugees and experience of providing support for detainees on release from Campsfield.
Lucy Keating
Lucy Keating
Lucy has a background in communications and media. She is Head of Communications for Impetus, an organisation that supports disadvantaged young people get into education and employment.
She was formerly Media Manager for the International Rescue Committee and the British Red Cross. Prior to moving into the charity sector, she worked as a journalist and producer at Channel 4 News, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Al Jazeera English. Lucy has experience of working as a volunteer at Witney Refugee Action Group, including fundraising and advocating for West Oxfordshire District Council to provide adequate support to the town’s resettled refugees. Lucy was a Trustee with The David Nott Foundation, supporting the training of medics in war zones, and was also a supporter of Asylum Welcome as a teenager.
Linda Guma Bond
Linda Guma Bond
Linda works in the NHS as a Mental Health Social Worker, with qualifications from Uganda and the UK, and she recently completed a course at the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford. Linda has extensive social work experience in counselling, child protection and community development both in the UK and in war-torn northern Uganda, including work with refugees in both contexts. Linda has Ugandan nationality.
Abdoul Ma Aly Diallo
Abdoul Ma Aly Diallo
Abdoul is a senior accountant at Oxfam. He qualified from Dakar University, then worked for the Federation of Red Cross Societies. Abdoul worked with Oxfam in West Africa before moving to the Oxfam office in Oxford. Abdoul is the son of refugee parents, who fled Guinea to settle in Senegal: ‘As a child I was a foreigner, I couldn’t speak the local language’. He explains that this has inspired his charity work. Abdoul has Senegalese nationality.