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Sola Afuape

Chair

Sola Afuape studied Physiology and Biochemistry at Kings College, London. She has over 15 years experience leading on a range of projects at national, regional and local level within the NHS, specialising in project management, talent management, leadership development and equalities. She was most recently Head of Transformation at Whipps Cross University Hospital. During her time at Whipps Cross she was seconded to the Department of Health (DH) as an Equality Advisor to the NHS. She was also the DH Lead for London for the Pacesetter Project, established to work with local communities to redesign and deliver service improvements through innovation, community engagement and partnership. Among her many activities, Sola sits on the Ministerial Advisory Group -The Standing Commission on Carers, is a Trustee and Treasurer of the Oval House Theatre and is active in her community as Chair of the Kensal Green Safer Neighbourhoods Ward Panel.

Mercy Jeyasingham MBE

Treasurer

Mercy Jeyasingham became a trustee in 2008. A management consultant, trainer and interim manager, she has held senior posts in both the voluntary and public sector including Director of Registration for the General Social Care Council (interim) and Head of Care Standards for Hammersmith and Fulham Social Services Department. Mercy has been a Non-Executive Director of NICE since 2001 and chairs its HR committee. She is also a member of the Fitness to Practice Committee at the General Optical Council, the regulatory body for opticians. She is a consultant with the Health Improvement Directorate of The King's Fund, and chairs the Acupuncture Stakeholders Group, which consists of ten professional acupuncture organisations that work together on professional issues for acupuncture, including statutory regulation. She has a Masters degree in Interprofessional Health and Welfare Studies. In June 2009 Mercy was awarded an MBE for her work in health care.

Dr Dawn Edge

Trustee

Dr Dawn Edge is an experienced academic and former clinician. Dawn has senior management and board level experience in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. She is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, a Non-Executive Director of a Mental Health Trust and a member of START Salford. Academically her research focuses on addressing inequalities in mental healthcare with a specific interest in the relative invisibility of black women in mental health services. Dawn has undertaken work on women in secure psychiatric care and the health of women and babies in prison. She is also the Women's Ministries President at the New Testament Church of God. A key component of this role is making the church relevant to the lives of people in the wider community. In this context, she is committed to using her research to enable people in BME communities and other underserved groups to receive the care, treatment and support which are responsive, effective and accessible.

Professor Mark R D Johnson

Trustee

Mark R D Johnson is Professor of Diversity in Health & Social Care, and Director of the Mary Seacole Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester. He is Clinical Lead of NHS Evidence - ethnicity and health, a service provided by the UK Centre for Evidence in Ethnicity Health and Diversity at De Montfort University and Warwick University Medical School. The service helps staff in the NHS and social care to access ‘best available' evidence affecting the provision of care to a multi-ethnic population. He is also Editor of the international journal Diversity in Health & Care, and has over 30 years experience of research into inequalities in health and the provision of services for a diverse, multi-ethnic society. Mark is also a keen hill-walker.

Rampaul Chamba

Trustee

Rampaul Chamba has been involved with The Afiya Trust since 2007 when he joined the BME Mental Health Network Steering Committee, first as a member, then as Chair. In 2008 he contributed (along with Ros Guthrie and Marcel Vige) to Afiya's response to the consultation on the Draft Revised Mental Health Act Code of Practice. He has been a Trustee at Afiya since 2009. With a background in sociology and the history, philosophy and sociology of science, he is currently writing a PhD thesis at the ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics. His research topic addresses epidemiological and activist explanations about Black African Caribbean disparities in psychiatric in-patient admission. Rampaul was awarded the Phil Strong Memorial Prize 2010 from the British Sociological Association in support of his PhD research to contribute to the advancement of medical sociology. A short abstract about this research will appear in the ESRC publication, Britain in 2011: Annual Magazine of the Economic and Social Research Council.

Faiza Rizvi

Trustee

Faiza Rizvi is currently Director of the Black & Minority Ethnic Carers' Support Service, a charity that provides culturally appropriate, fully accessible services to BME carers and their families in North London and Hertfordshire, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, age and sexuality.

Network Chairs

Odi Oquosa

Independent Chair
National BME Mental Health Service User Network (Catch-A-Fiya)

Odi Oquosa is a sculptor, painter, poet, shaman, service user consultant, advocate and peer support specialist. He was Chair of the Brighton & Hove Patient and Public Involvement Forum and Vice Chair for Sussex County from 2006-2008. Odi is also a co-founder of a service user-led service provider called Synergy Creative Community. Odi uses creative art to promote peer support. From the age of 18 he travelled extensively around Asia, America and Europe working in textiles and precious stones where he believes he gained a far better education than within an institutional setting. He studied a Foundation Course in Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is currently studying for a Diploma in Psychology at City College Brighton & Hove.

Shazia Butt

Interim Chair
National Black Carers and Carers Workers Network (NBCCWN)

Shazia Butt works at Hertfordshire Adult Care Services, previously as the Involvement Manager for Minority Groups, now as Commissioning Manager focusing on community wellbeing. Throughout her time in Adult Care Services Shazia has worked closely with BME carers' networks in Hertfordshire and from a national perspective. She has been a member of NBCCWN for over four years at a time when the network produced the research findings and toolkit Beyond We Care Too, ran a regional workshop on BME carers and hard to reach group engagement as well as facilitated a national workshop for Carers UK on carers and Equality Impact Assessments. Shazia has also developed a number of tools (including multilingual DVDs) to enhance BME carers' support. One of the tools known as '10 Key Words' is featured in the current coalition government's Strategy for Carers and is cited as an example of best practice. She recently completed an Msc in Leadership and Management in the Public Sector.