Biographies

Sabiha Azad

Sabiha Azad works for the Children’s Commissioner as a Participation Officer. Sabiha hopes to contribute her lived experience and amplify the diverse experiences of ethnic minority communities. She is eager to move away from knowledge improvement and short-term commitments into implementing real changes to create an anti-racist Wales.

Marilyn Bryan

Marilyn Bryan has been involved with promoting fairness all her life, and her professional and voluntary roles have highlighted discrimination and injustice. Marilyn’s view has been to focus on solutions, seeing herself as a servant of the Community. She believes that Collaboration, Communication and Co-operation can lead to tackling discrimination.

Helal Uddin

Helal Uddin is a co-Director and Head of Services and Partnerships at EYST. Helal’s passion is to make a better Wales and he enjoys all challenges and the benefits they bring. Helal feels blessed to serve the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and the people of Wales, playing his part to make a better society for all.

Maria Mesa

Maria Mesa came to Wales from Colombia as a political refugee 44 years ago. A qualified Social Worker, Maria has been actively involved in developing innovative organisations and services responding to the needs of Minority Ethnic communities, especially women. Maria’s personal and professional life has been driven by her passion, commitment and belief in social justice and equality.

Loren Henry

Loren Henry co-founded youth arts organisations Urban Circle and G-Expressions to drive improvement for young people, amplified by the BLM movement. Loren embraces a responsibility for challenging injustice. Her lived experience enables her to empathise with the marginalised communities she works in and to improve the aspirations of young people, actively listening to them and their communities.

Aliya Mohammed

Aliya Mohammed is Chief Executive Officer of Race Equality First and has over 10 years of expertise in Anti-Racism, delivering training for the civil service. She developed the Framework for Action on Hate Crime in 2016 and chaired the Welsh Committee for the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Racism to the UK.

Rajma Begum

Rajma Begum is the WCVA’s National Sport Diversity Manager and a Board Member of Sport Wales. Rajma’s passion for sport equality stems from negative personal experiences from a young age. Working with partners across the spectrum of equality and diversity, her mission is to ensure all sports and arts are welcoming for the ethnically diverse communities of Wales.

Martin Gallagher

Martin Gallagher is an Irish Traveller, who is currently undertaking his PhD fellowship with Northumbria University. He has worked with many organisations, such as North Wales Police, Welsh Government, the Senedd and many others to raise awareness of inequalities that Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities face and is an activist for equality.

Leila Usmani

Leila Usmani (she/her) manages her organisational development consultancy, and works separately within antiracist research, policy, lobbying and influencing. With experience of LGBTQIA+ people, disabled people, ethnic minority women and young people, Leila prioritises the intersectionality of antiracism in all her work. Leila will support the implementation of the ARWAP ensuring this lens is applied across the policy areas.

Mfikela Jean Samuel

Mfikela Jean Samuel originally comes from West Africa and now lives in Gwynedd, working in different community engagement projects. Sam believes his decade of experience, encounters and activities in this part of Wales has braced him with valuable knowledge that will contribute to implementing the ARWAP.

Annette Nelson

Annette Nelson moved to mid-Wales in 2015. Annette was an experienced senior leader in education in one of the UK’s highest attaining local authorities, challenging and supporting schools to raise standards. As a queer Black woman, Annette understands and embraces the power of intersectionality. Annette has been the Education Lead for the global Football v Homophobia campaign since 2013.

Nelarine Cornelius

Nelarine Cornelius is Professor of Organisation Studies and member of the Centre for Research into Equality and Diversity, Queen Mary, University of London. Nelarine researches social justice and business and is co-lead of a project analysing national data sets on race inequality in the workplace. Her focus with the ARWAP will be employment, leadership, accountability structures and evidence bases.

Uzo Iwobi

Uzo Iwobi is Professor at Practice at UWTSD and was a Specialist Policy Adviser to Welsh Government from 2019-2021. Uzo has challenged racism in Wales for 30 years as an equalities practitioner and served as a Commissioner to the Commission for Racial Equality. Uzo wishes to see this plan used effectively to transform lives.

Jason Arday

Jason Arday will take up the 2002 Professorial Chair of Education (Sociology of Education), University of Cambridge in 2023. Jason is a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust and sits on the Centre for Labour and Social Studies National Advisory Panel and the NHS Race and Health Observatory Academic Reference Group. 

Nisreen Mansour

Nisreen Mansour was born and brought up in Cardiff, to a Dutch mother and Iraqi father. Nisreen has worked for the Wales TUC as a policy officer for the last five years. The workplace plays a huge role in the ARWAP’s implementation, and Nisreen will advise on making the worker’s voice a central principle.  

Lella Nouri

Lella Nouri is a Senior Lecturer of Criminology at Swansea University. Her research specialises in hate and extremist activity. Lella has lived experience of growing up and working as an ethnic minority woman in Wales. For Lella, the success of the action-plan is premised on ensuring that the voices of ethnic minority communities are utilised.

Indu Deglurkar

Indu Deglurkar is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at University Hospital of Wales. In various leadership roles at a national and international level, Indu has championed equality and diversity. She would like to address the social determinants of health and develop robust ways of tackling institutional racism in the NHS at all levels.

Professor Charlotte Williams OBE

Professor Charlotte Williams OBE is Honorary Professor in the School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University and former Associate Dean and Professor of Social work at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She holds Honorary Fellow appointments at Glyndwr University, Cardiff Metropolitan University    and the University of South Wales.  Her groundbreaking memoir, ‘Sugar and Slate, won the Wales Book of the Year Award in 2003. She has made numerous appearances on television and radio, commenting on multiculturalism in Wales.