AMREF has over 700 employees, 97% of whom are African and based in Africa. In the UK we have 16 employees, including:
Grace Mukasa
Chief Executive
Grace joined AMREF UK from VSO, where she was Head of Programmes for Africa, and had previously worked as Country Director for VSO in Zambia, Director for Programme Development for Save the Children Norway in Uganda; Programme Manager for Plan International in Uganda and Executive Director of ACFODE, a leading national women’s organisation that promotes women rights and gender policy in Uganda.
She also worked with government as a teacher in both Kenya and Uganda and as a Regional Programme Manager for Uganda Bureau of Statistics on the World Bank/UNDP/ Govt. of Uganda Surveys to monitor the Social Dimensions of Structural Adjustment through the Integrated Household and Community Surveys and Demographic and Health Surveys.
Grace is Ugandan and has an MA in Gender & Development from the Institute of Development Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Planning & Management. She joined AMREF UK in January 2008.
Senait Fassil
Director of Finance and Administration
A qualified Chartered Certified Accountant with an MBA from Oxford Brookes University, Senait comes with extensive experience in charity accounting and financial managment both at country office and head office level.
Senait started her career in her native country Eritrea with LWF then moved to CARE International where she worked both in country office (Eritrea and DRC) and head office (Atlanta). Prior to joining Amref she worked with IRC-UK and NEF in similar positions. Senait joined AMREF UK in April 2008.
Shivonne Graham
Director of Fundraising and Communications
Shivonne joined AMREF UK as Director of Fundraising and Communications in April 2010. A career fundraiser, she has led teams to success at Shelter, Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and Comic Relief – leading the National Fundraising Team to deliver the most successful Red Nose Day Campaign to date in March 2009. Most recently, Shivonne led the inaugural ‘Have a Heart’ Appeal on Heart radio.
Having graduated in Development Studies from the University of Sussex and visited Ethiopia with Comic Relief, Shivonne is passionate about Africa and leading AMREF UK’s fundraising and communications teams in an exciting period of growth and innovation. Outside work, she can often be found running around the parks of southwest London with her terrier George training for their next challenge.
Jen Stobart
Acting Director of Programmes and Advocacy
Jen has eight years' experience spanning the corporate and international development sector. Currently, as AMREF UK’s Acting Director of Programmes and Advocacy, Jen oversees a portfolio of projects on health system strengthening in East and Southern Africa, with emphasis on grant management, monitoring and evaluation and generation of evidence.Jen’s previous role as AMREF’s Corporate Partnership Manager also enabled a strong appreciation of partnership development and management between the corporate and development sectors.
Prior to joining AMREF, Jen worked for Accenture, where she developed a strong project management skillset. Jen has an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Nottingham University. She joined AMREF in 2007.
Victoria Rugg
Communications Manager
Victoria has specialised in the field of communications for charities for the past ten years. Before joining AMREF, she managed communications for CAYSH, a charity offering support and advice to young vulnerable people in south London, re-branding the organisation and developing a range of communication materials.
Prior to this, she was based in Brussels, Belgium, working for a number of health-related charities, including running the communications team for the International Planned Parenthood Federation's European Regional Office, the largest global advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights. She joined AMREF UK in February 2010.
Please contact Victoria for any communications/press-related enquiries on (+44) 0207 269 6867 or v.rugg@amrefuk.org