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Staff Team

 

Rob Berkeley

Rob has been director of Runnymede since January 2009. Before this he was deputy director of Runnymede between 2005 and 2009.

Rob's doctoral studies focused on exclusions from school. He is chair of governors at a south London primary school, chair of Naz Project London (which provides sexual health and HIV prevention and support services to various minority ethnic communities), and a trustee of Stonewall.

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Rob is also a senior adviser to the British Council and a member of the Commission on 2020 Public Services.

Rob's publications include ‘Right to Divide? Faith Schools and Community Cohesion’ (2008) ‘Identity, Ethnic Diversity and Community Cohesion’ (Sage: London 2007), ‘Britain; challenges for race equality’ (2006) and ‘Connecting British Hindus’ (2006).
 

Sarah Isal

Sarah is deputy director at Runnymede. She runs Runnymede’s European and international programme, which includes coordinating the UK Race & Europe Network (UKREN), a network of UK based non-governmental organisations interested in European race equality policies. 

In the past, Sarah has led Runnymede's criminal justice work and wrote two reports "Equal Respect: ASBOs and race equality" and "Preventing Racist Violence; Work with Potential Perpetrators: Learning from Practice to Policy Change"

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Prior to working at Runnymede, she worked for the UK Office of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (now known as the EU Fundamental Rights Agency) Sarah is currently on the Board of the European Network Against Racism based in Brussels. Her area of expertise is anti-racism and equality in the European Union.
 

Debbie Weekes-Bernard

Debbie is a senior research and policy analyst at Runnymede. Her work has included research on the impact of educational ‘choice’ agendas on BME parents and children.

She has organised large conferences on education and community cohesion and speaking and writing about issues to do with choice, cohesion, achievement and educational inequality. 

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Debbie’s upcoming publications include a re-examination of race equality and school exclusions and an assessment of current policy surrounding widening participation in higher education.

Previously Debbie has conducted research for both Runnymede and Nottingham Trent University on projects exploring the reasons for the gap in achievement between children from different minority ethnic communities, together with projects identifying ways of improving BME pupil achievement and work exploring the disproportionate rates of school exclusion experienced by African-Caribbean boys.

Debbie has worked as an associate lecturer for the Open University, teaching social psychology and criminology and her doctorate work explored young black female identity. Debbie’s additional research interests include work on ‘race’ and girlhood, young parenting and black popular culture.

Debbie holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Essex, a Phd is Social Psychology/Sociology from Nottingham Trent University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from City University.
 

Omar Khan

Omar is the senior research and policy analyst who leads Runnymede's programme on financial inclusion. He is the author of Financial Inclusion and Ethnicity (2008) and Who Pays to Access Cash? (2009). 

Omar has also published many articles and reports on political theory and British political history for Runnymede over the past eight years and has spoken on topics including multiculturalism, integrationand positive action in various settings in the UK and Europe.

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Omar completed his DPhil in Political Theory from the University of Oxford, a Masters in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Masters in South Asian Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies.
 

Jessica Mai Sims

Jessica has been working as a research and policy analyst on Runnymede 360 and as the UK coordinator for Cities of Migration – an international project led by the Maytree Foundation, Canada.

Previously, she was working on Runnymede’s Community Studies series, which highlighted smaller ethnic minority groups in the UK.

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Jessica is currently a standing committee member of the UK Vietnamese Network and acts as advisor to the Thai Language and Culture School, Bournemouth. Aside from race equality and qualitative research methods, her areas of expertise are integration policy and practice of new migrants, Vietnamese and Thai ethnic minorities in the UK and mixed race studies.

Jessica holds a BA in International Relations from San Francisco State University and an MSc in Nationalism and Ethnicity from the London School of Economics.
 

Kjartan Sveinsson

Kjartan Páll Sveinsson is a research and policy analyst at Runnymede. Largely as a result of travelling the world, where he developed a thirst for knowledge about the nature of cultural diversity, he decided to study social anthropology at the London School of Economics.

It seemed, however, that with each question anthropology answered, two new ones were raised. Thus, Kjartan has aspired to put his academic knowledge into practice and promote social justice.

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Kjartan has conducted extensive research into small, less visible minority ethnic communities, race equality in criminal justice, and migration.

He has previously conducted research on youth offending in south London for the Probation Service, and strategies of adaptation of adolescent immigrants in Iceland for the Ministry of Education (Iceland).

Kjartan’s latest publications are A Tale of Two Englands: ‘Race’ and Violent Crime in the Press; Who Cares about the White Working Class?; and Making a Contribution: New Migrants and Belonging in Multi-Ethnic Britain.
 

 Phil Mawhinney

Phil is a research and policy analyst with Runnymede’s Financial Inclusion and Ethnicity team. He has been researching attitudes towards money issues and experiences of financial services among BME people.

He is writing a research report into experiences of money advice in different communities and has conducted research into attitudes toward financial institutions and saving. Phil’s work also touches on other equalities strands and he is interested in qualitative research methods and the role of religion in the public sphere.

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Before joining Runnymede in April 2009, Phil was a residential volunteer at Toynbee Hall, working in the Research and Evaluation team. He was also a campaigns volunteer on the Need NOT Greed campaign on welfare reform.

Phil has a degree in Geography from Queen’s University Belfast and a master’s degree in Human Geography (by research) from the University of Edinburgh.
 

Vastiana Belfon

Vastiana Belfon is responsible for Runnymede’s Real Histories Directory, an online resource for teachers, students, parents and the wider community to help them teach and learn about cultural diversity in the UK and Europe.

Vastiana also wrote and set up Tell Me What I Need to Know, a website designed to help Black and Minority Ethnic, Refugee, Asylum-Seeking and Traveller parents support their children in education.

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Vastiana has a BA Hons degree in Modern Languages (French and Russian) from Oxford University and has previously worked in publishing (Ward Lock, Mitchell Beazley, Writers and Readers Ltd) and as Editor, African-Caribbean Programmes for BBC Television.
 

 Robin Frampton

Robin is the publications editor at Runnymede, where he edits and produces our research reports. He is an experienced publishing project manager and editor and has worked for leading publishers, including Penguin, Macmillan, Heinemann, Butterworth and SAGE.

Robin has also worked closely with academic societies and research institutes, as well as a wide range of academic authors and editors, designers and illustrators.

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While at Heinemann, Robin worked with Runnymede and the Radical Statistics Group to produce Britain’s Black Population. At SAGE, he worked with the Institute of Race Relations to publish regular issues of Race & Class and SAGE Race Relations Abstracts.

I also currently work with the National Association for Youth Justice on the Youth Justice journal; with Napo, the Trade Union and Professional Association for Family Court and Probation Staff on the Probation Journal; and the with International Institute for Environment and Development on the Environment & Urbanization journal.

Robin holds a BA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Warwick.
 

Nina Kelly

Nina is Runnymede's online editor and manages the organisation's web presence. As well as the website, this includes writing and editing our social media platforms, monthly e-newsletter and quarterly online bulletin.

With a background in journalism, Nina was previously a reporter for a financial trade magazine. She has also written for national and regional publications, such as the Guardian newspaper and Time Out magazine.

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Before beginning her role at Runnymede in 2009, Nina was working in the women's sector, running the media campaign for Million Women Rise and writing for the Women's Resource Centre's magazine.

Nina holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Italian from the University of Manchester and NCTJ qualifications in Media Law, Shorthand and Public Affairs.
 

Rebecca Waller

Rebecca moved to London after completing a BA in European Studies and Sociology from the University of Kent. She joined Runnymede as administrator in 2008 after a few years working in the private sector. 

Rebecca deals with all general office administration including finance, human resources and data management. She acts as the first point of contact for all enquires and helps to coordinate events and diaries.

 
 

Colin Kelly

Colin is Runnymede's business development manager and, as well as a background in private sector branding, his particular expertise in the field of social enterprise.

Colin also works as business incubation and business adviser to blind and partially sighted social entrepreneurs in connection with Action for Blind People in the UK.

This is my expandable area

Previously, Colin has worked on brand launch within the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in Mexico.

Colin holds a BA (Hons) in Media Studies and English Literature and an Executive MBA
 

Vicki Butler

Vicki is Runnymede’s public affairs officer. She runs the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Race and Community and works on engagement with parliament on race equality issues.

Prior to joining Runnymede, Vicki worked for Lexington Communications - a public affairs and PR agency - and the Department for Communities and Local Government.

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She has also worked as an intern for Sadiq Khan MP while completing an MSc in Social Policy at the London School of Economics. 

Vicki also holds a BA in Intellectual History and English Literature from the University of Sussex.
 

Klara Schmitz

Klara Schmitz is a project assistant for Runnymede. She is currently working on the UK Race & Europe Network (UKREN), which aims to inform a network of non-governmental organisations in the UK of the latest developments in European race relations.

Klara is also assisting on a research project to investigate policy and practice in the private sector in relation to the employment of black and minority ethnic individuals in senior positions.

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Klara’s other research interests include education and race equality, research methods with children and young people from diverse backgrounds, and the Roma community.

In the past, she has been involved with refugee community organisations, including education support and impact evaluation research.

Klara holds a BA in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester and an MA in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex, for which she conducted research into teaching about forced migration and promoting community cohesion in schools.