Meet the team

Medina has worked in the domestic violence and abuse sector for 15 years. She has worked on IRIS since 2007 and was one of the original two IRIS Advocate Educators before becoming one of the National Implementation Managers for the project in 2010.  She holds an honorary contract with Bristol University and is a collaborator on a number of academic research projects including ReProvide and DRiDVA. She is passionate to improve the healthcare response to gender violence and to improve the associated care pathways and support for women affected.

In 2017, Medina was part of the team that set up and established IRISi.

Medina’s background is in education and training and she has worked as a secondary school teacher, regional trainer for a large national charity, managed a project for single homeless people, and managed a resettlement service for women in housing need with mental health problems.   She has an MA in European Business Management

Outside work, Medina is Chair of a small UK charity supporting a children’s home in Kenya and visits her African family each year. She is also a trustee of Women’s Adventure Expo, a pioneering social enterprise celebrating, inspiring and empowering women in adventure and exploration.

Medina lives in Monmouthshire and enjoys spending time in the garden with her hens and bees.

Annie Howell is Development Director and Deputy CE at IRISi. Annie is passionate to improve the healthcare response to gender-based violence, ultimately giving all survivors access to support.

Annie has worked in the domestic violence and abuse sector for 17 years. Her experience began in Sydney, Australia, where she worked for the Attorney Generals Government. During this time Annie worked in various roles including case supervisor for survivors of domestic violence, case manager for family members of homicide victims and subsequently working as a telephone counsellor on the victim support helpline, New South Wales.

On returning to the UK Annie worked for the LGBT charity Galop before she started work at nia in 2007 as part of the IRIS research team. She was one of the original two IRIS Advocate Educators before becoming one of the National Implementation Managers for the project in 2010. The focus at this time was to implement IRIS as a commissionable model nationally. Annie co-founded IRISi in 2017.

Annie is also a qualified Chair of Independent Domestic Homicide Reviews. She has a BA (Hons) in Criminology. Annie lives in Twickenham and enjoys spending time with her husband, three young daughters and dog. She enjoys battling gender stereotypes, whether it be at the school gate or during a night out with friends. Annie has a passion for music and dance, loves cake decorating and enjoys boxing.

Lucy joined the IRISi team in September 2017 as a National Implementation Manager. She was seconded to lead on IRISi’s work to explore whether the concept of social franchising can be used to more easily replicate and spread the IRIS programme to new areas, so more clinicians and more patients can benefit from the successful IRIS service. Lucy’s current role is IRIS Network Director.

Lucy has worked and volunteered in the gender-based violence sector for thirteen years, including a long period as an advocate-educator for the IRIS service. She has supported many hundreds of women who have experienced domestic abuse. Lucy has seen first-hand the benefits for patients of educating general practice clinicians about domestic abuse, and of establishing a collaborative approach in which primary care and the domestic abuse sector work in partnership to tackle violence and abuse.

Lucy has an MSc in Public Policy, specialising in gender-based violence, at the University of Bristol, and holds a BA in English Literature and Social Philosophy and Applied Ethics from Cardiff University.

Sally joined IRISi in February 2022 and provides administrative support to IRISi’s Senior Management Team, as well as organising network events.

Prior to joining IRISi, Sally worked at a women’s mental health charity co-ordinating support and housing for vulnerable women. She has lots of experience working in administrative roles and within the youth service. Sally also volunteers as a Fundraising Administrator for Project MAMA; a charity which offers a free, confidential, and individual-focused holistic support to displaced women throughout pregnancy, labour and childbirth, and those first few weeks of parenthood.

Sally completed an MSc in International Development at the University of Bristol, taking a particular interest in the impact of conflict on women and children, and holds a BA(Hons) in International Relations at the University of the West of England.

Outside of work, Sally spends as much time as possible outdoors, hiking, enjoying festivals, reading, eating cake, and going away in her campervan with her partner and daughter.

Christabel joined the IRISi team as a Project Support Officer, working to support various projects geared towards improving the healthcare response to domestic violence and abuse and gender-based violence. She holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen. Coupled with her psychology background, Christabel has worked within the NHS and other diverse settings to promote impactful projects. Christabel is passionate about advancing a course that amplifies the voices of underrepresented groups. In her spare time Christabel loves to bake, engage in content creation, and photo capture beautiful sights and memorable moments.

Christabel joined the IRISi team as a Project Support Officer, working to support various projects geared towards improving the healthcare response to domestic violence and abuse and gender-based violence. She holds an MSc in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen. Coupled with her psychology background, Christabel has worked within the NHS and other diverse settings to promote impactful projects. Christabel is passionate about advancing a course that amplifies the voices of underrepresented groups. In her spare time Christabel loves to bake, engage in content creation, and photo capture beautiful sights and memorable moments.

Becky has recently joined the IRISi team as Contracts & Programme Manager and is passionate to be a part of IRISi’s mission to improve the healthcare response to gender-based violence. Becky’s career started in Law and as a qualified Solicitor, she worked in litigation for several years before moving into programme and project management work. Becky most recently worked as a programme manager for NHS England on a national programme, working to improve the care and treatment for individuals who had a diagnosis of autism and/or a learning disability and were admitted to secure mental health hospitals. Becky lives in Wiltshire and enjoys spending time with her husband, friends, cats, and dog. Outside of work, Becky enjoys the outdoors, gardening, reading, and cooking. When she isn’t working you will probably find her in her garden or exploring the countryside with her springer spaniel, Olive.

Charlotte joined the IRISi Team in June 2022 as the ADViSE Lead and Senior Regional Manager. Her main focus is to oversee the implementation and growth of the ADViSE programme. She holds a BSc in Sociology with Politics from the University of Plymouth and is a qualified IDVA. Charlotte comes from managing frontline Domestic Violence Services (Duty Helpline, Crisis IDVA’s, Groupwork) at one of our local partner organisations. Working there for 5 years first as a groupwork coordinator, running groups such as Freedom Programme, Recovery Toolkit and CRUSH, for women and young people, then progressing into managing a staff team of 20 throughout the pandemic, she supported them with complex caseloads, increased needs and competing priorities. Charlotte’s previous work at various charities has consistently entailed working with vulnerable, marginalised, and deprived groups, consequently the value base that drives her centres around social justice and empowerment – a commitment to seeing DVA as a health issue and ending gender-based violence.

Charlotte has been a Freelance Trainer since 2016 delivering Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Training to various agencies and charities in the local area. She has volunteered with SARSAS (Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support) for many years and now proudly sits on their board. When not working Charlotte can be found mainly at festivals and gigs.

Mel joined the IRISi team in January 2019 as one of our Regional Managers. At present her main focus is supporting all the areas across London who are currently running an IRIS project, as well as supporting any new boroughs who decide to become a part of IRIS. In addition to this she helps run our train the trainer’s sessions throughout the year, training and equipping new IRIS team’s member across the country.

Mel has previously worked as an Advocate Educator for the IRIS project within both the areas of Bristol and South Gloucestershire. She has front line experience of just how impactful the IRIS project can be and is passionate about seeing this grow and develop across the country. Prior to this Mel worked as a Probation Service Officer in the Magistrates court, assisting with assessing offenders prior to sentencing and supporting the court with their sentencing decisions.

For many years Mel worked in a voluntary capacity with young people from deprived communities, she has a passion for travelling and has a BA in Drama and English Literature.

Haniya Chaudhary joined IRISi in May 2022. She has a BSc in Applied Criminology & Law from the University of Derby. Experienced in blending soft skills with excellent client-facing qualities, she has six years worth of experience within the field of Safeguarding & Risk management sphere, Training & Educating, Case management & Advocacy. Her diverse professional background has enabled her to gain many transferable skills, ranging from intense casework, seeing safeguarding from a clinical commissioning perspective, assessing and managing risks, implementing and researching legal frameworks, training and educating medical professionals, and a high level of administration skills. Regularly working in partnership with relevant agencies has showcased her ability to build professional relationships.

Emma joined IRISi in May 2022. She is one of our new Regional Managers and joins our team having worked in the Domestic Abuse field for over 25 years. Her work has been primarily as a researcher and lecturer looking at various forms of Gender Based Violence. She volunteered on the National Domestic Abuse Helpline in the early 2000s, and from 2004-2006, worked as the Research and Membership Manager at Women’s Aid England. She was, until recently, a co-editor on the Journal of Gender Based Violence. Her early research, and PhD, focused on Domestic Violence and Health, and she has continued to be part of various consortia looking to improve the health response to domestic violence and abuse.

In her spare time, Emma likes spending quality time with friends and family and recently moved back to the North to be closer to them.

Hayley has recently joined the IRISi team as Regional Manager. She has over 10 years’ experience managing a range of services for adult and child victims of domestic abuse, including refuge provision, children and young people services and adult victim services.

She first started her career in Early Years and was a manager of a Private Day Nursery for several years before moving to the voluntary sector. Hayley qualified as a Therapeutic Play Practitioner in 2016 and has experience of delivering Play Therapy intervention to children and young people living in a refuge.

Hayley has a passion to raise awareness of gender-based violence and has developed a range of bespoke training packages for a variety of professionals. She especially has a keen interest to provide training and support for health professionals to help them identify the crucial role they play in ending domestic abuse.

Over the past 5 years Hayley has developed and implemented a health-based project for Dentists and members of the dental team in her local area of North Staffordshire and in 2019 was the project manager for the Health Pathfinder pilot site in this area.

Outside of work, Hayley volunteers for the Cinnamon Trust which is a UK charity providing support for elderly and terminally ill people with pets. Hayley enjoys the outdoors and when she isn’t volunteering or working you can find her exploring the country side with her Labradoodle, Shelby.

Sarah joined the IRISi team in November 2023 as one of our Regional Managers. At present her main focus is supporting sites in Wales and the South of England who are currently running an IRIS project.

Sarah previously worked as an Advocate Educator for the ADViSE project in Bristol and South Gloucestershire. Having been involved with this project since it was first established Sarah saw the value in reaching new groups of survivors. Additionally, she saw how impactful this new referral pathway was on both the survivors it was reaching and the clinicians who were being trained.

Before this Sarah worked in a domestic abuse support charity within the safe house team, and later as a supervisor within this team. During her time within these roles Sarah completed an IDVA qualification, and later an add on ISVA qualification. She holds a BSc in Psychology from the University of Reading, in which she developed her interest in social psychology, and the impact of trauma.

Outside of work Sarah enjoys getting outdoors, reading, cooking, and attempting (failing) to surf on occasion!

Katie joined IRISi in June 20222 as a part-time Data Analyst. She has worked for the women’s sector for the last seven years in data, research and evaluation roles. Alongside her role at IRISi, Katie is undertaking her PhD at the Violence and Society Centre at City University, looking at patterns of utilisation of domestic violence services. Katie is also a board member of the VAWG Research Network and proud owner of two fluffy dogs.

Sallie has spent her career in advice and advocacy services in the third sector. As a self-described ‘grumpy feminist’ it has been fitting that most of this work has been in the VAWG sector. Her work initially focused on service delivery, working in both front line and senior management roles. At IRISi, she does all things data related, especially a good spreadsheet. Alongside her role at IRISi, she is studying a Master’s degree in Geographic Data Science (otherwise known as MAPS!) and in her spare time she does consultancy work around domestic abuse. When not doing these things, she enjoys building Lego, eating food, and watching her chickens.

Geisa D'avo, the communications and marketing manager at IRISi since 2020, plays a crucial role in producing and promoting content to raise awareness and improve the healthcare response to gender-based violence. With a background in journalism, branding, and digital marketing, Geisa excels in developing strategic campaigns and creating engaging content across various channels.

Combining her design skills with her communication expertise, Geisa actively contributes to the production of visually appealing graphics, videos, and other assets that support IRISi's communication efforts. Her extensive experience as a freelance reporter and editor in Brazil has sharpened her ability to craft compelling narratives aligned with IRISi's mission, vision, and values, aiming to address gender-based violence as a health issue.

Geisa's commitment to diversity and inclusion is further reflected in her pursuit of a master's degree in "Diversity and the Media" at the University of Westminster. Through her work, she actively contributes to creating a more inclusive society.

Daphne Amevenu has previous experience of working with IRISi and the IRIS Programme, since she used to work at the Health Foundation and supported the development of our social franchise programme of work. With extensive experience in bringing innovative solutions to the healthcare sector, Daphne is interested in mainstreaming diversity and inclusion across her work and has run various initiatives throughout her career to enable this. She will support IRISi's mission by sharing her knowledge of the changes in primary care in England to support the broader uptake of the IRIS intervention.

Gene is Professor of Primary Health Care at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol Gene qualified at Guy's Hospital medical school, following a BSc in Biology and Philosophy from the University of Sussex. He trained as a GP and was a principal in Hackney for 21 years until moving to Bristol. His research started with the health and healthcare of Traveller Gypsies, followed by studies on the development and implementation of clinical guidelines, management of chronic respiratory and cardiovascular conditions in primary care and the health impact of domestic violence. Current research focuses on healthcare responses to domestic violence globally. Gene’s methodological expertise is in randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews, collaborating with epidemiologists and social scientists on cohort and qualitative studies respectively. He has chaired four NICE guideline development groups and led the WHO intimate partner violence guidelines. In 2017 was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare and victims of domestic abuse.

Gene was the principal investigator on the original IRIS trial and has been closely involved with the development of the programme and IRISi ever since. He was also one of the team that set up and established IRISi in 2017 and is a Director.

Andrew is a Senior Research Commercialisation Manager at the University of Bristol and works with academics and clinicians from the University’s Faculty of Health Sciences to facilitate the transfer of a range of technologies and healthcare interventions to commercial organisations. This includes licensing and new company creation. Andrew joined University of Bristol from UWE, where he worked in Technology Transfer for 10 years. In the more distant past he was a plant sciences researcher at Bristol.

Andrew worked with the IRIS team and other stakeholders to create IRISi and is a non-executive director, providing oversight of company activity alongside his fellow directors.

Jacqueline Gantley is a recently retired GP who worked in central Cardiff for over 30 years. She was appointed as the IRIS Clinical Lead for two areas in South Wales in late 2014. Now, as a Board Member of IRISi, she will help to build on and sustain the already very successful rollout of the IRIS Programme.

Mariah Kelly is a health policy professional with a master’s degree in Health Policy, boasting experience in the charity and public sectors on various health and social policy issues. Currently employed at the Health Foundation, she focuses on policy areas related to the social determinants of health. Mariah is a passionate intersectional feminist and believes that addressing gender-based violence is integral to women's equality and human rights. She aims to contribute to IRISi's mission by leveraging her expertise in policy development to positively influence government policies, enhance IRISi's visibility, and actively engage in the formulation of strategies promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Rowan is a Chartered Accountant and currently works as Commercial Finance Manager at The Crown Estate leading on budgeting, reporting and investment appraisals for a £1.2bn portfolio. Prior to working at The Crown Estate Rowan spent 7 years at PwC working in Financial Audit and Commercial Assurance working with clients in a wide range of sectors and internationally. Rowan is also a Charity Trustee for both Fusion and Shift Nation and has led multiple courses on male mental health and addiction recovery in his spare time. Rowan has joined IRISi as a non-executive director to bring oversight of company activity, with particular financial and commercial expertise, alongside his fellow directors.