Our People

Sir Malcolm Bruce was the Liberal Democrat MP for Gordon from June 1983 until the election in May 2015 when he stood down from Parliament.

Prior to being an MP, Malcolm worked in marketing, economic development and journalism. He was the economic officer to the North East of Scotland Development Authority when oil was first discovered in the North Sea and went on to establish, with a partner, Aberdeen Petroleum Publishing in 1981.

Throughout this time he has acquired has a detailed knowledge of the oil and gas industry, and in particular, its relations with Government.

Malcolm was also Chair of the influential International Development Select Committee from 2005 – 2015. He led many inquiries into the work of the Department for International Development and has travelled widely in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

Malcolm was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Parliamentary Party from January 2014 – May 2015.

Prior to this he was Party spokesman on Trade and Industry, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Treasury. He has also been a member of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee, the Trade and Industry Select Committee, the Committee for Standards and Privileges and Treasury Select Committee.

Malcolm has been Scottish Affairs Spokesman and Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats (1988-92) and played a key role in shaping the devolution settlement through the Scottish Constitutional Convention.

As the father of a grown-up deaf daughter Malcolm has long campaigned on deafness issues in Parliament. Malcolm was the founding Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Deafness. He is also President of the Grampian Branch and a National Vice President of the National Deaf Children's Society and a Vice President of Action on Hearing Loss. In November 2014 he was honoured to receive the prestigious Joseph Maitland Robinson Award for Outstanding Contribution as part of the Signature Annual Awards.

He was made a Privy Councillor in 2006, was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2012 and was made a life peer in the Dissolution Honours list in August 2015.

Claudia Gordon is a dedicated advocate for people with disabilities. She currently serves as the Director of Government and Compliance with Sprint Accessibility, a business unit within Sprint Corporation that seeks to remove communication barriers for customers with disabilities, including individuals who are deaf, deaf-blind, or have a speech disability.

She’s held a number of senior leadership positions at agencies such as the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center, National Council on Disability, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During the Obama Administration, she served as the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the Associate Director of Public Engagement for the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Claudia has been recognized as a leader by the American Association of People with Disabilities, Google, and The Root 100.

As a global Ambassador to DeafKidz International, Claudia will support the organisation’s advocacy work at the highest level, representing the needs of D/deaf children to nation state governments, partner agencies, investors and donors throughout. “One in four deaf girls experiences sexual violence” observed Claudia. “I plan to use my ambassadorship to focus attention on this issue and to especially address the challenge of Gender Based Violence against deaf girls and young women. An area where DeafKidz has already done much valuable work”.

Colin Allen AM has advanced the human rights of deaf people and persons with disability for over 40 years by participating politically, professionally and socially in the Deaf Community and disability sector. Colin's extensive contribution to the Deaf Community began initially at the local level, then more broadly nationally in Australia and for the past 20 years, he has been actively involved in the international realm.

Colin is immediate past President of the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD) having served two terms as President from 2011 – 2019 following involvement as a Board member of the organisation since 2003. Colin is also the immediate past Chair of the International Disability Alliance (IDA) having occupied the role of Chair from 2016 - 2018. During his involvement with WFD and IDA, Colin played a key role in guiding and representing WFD and IDA's engagement with the United Nations and other international human rights and development organisations. In 2019, IDA honoured Colin, conferring on him the title “Honorary President” for his service as the Chair of the IDA between 2016 - 2018.

Colin has designed and delivered training and presented workshops on issues related to human rights for both the Deaf Community and persons with disability in more than 70 countries in each of the major continents and has also addressed numerous international conferences as a keynote presenter.

Colin has received numerous appreciation Awards for his service. This includes being made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours List and in 2019, receiving the prestigious Dr Liisa Kauppinen Human Rights Award in recognition of his dedication, advocacy, leadership and contribution to the international Deaf Community.

In October 2019, Colin will commence as a Visiting Lecturer at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, USA. As a Global Ambassador to DeafKidz International, Colin will focus on the rights of deaf children, particularly their right to access information in sign language about life-important issues such as gendered based violence. “I will actively promote the mission of the organisation and use my influence to ensure the rights of deaf children, particularly young women and girls are protected. I will engage with governments and their representatives to highlight this issue and to facilitate pro-active action in this sphere”.

Signkid is the UK’s first and only deaf music producer, writer, and performer to have pioneered and developed a unique aesthetic by integrating and adapting British Sign Language (BSL) signing into a visually based language suited specifically for live Hip-Hop, Rap, and Urban music performance. He has subsequently evolved this approach into music video production by simultaneously overlaying a hearing rapper onto his distinctive BSL performance.

Signkid has performed at festivals including Deaf Rave, Wireless, Fabric, Boomtown and Latitude, and has had BBC Breakfast, Liberty BBC News, and BBC radio coverage. He featured in a LadBible x Smirnoff advert. He was recently nominated twice for a ‘ Best Artistic Short Film’ award at Wolverhampton Deaffest. Dumbass was nominated for Deaf Shorts Award at Encounters Film Festival in September 2019. This video is an artistic short film exploring the history of the word dumb and how it has marginalised deaf people. Dumbass is also being nominated at Glasgow Short Film Festival 2020.

Signkid was previously Ambassador for Sound Seekers, and will continue to support the newly merged DeafKidz International as Global Ambassador in 2020

Raymond Antrobus FRSL is a poet, educator, writer and activist who has been performing poetry since 2007. He was born deaf to an English mother and Jamaican father in Hackney, London. His work is recognised internationally and he has received multiple awards including the Ted Hughes Award and the Rathbone Folio Prize. Raymond is passionate about the rights of deaf people and helping young deaf people to access education and support.

Raymond presented DeafKidz International’s BBC Radio 4 Charity Appeal during International Week of Deaf People in September 2021, and joined as Ambassador shortly after. Raymond explains:
“I am a poet, I am an educator and I'm an activist, particularly for deaf young people in the UK… so, I hugely support charities like DeafKidz International, doing the work, helping young deaf people to access their own needs, education, access community, and creative communities as well.. I support DeafKidz International because they ensure deaf voices are heard.”

Rachel is an Academy award winning writer and actress. Shenton started her career at Edinburgh fringe festival where her controversial play received critical acclaim.

Usually keeping her writing to the confines of her Huffington Post blog, The Silent Child is Rachel’s screenplay debut. Set in rural England and inspired by real life events. This film centres around a profoundly deaf, four year old, girl named Libby who is born into a middle class family and lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker, played by Rachel, teaches her the gift of communication. It was Shenton’s passion to tell this story urged her to put pen to paper and which resulted in The Silent Child winning the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards. The film also debuted on television to an audience of 3.6 million before receiving an extended play on BBC iPlayer.

At twelve years old Rachel’s father lost his hearing suddenly through an unrelated health issue and lived the last two years of his life profoundly deaf. This inspired Rachel to learn sign language and her passion for change in the deaf community grew. Rachel has been raising deaf awareness for over a decade, between acting roles Rachel campaigns for equal opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing people and is a proud ambassador of both DeafKidz International and the National Deaf Children’s Society.

Shenton has appeared on our screens for years with regular roles in Hit BBC2 Comedy White Gold, Waterloo road and Hollyoaks which won her a National Television nomination for best dramatic performance. In 2014 Shenton made her American TV debut on ABC Family drama, Switched at Birth, In 2014 Shenton made her American TV debut on ABC Family drama, Switched at Birth, she portrayed the role of Lily Summers for three seasons.

Tasha Ghouri is a model, dancer and well known public figure, the first deaf contestant on ITV’s popular TV show Love Island - Tasha has been a long time supporter of DeafKidz International. She explains why she became a Global Ambassador for DeafKidz International in 2022:

“Before entering the villa I had raised money for DeafKidz because of who they are as an organisation, they are a small team but the work, ethic and values is amazing and the reason why I want to continue working with DeafKidz is because they continuously work to protect children in low-middle income countries from domestic abuse… I’m so proud to be joining this organisation. Everyday I think how damn lucky I am to even receive a cochlear implant whilst there’s children / young adults that can’t even access this. I’m joining forces with DeafKidz to continue to make a difference, by doing everything I possibly can to help raise awareness and funds for the organisation so that we can work towards a world where all children and young adults with superpowers are able to access audiologists and treatment just as I was”.

Photo credit: Adam Brazier.

A global health and development professional, Steve has worked at senior level in a number of international development, relief and health organisations including ICRC, MAG and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. In addition, he has worked as a consultant for organisations such as the Start Network and Babylon Health.

Steve is also a former Trustee of War Child UK and of MICAIA, a development charity that is delivering new solutions to the injustice of poverty in Mozambique.

Profoundly Deaf himself, Steve originated and founded DeafKidz International when he learned of the appalling abuse endured by D/deaf children in sub-Saharan Africa. Resolving to address this injustice, the result was DeafKidz International which is today, emerging as the global leader for the safeguarding and protection of D/deaf children; lauded by academics, 'The fastest growing charity in the UK" (University of Sheffield) and political decision makers alike, "I praise the work of DeafKidz International' (The Rt. Hon Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development 2017 - 2019).

Steve has lectured and presented extensively on the protection of D/deaf children including Yale University (Ct USA), World Health Summit (Berlin), World Humanitarian Forum (London), World Health Organisation (Geneva) and UNICEF (New York).

Christine is a Mental Health Social Worker by professional background, having worked in specialist Deaf Mental Health Services as well later having been responsible as a Team Manager for mainstream Mental Health, Duty and complex Learning Disability social work across South Birmingham.

In addition to these roles she was also responsible as an Approved Social Worker (ASW) and then Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) for co-ordinating and managing assessments for people who might need compulsory detention in hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 and then the 2007 amended Mental Health Act.

When working in specialist Deaf Mental Health Services Christine qualified as a Psychodynamic Psychotherapist and worked for some years in provision of psychotherapy. Christine also developed training materials for assessment of Deaf people experiencing mental ill health and has delivered this training on AMHP qualification courses across England.

She also works with Birmingham University on their Deafness and Mental Health postgraduate diploma course.

Dr Eleanor Crossley graduated from the University of Birmingham Medical School. She is currently a Core Surgical Trainee, and will start working as an Ear, Nose and Throat Surgical Registrar in London later this year. She was previously a Trustee for Sound Seekers, prior to joining with the DeafKidz International Board of Trustees.

Eleanor has a long-standing interest in global health and charity work, having undertaken previous volunteer projects on the Lifeline Express surgical train in India (Rajasthan, 2017) and her medical elective in rural Uganda (Wakiso District, 2014). In Uganda she worked with a local team to design a pilot soundproof testing booth for newborn hearing screening and she very much hopes to visit some of the Deaf Kidz International programmes in person.

Eleanor completed a BMedSci Intercalated degree in Public Health and Population Sciences, and continues her involvement in various research projects and medical education. She is also currently undertaking an online British Sign Language course and hopes to learn more in the very near future.

London based Aarti is a Tax Professional with 12 years’ experience in UK and International Tax. She has managed the Tax department of a FTSE250 Media/Technology company and has particular expertise of UK, US and Canadian tax systems. She has led on the structuring of large scale acquisitions and is a Chartered Accountant.

Passionate about working to help disadvantaged D/deaf young adults and children, particularly in complex settings, Aarti, as our Board treasurer, will work to develop robust financial systems that will confirm DeafKidz International as the safeguarding and protection partner of choice for the global humanitarian, development and health community.

Pictured with former Secretary of State for International Development, the Rt. Honourable Penny Mordaunt MP, Emma Gilbert is a Detective Inspector with Greater Manchester Police and has previously served as an investigating officer in the National Crime Agency and Leicestershire Police. She has extensive experience of response, community and criminal investigation policing. She is a specialist in the safeguarding and protection of children and young people. In addition to these duties, Emma coordinates the UK's innovative Police Link Officers for Deaf people (PLOD) network.

An integral member of the DeafKidz International team and a vigorous champion for the rights of D/deaf children, Emma’s progressive work in South Africa, Kenya and Jamaica has been recognised by the Points of Light Award she received from the Prime Minister and which was presented by the Secretary of State. Emma is the Board and organisational lead for safeguarding and child protection.

Maria is the Workforce EDI (Equality Diversity and Inclusion) Manager with HS2 Ltd, supporting the Human Resources function, responsible for the inclusion of some 2,000 employees with regards to their protected characteristics and is one of UK’s Top 100 Disabled Influencers. Former Diversity and Inclusion Manager at the LTA, and founder of Wideaware Training, Maria is a qualified and experienced Diversity and Disability Access Auditor, training and e-learning delivery expert, qualified moderator, speaker and trainer and project manager. Maria is severely deaf and uses lip-reading and uses adjustments in the workplace such as online captioning and hearing loops. Her passion is delivering training and workshops in EDI and Deaf Awarenes, work on diversity recruiting campaigns to attracts diverse talent and she support teams directly in embedding inclusion in the way that suits their work. Maria provides consultancy services on diversity and inclusion of policies, procedures and processes, and runs the Reverse Mentoring programme at HS2.

Craig is a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Heriot-Watt in Edinburgh. He's currently undertaking a placement year at Orbex, a leading small satelite launch company, as an engineering intern, before returning to university to complete his postgraduate studies. He's an enthusiast and advocate for the commercial space sector, with previous trustee experience at UKSEDS, the UK's national student space charity where he served as a treasurer, promoting space to young people. As a deaf person himself with bilateral cochlear implants, Craig is keen to get involved and contribute to DeafKidz International to improve the lives of deaf children all across the world.

Lyley Jones currently works in the Civil Service at the Department for Transport as a policy advisor.
She was born profoundly deaf and now wears bilateral cochlear implants. She attended mainstream education throughout. Lyley has a scientific background; graduating with a BSc in Biochemistry and a MSc in Forensic Medical Sciences. In the past, Lyley’s father started a charity for profoundly deaf children, which she now hopes to follow in his footsteps through helping DeafKidz International achieve their ambitions. She is passionate about giving back to the world of science and technology for the opportunities it has given her in life.

David is a Chartered Certified Accountant, dedicated to supporting small businesses. Profoundly deaf, David is a former treasurer for Stagetext and the National Association of Deafened People (NADP). With a keen interest in the arts and theatre, David has worked, variously, with a number of arts access groups including the Science Museum, the Barbican and the Donmar Warehouse. David is passionate about the inclusion of deaf people in theatre, and works to encourage theatres to be more accessible for deaf people and to provide access capabilities such as captioning and loop systems. David joins as Trustee of DeafKidz International in 2023 to continue his support of deaf children globally.

After 20 years gaining invaluable experience in the Investment Banking, software development and non-profit sectors, Debra joins DKI as the new CEO in 2023. Debra has an outstanding track record delivering large-scale, demanding and complex projects, both in the UK and South Africa. She will provide the strategic leadership, vision and direction needed to expand the impact of the work of DKI and to unlock the next level of organisational growth. Debra is Mom to three girls, two hearing and one deaf child and is passionate about connection, relationships and children being given the chance to live wholeheartedly.

Jaz works to manage the design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation of DeafKidz International’s existing and developing programmatic work.

With a background in service design and project management in a variety of community and low resource settings, Jaz oversees our work in West, East and Southern Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

As the organisational lead for our partnerships with Comic Relief, Child Helpline International, Marie Stopes International and more, he will drive the development of a D/deaf and Hearing staff team, skilled at working in low resource health and complex humanitarian settings.

A fluent BSL user, Jaz is profoundly Deaf, the parent of a Deaf child and a Governor of the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby.

Steve is a qualified accountant who has worked in a number of commercial and third sector settings. In addition, he has lectured on accounting and finance at Brighton City College and Northbrook College of Further Education. He has also worked to provide training and advisory / mentoring services to the Brighton and Hove Enterprise Agency, and Business Link Sussex.

Over the last 20 years Steve has worked with a wide variety of small charities, mostly in a management support and management information role, developing internal systems, internal reporting to management and trustees, assisting with budgeting / forecasting, assisting with reporting to funders and financial training for non-financial managers and trustees. These have included organisations working in Mental Health, The Arts, Disabilities, Social Welfare and International Development.

His work is now mainly focused within the charity sector, and he combines this with a passion for playing saxophone within the local music scene in Sussex.

Tanya leads on DeafKidz International’s fundraising and communications work. She began her career in fundraising working for Money Tree Fundraising, supporting a variety of small charities in different fundraising areas before moving to the INGO Excellent Development as its Trusts & Rotary Fundraising Manager, working to support dryland communities in Africa and India access to clean water.

At Sound Seekers, Tanya managed a multi-disciplinary fundraising portfolio working with the likes of Jersey Overseas Aid, DFID and Spec Savers in support of a number of ear and hearing care programmes. At DeafKidz International, Tanya is continuing in this vein, managing a broad spectrum of donors, partners and investors in the UK, Switzerland and the US. In addition, Tanya, manages DeafKidz International’s communications agenda, working with our local partners, investors and other key decision makers to ensure the safeguarding and protection needs of D/deaf children and vulnerable adults are advocated at the highest level. Tanya also works to develop DeafKidz International’s information materials and learning resources.

Gemma has 14 years’ experience of working as an audiologist and has worked both within the NHS working with adults and children and within a number of third sector organisations. She has worked at the UKs largest charity, Action on Hearing Loss, representing people with hearing loss, D/deafness and tinnitus, for over 6 years, working within the research and policy team, providing audiology expertise across the organisation.

Gemma has a passion for improving ear and hearing health in low resource and complex settings. In 2015, she took a sabbatical and volunteered for six months in Zambia, supporting the only audiologist within the country to develop and teach a one-year audiology diploma course to students from across Africa. She continues to volunteer as an audiologist on the Sound Seekers project Committee.

In addition, Gemma chairs the British Society of Audiology (BSA) Global Outreach Specialist Interest Group and was responsible for organising the first ever international conference in the UK dedicated to global health for hearing loss in collaboration with ENT UK.

As DeafKidz International’s audiology lead, she has been working to deliver the DFID funded Early Hearing Detection and Intervention programme in Pakistan which is testing new models of screening and integrated care response. All of which is aimed at ensuring the protection and safeguarding of vulnerable children and ensuring parental support is provided to those children and young people who are formally diagnosed as Deaf. To this end, Gemma is working to develop the skills and capacity of our Gujrat based audiology team.

Stuart is a qualified teacher of the Deaf and a former deputy head teacher. With extensive and proven experience in child rights, child protection and safeguarding, Stuart worked globally to develop DeafKidz International's early stage programmatic activities with a range of partners including Jamaica Association for the Deaf, Childline South Africa and IPSCAN.

He was instrumental in establishing our programmatic approach, Stuart authored our critically acclaimed research report; ‘Behind the Green Door. The Abuse and Exploitation of Deaf Children and Young People in South Africa’.

A prolific commentator and writer, his book 'Same Spirit Different Team - The Politicisation of the Deaflympics' was published in 2014.

Bhavisha is a practicing paediatric audiologist and works in the public and private sector. She also teaches Audiology and Research skills at Anglia Ruskin University and UCL and she is a Trustee of the British Society of Audiology.

Bhavisha volunteered with Sound Seekers in 2017 and spent one year in Zambia, developing the first paediatric audiology clinic in the country. Shortly after returning to the UK, Bhavisha became Sound Seeker’s special adviser in Audiology and her role included providing clinical advice, remote training, presenting at international conferences and visiting project countries to assess progress & identify areas of improvement. She is able to continue this work within her role as Audiology Technical Adviser for DeafKidz International.

Bhavisha is currently completing her PhD at UCL Ear Institute and she is passionate about using evidence based practice to development sustainable ear and hearing care services in low resource areas.

Imran graduated with a 1st class BSc in Audiology (Hons) with distinction in clinical practice. He was the recipient of an Economics and Social Research Council studentship with which he completed his PhD in Audiology at the University of Manchester. As part of the studentship he completed a Masters in Research Psychology. He has worked as a clinical Audiologist part time for the NHS for over 15 years. He was the Research Lead for The Ear Foundation. He is currently Audiology Lead for Education in the Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester and the Research Course Module Lead for the Masters course at Mary Hare in conjunction with the University of Hertfordshire.
Imran will be working with DKI as a Technical Specialist to provide audiology expertise and knowledge across the organisation's work. The major focus of his work will be on the Audiology Refreshers project, which is in collaboration with BATOD.