AMREF UK staff

AMREF has over 700 employees, 97% of whom are African and based in Africa. In the UK we have 15 employees, including:

Jo Ensor – chief executive

Jo is a graduate of Oxford University and has an MA in Development Studies from SOAS. From 2001 to 2005 Jo was director of programmes at EveryChild, with responsibility for programmes strategy and implementation of child rights programmes, policy and institutional funding. Previously, Jo was head of programme development and funding at VSO for six years, where she led a team to support programme staff with programme development and evaluation in 40 countries. Jo has also worked for the City Law Firm, Linklaters, as head of corporate social responsibility.

Claudia Codsi Uganda partnerships manager Claudia joined AMREF in September 2007 from Emap, one of the largest UK media companies where she had worked as an Executive Conference Producer for the Middle East Economic Digest. Previous to this, Claudia worked as a conference producer researching events on trade issues in emerging markets. She had spent two years as a marketing manager for the NGO SPW and had volunteered for 9 months in Nepal on a health and environmental education programme. Claudia is passionate about travel, art and music from Africa and Latin America.
Amy Frost Finance Manager Amy joined AMREF in February 2007 and is on secondment from the civil service. She has been working in a number of different teams within AMREF, including managing the start up phase of the Katine and Integrated Model projects in Uganda. Amy’s experiences in AMREF have been very different job from her previous role of managing a team of 140 people in the Child Support Agency. Amy’s interest in Africa comes from the time she has spent as a volunteer in the Gambia, leading groups of young people on exchanges to work on community projects with a twinned village.
Luisa Hanna Programmes manager Luisa joined AMREF in October 2005, initially as a programme officer. She has a background in Economics and Development Economics of Africa (SOAS). Previously, she worked at Christian Aid, and briefly, in the European Commission’s development directorate in Brussels. She has lived, travelled and worked in East and West Africa.
Grace Mukasa Head of programmes & advocacy Grace joined AMREF 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 as a teacher in both Kenya and Uganda and as a Regional Programme Manager for Uganda Bureau of Statistics. Grace is a Ugandan and has an MA in Gender & Development from the Institute of Development Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Planning & Management.
Craig Pollard Fundraising manager Craig recently completed his MSc in Violence, Conflict, and Development at SOAS, a big change from his Maths undergraduate degree from Exeter. For fifteen months in 1999/2000 Craig lived and worked in northern Nigeria with VSO initially as a Maths and Science teacher but later set up and coordinated an HIV/AIDS education programme in the district. On his return to the UK he trained as an accountant with KPMG and then ABC. Craig completed the first stage of his Certificate in Fundraising Management in 2003 while working as a statutory, trust, corporate and major donor fundraiser at Turning Point, the social care charity. In his spare time Craig enjoys photography, playing his guitar, Africa and travel; having spent long periods of time off the beaten track in west Africa, South America, New Zealand and southern Asia at various times during the last ten years.
Jen Stobart Corporate partnerships manager Jen is a graduate of Loughborough University and has an MSc in Occupational Psychology from Nottingham University. From 2002 to 2006 Jen was a consultant for Accenture, focusing on human performance in the workplace and has skills in organisational development, training and project management.