Our People

Laurie worked for an education non-profit and as a child protection social worker, before joining the civil service. He has held a variety of policy and strategy roles in central government in the Cabinet Office and Department for Education - including as Head of Strategic Policy, where he advised Ministers and Secretaries of State on shaping and delivering their strategic priorities across schools, skills and families policy.

After a decade in the public and third sector, Laurie moved into management consultancy, advising senior executives on improving public services, across central and local government, and the health system. The national scale of rising social and emotional needs was underscored for him during a project he led with local authorities to identify opportunities to improve outcomes in special educational needs systems.

He brings a valuable blend of frontline experience, social policy expertise, and a track record of translating strategy into delivery. This is particularly important for us in this strategic cycle as we look to increase our impact and influence. He steps in with the full support of the board of Trustees and of our experienced Deputy Chair, Dami Solebo who offers continuity having been with us for nearly 4 years.

Dami is the CEO of The Clement James Centre, a community organisation in West London supporting young people and adults through education, employment and wellbeing programmes. Dami was previously a director of Finding Rhythms, a charity delivering creative interventions in prisons and community settings and worked with Voyage Youth, an organisation providing mentoring and education support to young BAME people at risk of social exclusion. Dami is involved with a number of educational and social enterprises and has worked in an advisory capacity with Comic Relief and the Youth Endowment Fund. He also brings skills and experience from his career in the financial sector to the governance and finance of the charity.

Darlene brings crucial marketing, fundraising and strategic leadership skills to the Khulisa Board. She has worked with a number of charities such as Shelter, UNICEF and Mind, gaining further appreciation of the benefits that therapeutic methodologies and trauma-informed environments provide to a rising number of young people.

In her current role at EFG Private Bank, Darlene has gained crucial insights into effective leadership and
strategic planning. There Darlene supported thier employee wellbeing initiatives and launched the ‘EFG Purpose’, providing further experience in leadership, communication and strengthening culture. Darlene's upbringing in West London provided her with a deep understanding of the challenges that face young
people and the importance of providing focused resources and solutions.

Nick is the Director of Funding and Community at Purposeful Ventures (which spun out of Arc Ventures who set up Arc Schools), having joined in 2024 from the charity Impetus, where he was lead of the education sector which encompassed a portfolio of 15 charities. Prior to this, Nick worked in social impact investing, and was a partner in Oliver Wyman’s Financial Services practice for 10 years, as well as co-leading the firm’s social impact practice. Nick worked closely with us whilst developing our strategy and was our Investment Director at Impetus in Jodie’s first year as CEO where they developed a strong high-challenge and high-support relationship. He has particular expertise in school sales, as does one of our other trustees Bernadette Keane, together they are key to our programmes and innovation committee

Amy is a Managing Consultant at inlumi, a digital transformation boutique consultancy for the Finance function. Prior to joining inlumi, she joined the Financial Services audit practice at KPMG at the age of 18, where she qualified as an ICAEW ACA accountant.

She has more than a decade of experience specialising Finance and Finance strategy, helping clients transform their Finance function to achieve their strategic objectives.

Amy spends her time outside of working trying to master a new yoga pose, (trying to) learn Spanish and Dutch or reading another Gabor Mate book.

Joely joined Khulisa part time in December 2018 as Khulisa's Youth Engagement Advisor. As part of her role Joely ensures young people's voices are being heard and to encourage participants to engage and get the most out of Khulisa's programmes. She believes that many young people are being failed and not taken seriously by the education system and that all young people should be able to express themselves.

Joely first got involved with Khulisa as a student at Wac Arts College in 2017 when she attended a Khulisa taster day. Seeing how Khulisa breaks down people's resistance to life made Joely want to be more involved. Following this she helped design and develop the #lookbeyondthelabel campaign and has been an advocate for Khulisa's work ever since.

Joely is passionate about photography, sports, travelling and socialising and hopes to use her experience and skills to work with children who have been in similar situations to her (both education-wise and life-wise) to help them achieve their goals.