Trustee Board
Our trustee board play a vital role in enabling us to achieve the charity's objectives - providing accountability, oversight and governance to help us achieve our goals. With a diverse range of experiences, our board is made up of a mixture of experts from across the charity, higher education, business and health care sectors.
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Sue Rigby - Chair of the board & Vice Chancellor, Bath Spa UniversitySue is a Professor of Higher Education, with a long history of engagement with national initiatives around learning, teaching and supporting students, including chairing the Learning Gain Steering Group for the Office for Students, chairing the Teaching Excellence Framework Natural Sciences Panel and sitting on the Disabled Students Sector Leadership Group organised by the Department for Education. Her academic background is in palaeontology, where she spent happy years working out the ecology of an extinct group of plankton.
She spends her down-time listening to opera and lieder, travelling Europe to attend performances of her favourite singers. |
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Amelia Ireland - Fundraising and Events ExecutiveAmelia currently works for a national charity in fundraising, membership and events, having gained experience at university coordinating local fundraisers and leading teams to take on the Three Peaks Challenge and summit Kilimanjaro. Having recently experienced mental health problems at university, particularly whilst studying abroad, Amelia is passionate about improving mental health support for students and empowering them to support one another.
To relax, Amelia enjoys going for long walks in the countryside, watching the sunset, or reading a good book. |
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Andrew Nelson - Chief Financial Officer, AmeyAndrew Nelson is Chief Finance Officer and Executive Director on the Amey Plc Board. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has worked in investment banking and corporate finance.
During his leisure hours he enjoys competitive skiing, golf and plays squash regularly. |
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Aneeska Sohal - Communities Equalities Innovation Manager, MindAneeska is the Communities Equalities Innovation Manager at Mind, the UK’s mental health charity. Her role is to pilot and test new approaches to equity across Mind’s federated community. Aneeska is the founder of the University of Oxford funded podcast All Things Mental Health. Now working in partnership with Kings College London, the podcast bridges the gap between students’ lived experience of navigating mental health during higher education and that of research. Each year, the podcast works with a new cohort of students and researchers, creating an innovative and creative opportunity for the student mental health community to get involved. Acting as this unique bridge, the podcast has been featured in The Guardian and is now in the top 15% most shared podcast, globally.
Aneeska is a trained Hindustani vocalist, and she turns to singing regularly to help her with her own wellbeing. |
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Brian Rock - Clinical Director, Kooth PLTraining in a local hospice in Johannesburg, South Africa changed his career path and influenced him to study and qualify as a clinical psychologist. Since coming to London Brian has worked in the NHS, before this he set up and led an award-winning clinical service for the Trust in primary care. Brian is now the Clinical Director at Kooth PLC, a digital mental health company, and is passionate about digital innovation to address mental health need. In his previous role as Director of Education & Training / Dean of Postgraduate Studies at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Brian led the strategy, development and delivery of all its education provision. He has an MBA from Henley Business School and has published and presented widely on various topics related to mental health.
Music and running provides avenues for managing his wellbeing and he harbours a not-so-secret wish to be a jazz drummer in band one day. |
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Camille Bou - PhD Student at the London School of Economics and Political SciencesCamille is a Health Policy and Economics PhD Student at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE), where she investigates how socio-demographic determinants shape the provision of unpaid care by adolescents and young adults in the United Kingdom. In her spare time, she advocates for better financial and psychosocial support for research students and student carers within higher education, as well as wellbeing and inclusivity within higher education through her student representation roles within the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office and Access and Participation Steering Group of the LSE. Prior to joining the LSE, Camille worked for the Mental Health Foundation in London and pursued a degree in Psychology.
Camille enjoys playing touch rugby and hiking in nature to take care of her wellbeing. |
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Jaki Booth - Former Chief Executive, Sheffield Students' UnionJaki worked in Chief Executive roles for over 30 years, mostly in Students’ Unions in various Midlands universities, and as General Manager at MAC, one of the Midlands’ leading arts centres. She found working in Students’ Unions to be incredibly rewarding and very varied - and especially loved working with and for elected student officers, creating change and developing talent. Jaki worked at the number 1 students’ Union at Sheffield University from 2014 until she retired in 2022. During her tenure she steered the organisation through an ambitious strategic plan and, of course, a pandemic! Her interest in the work of Student Minds coincides with her observing significant uplift in students reporting mental health difficulties. Jaki was also a Trustee with Girlguiding UK from 2015 to 2021. In 2023, she re-joined the board of her favourite Performing arts organisation: Stan’s Cafe.
During her new found free time, Jaki spends many hours singing in the local pubs of Sheffield and Derbyshire, learning the diatonic accordion and struggling with Flamenco Dancing. |
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Lauren Young - Global Internal Communications Manager, pladis
Lauren has worked in both the charity and corporate sectors, working with a broad range of charities including six years at Cancer Research UK, working across a range of fundraising, marketing and communications teams. More recently, she joined The Royal Foundation to provide secretariat support for The Duke of Cambridge's Taskforce on the Prevention of Cyberbullying, and headed up the National Theatre's corporate development team, leading them to secure a record breaking year's income. From a corporate perspective, she has designed and implemented CSR strategies for Bupa UK and TalkTalk Telecom Group, and is currently working with Chivas Brothers to bring their parent company, Pernod Ricard's sustainability plan to life within the UK.
Lauren tries to make sure there's at least 15 minutes of calm in every day - her current favourites are reading and yoga. |
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Lizzie Pring - Communications Consultant, Lizzie CommunicationLizzie is a communications consultant and has led communications and marketing in-house and freelance for large and small charities, start-ups, scale-ups, and funders. Over her 15 years, she’s applied her communications expertise to a wide variety of fundraising, campaigning, and brand-building objectives for organisations like Envision, Youth Investment Fund, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Impetus, and Jeans for Genes Day. She specialises in brand and communications strategy but is also expert at writing crystal clear copy and creating innovative content. Working at leading social impact funder, Impetus, for seven years taught her to carry forward an impact focus through all her work and has instilled in her a disciplined focus on the end goal of all comms activity.
For her wellbeing, Lizzie enjoys going out for a run in the countryside and singing in the car! |
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Minto Felix - Manager, Nous GroupAs a Manager Consultant at Nous Group, Minto works across the education and health sectors to help organisations, governments, and communities solve their most pressing challenges. He is a skilled facilitator and advisor who has supported executives in navigating sensitive cultural issues and driving organisational change. Minto is also completing his doctoral studies, exploring research culture in Indian higher education.
Minto loves to exercise and trying out the latest fitness fad. He also loves socialising with friends, at the theatre, with nature or over a meal. |
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Dr Nicola Byrom - Founder & Lecturer in Psychology, KCL
Nicola founded the charity in 2009. She is a lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences at Kings’ College London. Leading SMaRteN, the UKRI funded Student Mental Health Research Network, Nicola’s research interests focus on student mental health and the influences that Higher Education Institutions have on youth mental health.
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Oli Thomas - Head of Strategy & Business Development, Auddy Oli is the Head of Strategy and Business Development at Auddy, a podcast start-up. He is responsible for international expansion, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and strategic projects at Auddy. Prior to his current role, he led the UK Digital business for ViacomCBS Networks International (now Paramount) alongside roles within Strategy and Corporate Development. Oli is also a qualified accountant and spent the earlier part of his career as a management consultant at PwC.
In between juggling work and family life, Oli enjoys running, cycling and (ideally) playing / (mostly) watching football to help unwind. |
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Shivali Raichura - Recent Graduate, University of Kent & SAC memberShivali is a recent graduate from the University of Kent and is passionate about advocating for improved mental health support and services. They aim to use their lived experience and the voices of their peers to drive change. They have been involved in various advisory panels and steering committees to make a difference on campus, in Canterbury and Kent, and now on a national scale. They first became involved with Student Minds when they founded Kent Mind Society, and now also serve on the Student Advisory Committee.
To relax and look after their wellbeing, Shivali likes to go for walks, listen to music and crochet. They are currently working on making a crochet cloud-igan to wear! |
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Victoria Goddard - Partner and Head of Universities, Pinsent Masons LLPVictoria started as a trainee lawyer at Pinsent Masons in 1993 and has been a partner there for the past 15 years. She leads the global universities team in providing a full legal service of governance, regulatory, HR, estates, GDPR, tax, financing, IP and student disputes advice to universities as well as new entrants into the sector. Her area of specialism is student accommodation projects and through that she is on the BPFs student accommodation committee and student mental health sub-committee. She is also on UUK’s task force on information sharing in the context of student mental health. She has been a school governor for 5 years.
Victoria has 3 children and enjoys skiing, diving and cycling as well as film and theatre, but most importantly spending time with friends and family and trudging through the woods near home. |
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Victoria Hurwood - Senior Relationship Manager, Pancreatic Cancer UKVictoria is currently a senior relationship manager at a national cancer charity and is an alumnus of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Graduate Trainee Scheme. With over 7 years experience working in higher education and the charity sector, she has experience with marketing, communications and major donor fundraising. In her current role, she is responsible for managing senior volunteers and unlocking opportunities for partnerships across major donors, trusts and foundations, and corporate partners. Victoria has personal experience of struggling with her mental health at university and is now passionate about supporting those in higher education to thrive.
In her spare time, Victoria enjoys pottery classes and listens to podcasts. |