Team - Medical Aid Films

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance of Medical Aid Films, bringing expertise from a range of professional areas and sectors.

Sean McDonnell

(Chair)

Sean McDonnel Medical Aid Films Trustee

Sean McDonnell

(Chair)

Sean is a digital transformation specialist currently working at BSI. He has worked in a range of global organisations over the last twenty years leading change programmes improving the experience of internal and external audiences. He has been volunteering for the last six years with Medical Aid Films on their digital marketing activities.

Joseph Home

Joe is a London-based public health doctor with experience in policy, quality improvement and academia. He has worked in clinical medicine, NHS management and The Health Foundation, a policy thinktank. In 2022 he acted as clinical advisor to General Sir Gordon Messenger’s Secretary-of-State commissioned review of health and social care leadership.
Joe holds a medical degree from Peninsula Medical School, a masters from the University of Manchester School of Law, and a Global-MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School. He also holds an honorary academic position from the University of Salford and a national representative position at the British Medical Association trade union.

Rachael Akidi Okwir

Rachael Akidi Okwir is the interim Head of Journalism for Africa at the BBC World Service. She leads an award-winning team of journalists in the UK and across Africa, producing content that reaches a weekly audience of more than 100 million in 12 languages on radio, television, digital and social media. She has extensive experience leading change and digital transformation in large newsrooms, and led the BBC’s expansion in the East and Horn of Africa.
Rachael is passionate about reaching young and digital audiences.
She holds a BA in Mass Communication from Makerere University Kampala, and an MA Public Communications from the University of Westminster London.

Matt Jackson

Matt Jackson (he/him) is Country Representative for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, in Viet Nam. Prior to his appointment to Viet Nam, Matt was Director of UNFPA’s London Representation Office. Matt was previously a diplomat at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) working on international development, climate change and multilateralism including at the UK Mission to the United Nations in New York where he negotiated the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and as Chief of Staff to the UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change. Matt has over 20 years’ experience specialising in gender equality, sustainable development, human rights and climate change. Matt holds an MSc in International Development from SOAS University of London and a BA (double) in Spanish and French from the University of Manchester.

Ankit Soni

Ankit is a Senior Manager at HSBC and focuses on Organisational Design, executing on strategic initiatives and Improving Business Performance within the Commercial and Investment Bank across Europe. He also has extensive experience in Risk management within Financial Services.
Ankit began his career qualifying as an accountant within public practice and previous to HSBC worked in the Investment Management industry where he worked for EY carrying out financial audits of companies and funds.
He is passionate about giving back and is also a member of the Rotary Club of Docklands.

Sonal Bakrania

Sonal is the Risk Director at ABN Amro UK Bank responsible for advising on the management of the Enterprise risk profile for the UK business. She has over 19 years of audit and risk management expertise, with roles held across Internal Audit, Group Operational Risk & Strategy, as well as the Chief Controls Office at HSBC Group, and previously External Audit and Transaction Services at PwC.
Sonal is passionate about supporting local communities through her roles as Chair of the UK ABN Amro Bank CSR Committee and National Childbirth Trust Local Committee member, as well as through international development initiatives with local governments in Laos, Palestine and Israel.

Debbie Deeney

Debbie is a Senior Director and Executive Producer, with over 30 years’ experience in long and short form content, commercials, animation, documentaries and live events. She started her career at the BBC and has since worked for multiple independent production companies in the UK and in the US. She has also been Head of Productions at Medical Aid Films and now manages partnership content at a digital entertainment company.
In her spare time she runs a community café for the elderly and is passionate about Medical Aid Films’ focus on getting appropriate and accessible maternal and child health information to where it is needed most.

Jen Kerrison

Jen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary producer and a multiple award-winning producer and director of broadcast, short-form, and digital documentaries. Alongside her production career, Jen is a senior occupational therapist and has worked within NHS and Local Authorities on both service development projects and clinical caseloads.
Prior to joining the MAF as a Trustee Jen was a Non-Executive Director at a community interest company, Lewes Football Club. Jen is the founder director of the London-based healthcare social enterprise, We Are Integral.

Jill John-Kall

Jill John-Kall is a physician with over 20 years of experience in global health, spanning emergency response, protracted crises, and development. She has led and supported health teams in numerous countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, with a focus on improving access to quality primary, secondary, and specialty health care services for vulnerable populations. In her current role as a Senior Health Advisor at International Medical Corps, she provides technical support and capacity building for program design and implementation, quality assurance, and adherence to clinical care standards. She holds a medical degree from New York Medical College and a master’s from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Our Patrons are ambassadors for Medical Aid Films, bringing a varied background in film and educational content development.

Gurinder Chadha OBE

Gurinder was born in Kenya, and grew up in Southall, London, England. She began her career as a news reporter with BBC Radio, directed several winning documentaries for the BBC, and began an alliance with the British Film Institute (BFI). Her main film successes include “Bhaji on the Beach”; ‘Viceroy’s House’; Bend It Like Beckham” and “Bride & Prejudice” She was awarded the OBE in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her services to the British Film Industry. She is married to Japanese-American filmmaker Paul Mayeda Berges.

Anne Morrison

Former chair of BAFTA, the leading charity in the UK supporting, developing and promoting the art forms of the moving image, Anne was the second woman to chair the Academy in its 68 year history. Until 2014 she was Director of the BBC Academy, the BBC’s centre for training, which she launched in 2009. Anne brings deep experience in television production, working as a producer/director and rising to become Controller, Documentaries and Contemporary Factual at the BBC. She is also a Governor of University of the Arts London, a Board Member of London and Partners, and a Trustee of the Charleston Trust.

Nayan Patel PHF

Born and brought up in Kenya, Nayan completed his higher education in the UK at Trinity College in London and Manchester Business School specialising in International Banking. He is a Risk Management specialist with over thirty-five years of experience in International Banking and has held senior leadership positions in the financial services industry. Nayan is on the Trustee Board of Lepra, the international leprosy charity and serves as an advisor to a number of other charities and organisations in the public and private sectors. His method of outreach on humanitarian efforts globally is through direct engagement with wider civic society and he is bestowed with Rotary International’s highest honour granted to an individual Rotarian, the “Service Above Self” award, in recognition of his contribution to the organisation and for his extensive charitable work globally. A committed social entrepreneur, he has expertise in building strategic links between organisations and brings with him a wealth of leadership experience to the MAF board.

Prof. James Logan

James is the head of the Department of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Director of the Arthropod Control Product Test Centre (ARCTEC). As Principal Investigator of a large research portfolio, his work focuses on the control of diseases including Zika, dengue and malaria. He has presented a wide variety of programmes for the BBC and Channel 4, and makes regular appearances on radio and in the press. James is Science Ambassador for the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Network and a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.

Dr Suzy Elneil

team_lbSuzy is a Consultant on Urogynaecology and Uro-neurology at University College London Hospital & National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery, London, and Honorary Senior Lecturer for both the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UCL, London and Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge. She has a specific interest in obstetric fistula in low-income countries, is chair of Fistula Foundation and sits on a variety of international and national fistula boards and working groups. Suzy won both the BBC One Show NHS Patient Healthcare Award and The Daily Mail Health Hero Award in 2018.

Michael de Lathauwer

Michael is the CEO of the Cardano Group, the Pension focused Risk and Investment Management firm. He is also non-executive chairman of NOW: Pensions Limited. Before joining Cardano, Michael worked at Goldman Sachs for 23 years as a Partner in the company’s Securities Division. Prior to that, he graduated from the University of Louvain (Belgium) with a Masters in Economics and the City University Business School with a Masters in Business Administration.

Professor Eric Jauniaux

Professor Eric Jauniaux is a leading women’s pregnancy care, childbirth and gynaecology specialist. He was appointed Professor in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine at University College London (UCL) in 2002 and received several international awards for his research into fetal and placental physiology, and work on placental related disorders of pregnancy. His main clinical and research expertise is in the management of molar pregnancies, recurrent miscarriages and placenta accreta spectrum.
He is one of the founding editor and pregnancy editor of Reproductive Bio-Medicine on line and Associate Editor of Journal of Medical Screening. He was appointed as a scientific editor of the British Journal of Obstetrics in 2013. He has been on the editorial board of many journals in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
16 years ago, he shared with Natalie and Fiona a vision of democratising access to medical knowledge and making it available to health care workers around the world, a vision that has become a reality with the foundation of MAF.

Dr Natalie K H Greenwold

Dr Natalie Greenwold is a Specialist Doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology at University College Hospital London. She qualified from Guy’s Hospital medical school in 1987 and went on to specialise in high risk Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She has published work on early pregnancy, placental development, pre-term birth and ultrasound training in rural settings. She set up Medical Aid Films in memory of her late husband.
She teaches undergraduate students at UCL and has lectured at Ravensbourne art college on the use of animations for social good.

Fiona Laird

Fiona Lard is Head of Midwifery and community perinatal mental health midwife who set up a specialist mental health support group in 2016 at the North Middlesex University Hospital. In 2021, she was awarded an Excellence in Perinatal Mental Health care award. She has volunteered at a refugee camp in Darfur with Médecins Sans Frontières, (MSF).

Jane O’Rourke

Jane O’Rourke is a Child, Adolescent and Family Psychotherapist and formerly an award-winning BBC producer. She directed some of the first animations for Medical Aid Films, including 10 Steps to a Clean Delivery which has been watched millions of times on YouTube. She is the Founder of ‘MINDinMIND’ which shares the wisdom of experienced clinicians about what best supports the mental health of children and their families.

Dina Prior

Charity Director

Dina Prior

Charity Director

Dina brings extensive leadership experience in both the international humanitarian sector and the global film industry – a perfect fit for Medical Aid Films’ mission to harness the power of storytelling to save lives. Over the past twenty years, Dina has led emergency responses in some of the world’s most challenging conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Syria, and Haiti, and played a pivotal role in the Ebola outbreak response in West Africa. She has also advised the UN, the US and UK governments, and international NGOs on humanitarian affairs.
Most recently, as founder of The REEL Foundation, Dina has combined her humanitarian expertise with her passion for storytelling, creating impactful educational content. Her latest film as executive producer; The Strangers’ Case, starring Omar Sy, has won multiple awards at prestigious indie film festivals this year, including Berlinale.
Born in Egypt, Dina has lived and worked in some of the world’s most complex settings, and her unwavering commitment to alleviating suffering and addressing the root causes of poverty continues to drive her work.
“Joining Medical Aid Films is an incredible opportunity to combine my two passions: global health and storytelling. I’m excited to help further the organisation’s mission of delivering life-saving information to communities that need it most, and to expand our impact through film and innovative media.” – Dina Prior

Helen Coombe

Head of Research, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Helen Coombe

Head of Research, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning

Helen is a research and evaluation specialist in the international development sector, with a passion for developing healthy communities and working with disadvantaged children and young people. With over 20 years of experience in leadership and programme management roles and research and evaluation consultancy, she has developed and advised international NGOs and funders on youth empowerment and health communication initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Central and Latin America. In her current role, Helen ensures research and behavioural insights inform film productions and leads the evaluation of the impact of our films.
Helen’s primary interests include adolescent health and rights, social and behaviour change, and public health communications. Currently, her published research focuses on exploring the contribution of film and media to public health and medical education. She has a master’s degree in international health and community development and is a professionally qualified youth and community worker.

Razan Al Halabi

Production & Operations Coordinator

Razan Al Halabi

Production & Operations Coordinator

Razan Al Halabi is a dedicated humanitarian with over twelve years of management-level experience in program operations, emergency response, and development work. She has a proven track record of guiding complex healthcare, protection, mental health, women empowerment, and community development projects, primarily in the Middle East. Razan’s career includes impactful work with the United Nations, international organizations, and fast-paced start-up INGOs.
A key part of her work has focused on CANDO International, where she led the development of locally-driven, community-based approaches to humanitarian response. Additionally, through her involvement with The REEL Foundation, she has helped leverage media and storytelling to support and amplify the voices of marginalized communities, particularly women and vulnerable populations.
Razan strongly advocates for locally-led responses, believing that sustainable solutions must be community-driven. Over the past decade, she has worked closely with UK and US start-up agencies to build innovative, locally-led response mechanisms, ensuring that those most affected by crises are actively engaged in creating their solutions.
“I believe in the power of local communities to shape their own futures. Working with Medical Aid Films allows me to continue this mission—by using film and media to not only educate but empower people to lead the change in their own communities.” – Razan Al Halabi
With her deep expertise in both operations and storytelling, Razan’s leadership is instrumental in ensuring Medical Aid Films delivers impactful, locally-relevant health education to communities around the world.

Ahsan Abdul Sattar

Finance Officer

Ahsan Abdul Sattar

Finance Officer

Ahsan is a vital member of the finance team, bringing over 15 years of expertise in financial management and strategic planning. With a distinguished background that includes roles at PwC and Unilever, he ensures financial transparency, compliance, and efficient resource allocation at the NGO. Driven by a passion for making a meaningful impact, Ahsan plays a crucial role in streamlining financial processes to enhance the organization’s effectiveness and maximize its impact.

Malek Hazem

Social Media Officer

Malek Hazem

Social Media Officer

Malek is passionate about using technology to create positive change and is excited to contribute to MAF’s mission of empowering communities. Through several internships in Egypt, he has developed a strong interest in social media and digital strategy, gaining valuable experience along the way.
He is deeply committed to helping others, believing that collaboration and knowledge-sharing are essential for success. With a focus on continuous growth and learning, Malek is eager to support MAF’s work and play a role in furthering its mission. Malek is currently studying Business Information Technology, furthering his skills and knowledge to make an even greater impact.

Nicola Pritchard

Producer

Nicola Pritchard

Producer

Nicola is a socially-conscious, skilled video producer/director with more than 25 years’ experience in film making and e-learning. She works to create compelling content and digital services for mission-driven organisations and the public sector. She is keenly interested in women’s health and equality and has been working with Medical Aid Films for more than ten years. She has been commissioned by the NHS, the Open University, the United Nations, Greenpeace and the BBC. She has also launched and project-managed two London community TV channels alongside training London residents in filmmaking and production skills.
Nicola is adept at realising people’s stories with determination and visual flair She has many years of live TV newsroom experience and can meet demanding deadlines. She thinks creatively, reacts quickly and always maximises value for clients.
She holds a Masters degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography from London College of Communication.

Dan Haythorn

Editor

Dan Haythorn

Editor

Dan is an accomplished and award-winning film editor with over two decades of experience, whose work spans short-form educational content, feature documentaries, children’s animation, podcasts, and more. His work has been featured on platforms such as the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, and at prestigious film festivals worldwide. A long-time collaborator with Medical Aid Films since its inception, Dan thrives on the challenge of presenting essential health information in engaging and innovative ways.
Dan holds a Masters degree in Film Production from The Northern Film School.

Sven Edlefsen

Google Ads Account Manager

Sven Edlefsen

Google Ads Account Manager

Sven is a digital marketing professional with a diverse background spanning agriculture, food economics, and digital advertising. Growing up on his family’s organic dairy farms in Denmark and Germany, Sven developed a strong appreciation for sustainability and innovation, which later shaped his academic and professional journey.
After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics and a Master’s in Food Economics & Marketing from the University of Reading, Sven transitioned into digital marketing. Starting agency-side, he managed paid search accounts for globally recognised brands such as Hollister, Gap, and Intel. He now works as a PPC Manager at River Island, delivering impactful advertising strategies to support the brand’s growth.
Sven is delighted to support Medical Aid Films by helping to optimise their Google Ads campaigns. He is inspired by the organisation’s mission to connect people with vital, often life-saving information and is proud to contribute to such a meaningful cause.

We are always looking for passionate and motivated individuals to help us create positive change through film. If this sounds like you, please send a cover letter and CV to info@medicalaidfilms.org and one of our team members will get back to you shortly.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance of Medical Aid Films, bringing expertise from a range of professional areas and sectors.