Our small team has driven our project from volunteers with a great idea to the opening of our doors at Bankside. Our paid staff members ensure the day-to-day running of the Centre goes smoothly, while our board of Trustees ensure we have a strong foundation in place from which to drive our strategic vision. Get to know our incredible crew.
Staff
Bisila Noha
General Manager
Bisila Noha (she/her) is the project’s first paid staff member, working as a General Manager three days a week. Bisila is Spanish-Equatoguinean and has lived in London for the past 10 and a half years, so considers herself a Londoner in her heart now.
With a background in Translation and International Relations, Bisila has vast experience as a Project Manager and joined us from Apple. Moreover, she co-directs Lon-art Creative, an arts and activism organisation that offers a platform for everyone to create, collaborate and reflect upon social issues through the arts. Their main focus at the moment is on Violence Against Women and Girls through their flagship project Sheroes.
As a passionate advocate for social justice and inclusion, Bisila also is at the Steering Committee of Design Can, a campaign, community and active resource platform calling for an inclusive and representative creative industry.
Along with her community work, she also is a ceramic artist. With her work, she aims to challenge Western views on art and craft and to reflect upon the idea of home and oneness pulling from personal experiences in different pottery communities around the world. You can check out her ceramics here.
Bisila loves a good book and all kinds of music, so any recommendations, don’t hesitate to send them her way.
Daniel Gould Loftus
Centre Manager
Daniel Gould Loftus (he/him) is our Centre Manager, working 5 days a week at the Centre.
Daniel spent ten years working in specialty coffee, retail operations and events planning before coming to work with the Centre. Born and raised in London, he has a great love for the city and its social history, and is an advocate for the need and importance of safer, more accessible, intergenerational and intersectional third spaces in the Capital, especially for the LGBTQ+ community.
With a background in archaeology, Daniel is an avid psycho-geographer and amateur urban landscape archaeologist, and can usually be found exploring the city’s hidden corners, forgotten heritage, and invisible ecologies on his days off.
Neelam Virdee
Centre Assistant
Neelam Virdee (she/her) is our Centre Assistant. You’ll find her in the Centre from Thursdays to Sundays serving up your coffee or tea or talking to the plants and watering them.
With a background ranging from retail to construction, Neelam is now developing practice in various mediums of holistic therapies and is passionate about all things bettering our wellbeing.
If Neelam was a cuppa tea she’d be a Masala chai, giving extra warmth to the cup in spices and never without sweetness. She looks forward to welcoming all the community coming through to the Centre.
Cherokee Seebalack
Communications and Marketing Manager
Cherokee Seebalack (they/them) is our Communications and Marketing Manager. They work three days a week at the Centre, managing all of our digital channels. (If you’ve DM’d us on socials, you’ve probably met them already!)
Their background is in communications, with over seven years experience working in the charity sector on a wide range of campaigns, publications and projects.
Alongside their work at the Centre, they provide comms support for other organisations, grassroots groups and charities. They’re passionate about telling the stories of LGBTQ+ people and continuing to document the histories of our community.
To get in touch about communications, marketing or press contact [email protected].
Jesualdo Lopes
Events and Outreach Lead
Jesualdo Lopes, born and raised in Lisbon, is a multidisciplinary artist whose journey has led him to become a versatile force in the realms of film, events, and community activism.
In 2021, Jesualdo established The Blacker The Berry Project, a collective highlighting Black LGBTQ+ artists across the globe through creative intervention such as exhibitions, club nights, workshops, and residencies. The collective has made a significant impact and even pioneered The Blacker The Moses retreat in collaboration with Vale de Moses, a yoga facility in the mountains of Portugal, as well as the country’s first known Safer Spaces Policy.
In addition to his work, Jesualdo is the Events and Outreach at the London LGBTQ Community Centre. His enthusiasm for creating safe, intergenerational, and intersectional spaces within the LGBTQ+ community is a testament to his ongoing commitment to making a difference and fostering inclusivity.
To get in touch about booking an event contact [email protected].
Lucy Hayhoe
Finance Lead
Lucy Hayhoe is our Finance Lead, working two days per week at the Centre.
She is the Executive Director of LGBT+ arts charity, Raze Collective, looking after the organisation’s development, creative strategy and financial management. She is passionate about creating space for queer arts to flourish.
Alongside her work at the centre and with Raze Collective Lucy is a live artist, creating interactive installations and performance interventions. Her work ranges from intimate encounters to large-scale productions. Over the last 15 years Lucy’s artwork has toured nationally and internationally, to venues and festivals across Europe, Japan, China, Australia, and the US.
Trustees
Chloe Davies
Chloe Davies (she/her) is an activist, proud bisexual woman, mother of two, chef and entrepreneur, who campaigns for inclusion and equality in social spaces, corporate organisations and the wider community. She spent over 15 years working in retail, artist management and PR before starting her own company in 2015.
Chloe is Head of Social Impact at Lucy Generals, having previously worked as Head of Partnerships for myGwork – The global recruitment and networking hub for LGBT professionals and organisations promoting diversity and inclusion.
Chloe volunteers with UK Black Pride (UKBP) as the Strategic Officer, working closely with the Executive Director and the Board of Directors to help shape the future of UK Black Pride.
Angus Waite
Angus Waite (he/they) is a charity development and innovation specialist currently working for a key UK healthcare charity. He is a co-founder of the award-winning Know it Wall social enterprise, successfully taking it through various funding stages and launch.
Angus is the Head of Engagement and Innovation for the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, helping coordinate the UK healthcare leadership response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including the founding of NHS Nightingale, and created and launched the FMLM Navigator app.
He has been involved in the Centre’s campaign since 2017, and as a queer person deeply feels the need to address the lack of support for young LGBTQ+ people and to support inter-generational mixing and learning. Fostering a greater sense of community and LGBTQ+ solidarity is paramount to his motivation.
Rachael Baker
Rachael Baker (she/her) is the Fundraising Manager at The Proud Trust. She wants to use her skills to contribute to building inclusion and community. Having met so many people who have benefitted from the Manchester LGBTQ+ Centre she is passionate about facilitating the development of these spaces in more areas of the country.
Sarah Moore
Sarah Moore (she/her) is one of the project’s co-directors and has been involved since 2017. She is a digital campaigns, communications, fundraising and content strategist, specialising in political and charity campaigns. She is currently Deputy Head of Digital Communications for the Mayor of London, and was previously within communications for other political and charity organisations including Dogs Trust, the Labour Party and Stonewall. Sarah also spent two years as co-chair of the Labour Party’s LGBTQ+ staff network.
In 2015, Sarah graduated from Stonewall’s Young Leaders programme. In 2017, Sarah’s photography was commissioned by the National Trust – her portraits of trans activist Munroe Bergdorf were displayed in the Sutton House Queered exhibition. Her poem ‘Throwing Bricks Through Glass’ now appears alongside a portrait of Munroe in the Museum of Transology.
Martin Lyons
Martin Lyons (he/him) is a retired business analyst who now works part-time as an online English language tutor. He previously served as treasurer on the board of LGBT Youth Scotland, and currently serves on the board of a charity that supports indigenous land and water rights in Africa and is a member of the Labour Party.
Raga D’silva
Chair of Trustees
Raga D’silva (she/her) is an entrepreneur, author, Tedx Speaker, screenplay writer, Host and Moderator of The Views Room, Producer and Host of ‘Coming Out Stories from India’.
Born and raised in India, Raga lived in New Zealand for several years before moving to London, a city she now calls home.
Raga decided to publicly ‘come out’ as a lesbian at the age of 50 through her debut book, ‘Untold Lies’ which made headlines, particularly in India. Since then, she has been vocal in her support for the LGBTQ+ community along with creating and producing positive LGBTQ+ content.
As a media, events and entertainment industry specialist for over thirty years, Raga has worked in many countries including India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia as well as New Zealand and the UK, receiving various prestigious awards during her journey.
Raga is currently a Trustee on the Board of one of India’s largest charities – Child Rights & You (CRY UK), the D&I Board of Aristocrat Technologies India & Sony Pictures India and on the Management Team of the Gay India Network (GIN) London UK.
Raga’s personal coming out journey was featured across various media channels internationally including BBC India in 2022 in several Indian regional languages. Raga wants such lived experiences to reach across India and within the South Asian Community, including grassroot levels, so that no one faces the struggles she went through.
Dee Jas
Special Advisor, HR
Dee (he/him) founded we are colourfull in 2018 to create greater visibility through storytelling of queer people of colour (qpoc) given his own experiences in the queer community. It has since evolved from a media platform to a consultancy that aims to increase visibility and the inclusion of the LGBTQ community and People of Colour in the workplace as well as wider society – using data, storytelling and design thinking. Prior to this, Dee held HR Leadership roles in creative organisations inc. the BBC, Net-A-Porter and Girl Effect and you’ll often find him travelling, practicing yoga or making a cocktail (alcohol optional of course).
Patrons
Charlie Craggs
Charlie Craggs (she/her) is an award-winning trans activist, author and media personality dubbed “the voice of a community” by Vogue, best known for her national campaign Nail Transphobia, her LAMBDA nominated book, To My Trans Sisters, and her groundbreaking BBC documentary Transitioning Teens.
In 2016, Charlie topped the Guardian’s New Radicals list of social innovators in Britain. She has since gone on to be the recipient of a Marie Claire Future Shaper Award, front global campaigns for brands like The Body Shop, H&M and Selfridges, and speak at the Houses of Parliament.
Shiva Raichandani
Shiva Raichandani (they/them) is a non-binary British filmmaker who is passionate about telling inclusive, intersectional, gender-expansive stories with a focus on social justice and universal hope, by using the performing arts as a narrative device.
They were a semi-finalist on Britain’s Got Talent; a recipient of the inaugural Netflix Documentary Talent Fund through which they directed a film called Peach Paradise.
They have also had their independent community-funded musical film, Queer Parivaar, win the prestigious Iris Prize’s Best British Short Film Award leading to its release on Channel 4.
Recently, they were a recipient of Together TV’s Diverse Film Fund through which they directed a documentary titled, ‘Always, Asifa’ that was broadcast on television.
Shiva also freelances as a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant within the wider creative industries.
DOM&INK
DOM&INK (they/them) is an illustrator and author hailing from Bolton via Narnia.
They love to create work that empowers the queer community and celebrates queer icons.
They’ve released two books, Free To Be Me and Queer Power! which both centre around celebrating our beautiful community and amplifying the voices within it.
Andrew Fitzsimons
Celebrity hairstylist, Andrew Fitzsimons (he/him), was born in Dublin, Ireland. After leaving school to pursue hairdressing at just 13 years old, Andrew’s career has exploded on a global scale.
With 15+ years of experience under his belt and more than 1 million Instagram followers, Andrew now works internationally with fashion, beauty, commercial and celebrity clients alike.
Alongside his work, Andrew is a lifelong champion of the LGBTQ+ community. In collaboration with the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Trans Wellness Center, he founded the Trans Cosmetic Donation Program. The service is as an opportunity for beauty brands and professionals to donate unused personal care items to organisations that work with trans women and gender non-conforming people.
Join the team
Come and work with us as our new Fundraising Lead!
Volunteers are absolutely paramount to our work and we really value those who are keen to support us. If you’re interested in getting involved as a volunteer please register your details by clicking the button below.
Want to support the work of the Centre? Set up a monthly donation! We depend on contributions from the community and allies, so even a few quid a month will go a long way.