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 and has lived in London for the past 8 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 a Trustee at Headway East London, a local charity supporting people affected by brain injury.
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 and here in the New York Times.
Bisila loves a good book and all kinds of music, so any recommendations, don’t hesitate to send them her way.
You can reach Bisila at [email protected].
Lip Wieckowski
Centre Manager
Lip Wieckowski (they/them) has spent the past nine years working in the charity sector with a focus on environmental protection and social justice.
Since coming back to London, they have found community with other LGBTQ+ folks through a climbing group that supported them through the pandemic and have become close friends. They want to create more spaces for LGBTQ+ folks to feel welcome, safe, loved and valued.
When they aren’t working Lip is mostly climbing with LGBTQ+ climbing group Climbing QTs, or cycling.
You can reach Lip at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Cherokee at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Chloe at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Angus at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Rachael at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Sarah at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Martin at [email protected].
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.
You can reach Raga at [email protected].
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).
You can reach Dee at [email protected].
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.
Join the team
We’re hiring! Check out our latest jobs on our website.
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