Introducing our new Trustees

The Cellar Trust is delighted to be welcoming 6 new trustees to the Board this July. They join at an exciting time for the organisation as we continue to deliver on our strategy and mission, and with lots of new developments underway. Of course, this is also a challenging time following on from the pandemic and as we experience increased demand for services.

A key focus of our recruitment of Trustees has been on ensuring the diversity of our Board. Equality, diversity and inclusion is central to everything we deliver, and ensuring that this is led from the Board has been an important area for development.

Kim Shutler, CEO at The Cellar Trust, said, ‘We are thrilled to be able to welcome some brilliant new Trustees to join our Board. We have been purposeful in recruiting for diversity to ensure that our Board is more reflective of our diverse communities, which has included recruiting both experienced Board members as well as those who are keen to develop their leadership and governance skills. As with the majority of our colleagues at The Cellar Trust, many of our Board have their own personal lived experience, which we believe passionately is essential to the success and impact of the work we do.’ 

Introducing and welcome to:

Professor Uduak Archibong PhD MBE
Uduak Archibong PhD MBE is the Pro Vice-Chancellor [Equality, Diversity and Inclusion], directs the Centre for Inclusion and Diversity and provides strategic oversight for equality, diversity and inclusion [EDI] across the institution. She is a Fellow of the West African College of Nursing and a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing. She was listed in the New Year Honours list 2015 and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to higher education and equality. Recognised as a foremost authority with a sustained, distinguished presence in the field of diversity management, she is currently leading in setting agenda to drive research, learning and knowledge exchange activities internationally and has published extensively on inclusion and diversity.  She is at the forefront of transforming organisational culture for sustainable diversity and inclusion approaches. Her research has provided a unique international definition of positive action and application for representational and participative diversity.. She is currently leading a portfolio of research on residential segregation, school segregation and factors in hate crime reporting in the city of Bradford as part of the Bradford for Everyone Programme.

Jamie Chiekh
Jamie has lived in Yorkshire all his life and has been active in a variety of voluntary roles locally. He joins the board after graduating with a Masters in Sport, Business Management and Policy. As an experienced manager, he aims to gain experience in third sector management, strategy and healthcare. Jamie is passionate about giving back to others in the community, ensuring support is available to everyone, and everyone has the opportunities to be their best self. Jamie says: “ I am fortunate to have had support from within the community at several important points in my life. I believe very strongly that it is important for me to provide similar help to others, especially in my local area, and I am excited to give my time and energy towards achieving this as part of The Cellar Trust. I am very interested in how mental health affect individuals but also different communities, and am looking forward to increasing my own learning and knowledge, and making a lasting contribution locally.”

Melvyn Ingleson
Melvyn is joining the Board having been a member of the Board of Bradford Counselling Services since 2020. He recently returned to Yorkshire after  thirty years In Scotland. Melvyn has enjoyed as many years running his own advisory firm, serving as an interface between private companies in many sectors who need to build relationships or sell services to the Government or wider public sector. He has a strong professional interest in organisational transformation enabled by digital technologies having supported Microsoft’s public sector business growth in recent years.  He is passionate about all sectors serving the needs of the most vulnerable in society. He was educated in Bradford and committed to giving back to the city on his return. He is also a non-executive director for Spectrum Community Health CIC. Spectrum is a Wakefield based CIC that plays a leading role in the North of England, providing health care inside prisons, also supporting drug and alcohol rehabilitation and sexual health services in the community. He is a governor of the Heights Federation, three rural Junior & Infant schools in Kirklees and a long time non-executive director of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy in Edinburgh. Newly resident in Brighouse, he is very active in Brighouse Central Methodist Church and serves on an informal advisory group for the Digital Economy in the region.

Dr Shehla Khalid

As Senior Evaluation and Insights Manager at NHS England, Shehla is currently leading evaluations and insights gathering of a large national programme to improve health and wellbeing of 1.3 million NHS workforce. After completing two Masters degrees (computing and data governance) and a doctorate from the University of Bradford for work exploring user requirements for secondary uses of data for improving the quality of dementia care, Shehla has previously successfully led a number of analytical and impact programmes in academia, private sector, voluntary sector and in the local government. Shehla is a highly experienced researcher with expertise in data analytics, data management and evaluation solutions. Shehla is a published author with a number of papers published in high-quality national and International Healthcare and informatics journals. Shehla is always keen to explore innovative and pragmatic approaches to measuring impact of health and social interventions and policies.  She says “I am personally committed to values of social justice, equality and inclusion, with a strong passion to promoting mental health and reducing health inequalities. I am honoured to volunteer my time to help The Cellar Trust measure and showcase the value of their work, and personally achieve happiness and contentment in making a real difference to people’s lives.”

Samantha McLean 

Sam joined the board in 2022, and this is her first formal role in the voluntary sector. She is currently an Associate Professor in Pharmacology at the University of Bradford and is a Research Fellow of the Wolfson Centre of Applied Health Research. Her research is centred around understanding changes in the brain in psychiatric disorders in an attempt to develop new drugs for the benefit of patients.

Sam is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teaches the science of mental health and the medicines used to treat the symptoms to students in the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences.

She says “Having worked in academia for many years I’m looking forward to the opportunity to influence and be part of change and growth at a very exciting time for the Cellar Trust. As a scientist, I’m hoping to gain a more holistic view of the experiences and challenges faced by people living locally and was delighted to be appointed to the board to give something back to the community.

Gabby Voinea

Gabby has, for the past 7 years, worked in the health and care sector (both frontline and at strategic level) whilst studying for 2 part-time postgraduate degrees. She has trained and worked as an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate, Independent Mental Health Advocate and as a health complaints advocate, worked in the public legal sector, dealing with Court of Protection matters and in the third sector developing Representatives to be involved in a range of strategic roles. This has included working closely with CCG colleagues to ensure the third sector has an equal voice within the Population and Care Delivery Boards in the local Health and Care Partnership. She is currently working as  Paralegal in Clinical Law.

She says: ‘My ethnic background and experiences have provided me with the insight to recognize (and empathise with) some of the struggles faced by ethnic minority individuals. Add to those extra layers of complexity, such as language barriers and the results can indeed be devastating. I believe in what The Cellar Trust is working to achieve, and I am excited about the opportunity to contribute towards the strategic direction of the organisation, to give back to the community and I feel privileged to volunteer for an organisation in which I believe.’