Anu Priya (Interim CEO)
Anu Priya is a community builder, facilitator and strategist with a strong relationship with grassroots communities and movements, in part due to being born into a family of activists.
Their work focuses on building anti-oppressive practices rooted in deep and unapologetic accountability to communities most harmed by dominant systems. Their particular skills are in the areas of transition and transformation required for us to move from the world that is to the world that could be.
Penny Wangari-Jones (Director) - on parental leave
Peninah Wangari-Jones is an anti-racist activist, organiser and Director at the Racial Justice Network with a focus on Coloniality, social justice, race equality &equity and marginalised communities. Interests include migration, intersections, building power and movements. She is also undertaking a PhD at University of Manchester on how coloniality shapes Black activism.
Mbuuaraa Kambazembi
(Operations & Administration Officer)
Mbuuaraa is a highly motivated aspiring forensic psychologist with a master’s degree in forensic psychology, who embodies RJN’s values by applying psychology within the legal system to help individuals who have been minoritised find pathways that work for them and create safer communities, As a case support worker, clinical support worker,committee member and spokesperson, Mbuuaraa brings her diverse skills and experience to The Racial Justice Network as an operation and administration officer.Â
She is deeply committed to addressing eliminating racial and ethnic inequalities, raising awareness about racial injustice by listening and working with disempowered communites and challenging institutional and individual imbalances of power. Mbuuaraa is passionate about building solidarity with individuals who share the same commitments to collective and intersecting liberation.
Melany Zarate (Project Worker)
Maia Kelly (Unlearning Racism Collective Coordinator)
Maia is a Leeds-based trainer-organiser with Serbian and Irish heritage who supports climate and racial justice movemnts, They are an active member of The Racial Justice Network’s Unlearning Racism Course working as a coordinator, the course offers to help white-identifying groups unlearn racism and support Black and Brown-led movements for racial justice.
With a background in International Development, Maia turned to informal political education due to the lack of intersectionality in their field. They’ve since worked with various organisations and Leeds Tidal before joining RJN. With intersecting identites, Maia advocates solidarity across struggles, emphasising inclusive learning and the mind-body connection for social change. In RJN, they’re creating a program to help organisations unlearn racism and take accountable action.
Grace Deione (Unlearning Racism Collective Coordinator)
Grace is a trainer-organiser who, since 2018 has been coordinating The Unlearning Racism Course. Based in Calderdale and raised in the small northern town of Middlesbrough, she has a background in youth work and community development, and she is passionate about popular education, wealth distribution, and racial justice movements.
 Grace’s journey towards addressing racism began when she witnessed racist immigration rhetoric and divisive narratives in her hometown, along with the dehuminasing practices of the home office. During her MA in Community and Youth Studies. Grace’s work with diverse communities challenged her white identity, compelling her to address the complexities of white supremacy and white saviorism. She is committed to collaborative efforts and political education to combat the oppressive facets of whiteness,Â
Taiwo Ogunyinka (Community Organiser and Collective Conversations Coordinator)
Taiwo is a Leeds-based poet, writer, activist, and collaborative artist. His work focuses on collaborative arts, storytelling, and shifting perspectives to foster resilient movements and reparative community building.Â
As an organiser, representative, and advocate, he has been involved in campaigns addressing education access, community-led knowledge production, and abolition at local and national levels. Currently, as a Community Organiser at RJN, he focuses on advocating for Black and Brown individuals with migrant, refugee, or asylum-seeking statuses. He also contributes to RJN’s events through the Collective Conversation program.
Carys Coleman (Campaigns and Litigation Lead)
Carys works as Campaign and Litigation Support for the Stop the Scan campaign challenging police use of mobile fingerprint technology that enables officers to remotely check a person’s fingerprints against immigration and criminal databases. She is also an academic and researches the harms of biometric and data-driven systems, particularly as they are used as tools of oppression in migration and can be resisted.”
Antonia Lee (Project Coordinator - Stop the Scan)
Toni is the Project Co-ordinator of the Stop the Scan campaign at RJN. They have been a part of the campaign since 2019 and care deeply about human rights and community.Â
They are dedicated to the cessation of mobile fingerprint devices and the use of biometrics to discriminate against Black, Brown and GRT people, and migrants.
Farha Bi (Trustee)
Farha is a creative social justice activist with a 15-year multidisciplinary international background. She is passionate about amplifying marginalized communities’ voices to challenge systemic violence. She has experience in law, peacebuilding, human rights, youth work, heritage, and creative producing. Farha enjoys slow travel by bicycle, values ancestral knowledge, and has mastered the art of time travel due to her unique upbringing in Birmingham and Kashmir. She is committed to reimagining a just and joyful world.
Ishah Jawaid (Trustee)
Ishah has 20 years of experience in the violence against women and girls, migrant rights, and anti-racism sectors. Her work revolves around the intersections of race and gender as well as how violence impacts people’s lives. She has held numerous roles in various organizations. In 2021, Ishah founded the WOC Azadi Collective, a grassroots project led by and for Women of Colour. This collective offers a transformative space for WoC to work in solidarity to heal and liberate from patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism. Ishah is also the chair of Migration Matters Festival. Besides her work in advocacy and campaigns, Ishah has an interest in ancestral practices and traditional and non-western healing modalities as ways to self-heal, build community and deepen relationships.
Yvonne Howe (Trustee)
Yvonne has dedicated over 20 years to championing inclusive housing and empowering communities. Her passion for social justice began early on, when she tackled anti-social behavior and advocated for system reforms as a dedicated housing officer. This commitment to equality has only grown stronger, leading her to become a proactive EDI leader who finds immense satisfaction in helping individuals overcome challenges and thrive in their homes.
Beyond the workplace, Yvonne lends her energy to Free2B-Me, a platform and allotment space run for and by marginalized groups, primarily asylum seekers and refugees. As the organization’s first Black African heritage member, Yvonne feels privileged to empower these communities and amplify their voices.
Alex Ruhland-Syquia (Trustee)
Alex is practitioner in human-centred organisational development, strategy, and social investment. Counter-acting institutionalised, structural inequity and racism, Alex’s work focusses on the development of innovative practices, policies, and tools for organisations. Rooted in collectivist and solidarity-based approaches, as well as informed by experience of mixed heritage/white passing, their practice is dedicated to eradicating the institutional mechanisms of white supremacy and creating a future of shared liberation for all.
Esther Xosei (Trustee)
Esther Stanford-Xosei is a Motherist, Internationalist, decolonial Pan-Afrikanist Jurisconsult, Reparationist and Community Advocate and ‘Ourstorian’ engaged in reparations policy, research and movement-building under the auspices of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe, the Stop The Maangamizi Campaign and the International Network of Scholars & Activists for Afrikan Reparations.
- Decolonise Your Mind
Elder and Prof. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s prolific works has lessons for us on resistance to the continued project of imperialism and colonialism. - Unlearning Racism Programme Report: Reflections And Learnings From The Past Seven Years
The Unlearning Racism report is one of reflection, learning and accountability to our communities, Black and Brown-led movements and ourselves. It centres the voice and experience of Black and Brown-led movement leaders as a measure of whether the Unlearning Racism Programme has served its purpose and fulfilled its aims. - 7 days to go! Upcoming Unlearning Racism Report Launch on the 21st of March
7 days to go! Upcoming Unlearning Racism Report Launch on the 21st of March To… Read more: 7 days to go! Upcoming Unlearning Racism Report Launch on the 21st of March
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