The Team

I became part of the acet UK team in March 2023 having worked with youth and children in a diversity of settings: youth projects, in primary and secondary schools, as a support worker, and as a children’s church worker. I studied at Edinburgh University completing a MA in Sociology of Health followed by an MSc in Outdoor Education as these balance my passion for experiential education and hands-on, relational learning for the health and wellbeing of people and the planet. I am passionate about empowering young people to realise their full potential and value through relationships and sex education to make healthy choices in their everyday challenges. 

I grew up primarily in Slovakia and Austria and a few other places in between. As a proud third-culture kid, I love new adventures, exploring places, having a good laugh about getting lost, or trying interesting foods. I have also worked for 5 years in various camps and conferences across Europe helping young people embrace their multicultural identities.  

One of my core values is treating every day as a gift of life so my vision as a part of the acet team is to come alongside young people and equip them with the tools and resilience to have healthy relationships with themselves and each other. Doing this also in supporting and training educators, youth workers, parents, families, and communities to support the formation of stronger, resilient generations is why I am so passionate about acet UK’s work here in the UK but also globally around the world! 

I joined acet UK in 2022, bringing with me my previous experience of working in administration in the charity sector.

I joined acet UK as the Finance Officer in October 2016. I have a degree in Economics from Lancaster University and have worked in Finance since January 2008. My previous job was executing the finance function for an online retailer of Christian resources, which has given me valuable experience and insight into both finance and working in the Christian world.

I am excited to now work for an organisation where having a positive impact on people’s lives all around the world is the primary objective rather than profit. It gives me great satisfaction to play a part in supporting both the delivery of our compassionate education and training here in the UK and the provision of financial support and resources for our international partners to perform their life changing work overseas.

I began my journey into relationships and sex education in 2005 when I trained as a volunteer Esteem educator and started delivering lessons in schools, alongside my job as an account manager for a global HR consultancy. In 2007, I left the business world to fully invest myself in relationships and sex education, having developed a growing awareness of the need for young people to have opportunities to talk about these topics, and the need for training so that youth workers and teachers were better equipped to create these opportunities.

Since then, I've worked in Mbale in Uganda for two years, adapting the Esteem programme and delivering it to hundreds of young people there; helped to establish and grow Esteem as its own charity; delivered sessions to thousands of young people in Southwark; and trained hundreds of youth workers across the UK and beyond. During this time I have completed a wide range of relevant training myself, including the National PSHE CPD programme, and I am an accredited trainer with Open College Network.

I became the CEO of acet UK in August 2015, following the merger between Esteem and acet UK in 2014. It was a real privilege to lead the organisation for 4 and a half years, growing our work in the UK and growing the capacity of our international partners. I have now changed roles to enable me to be a foster carer! I am delighted to be continuing working for acet UK as Fundraising Manager, raising funds for all the fantastic work we are doing.

My past experience equipped me well for my extremely varied and interesting role at acet UK, where I assist our UK team of Esteem educators, support the board of trustees and CEO, and liaise with our international partners.  I have been able to draw on my 6 years as an ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ administrator of a small charity; the finance experience I gained from working in various management positions; the international development elements of my BSc; plus 8 years’ teaching experience!

I am passionate about the work that my role supports at acet UK. As a qualified teacher, with a heart for young people’s emotional and relational needs, I really enjoyed participating in the Esteem training course - and would highly recommend it. And, as a parent of two teenage children, I have a vested interest in supporting the next generation in developing healthy self-esteem and relationships.

I am a wife to Matt who is a primary school teacher and mother to two sons and our British Bulldog Mozzi. We live in Wales and it was in Wales that I met Catherine when I was a teenager, I can still vividly remember the sessions she ran in our church youth group on sex education, she was always open honest and unshockable which is what I seek to mirror in my own teaching within church.

I have a diploma in Youth and Community work but have been a children’s Pastor in our local church for the last 5 years. I am passionate about helping broken people and seeing people reach their full God-given potential! I am super excited to be part of acet UK and can’t wait to witness firsthand the impact that the ACET family has on lives of young people and communities.

I actually did the Esteem training with Paul and have loved being able to access all the resources - I can’t wait to start using them in our local schools as well as in church.

The conversation of relationships and sex education (RSE) has been a topic I’ve been passionate about from a young age. I failed to understand why the topic was deemed taboo and felt determined to encourage the normality of RSE from a Christian perspective.

As a youth leader, I adopted ways to encourage and create an atmosphere for young people to ask questions whilst ensuring safeguarding policies. I helped to facilitate training in safeguarding to other volunteers as well as leading panels at events determined to demonstrate safe and healthy conversations about RSE.

Having the opportunity to be a part of the vision and team on how we equip young people around the country on the topic of RSE provides me with joy and complete anticipation. I’m a strong believer in educating young people for safer relationships along with being passionate to aid and equip churches across the UK with the right materials to achieve the same result. With parents, churches and volunteers combining their efforts on enabling healthy conversations and with our resources, we can look forward to a generation fully prepared and aware of their sexual health. acet UK is a powerful charity with a great foundation and a strong message

An experienced charity sector professional, I bring with me the wealth of more than 30 years’ experience in the not for profit sector, the majority of that time spent working in senior management and executive positions. I am particularly adept at helping define strategy, determining operational plans to deliver strategy, shaping, developing and managing teams and implementing operational plans which deliver results. I have worked extensively with not-for-profit boards, helping them to develop governance best practice. I am a good communicator with experience in broadcast media and public settings.