Our Team
Mikaela LoacH (she/they)
Co-Director & Co-Founder
Mikaela Loach is an acclaimed author, climate justice organiser, and speaker, recognised as one of the most influential women in the climate movement by Forbes, The Guardian, Vogue, and BBC Woman’s Hour. Prospect magazine chose her as one of the “World's Top Thinkers” in 2024. She has a decade of experience across grassroots climate justice groups and regularly speaks at international climate conferences.
Mikaela is the best-selling author of It's Not That Radical: Climate Action To Transform Our World, a compelling call for climate justice published in April 2023 by Dorling Kindersley, a division of Penguin Random House. Her debut book won the Non-Fiction Author of the Year award in Bookshop.org’s Indie Champion Awards, is included in University curriculums across the world and has been translated into 3 languages. Her new book Climate Is Just The Start was published by Penguin Random House Children’s and has been awarded Junior Library Guild Gold Standard, a starred review from Booklist, the 2025 Blueberry Changemaker Award and the 2026 Green Earth Book Award.
Mikaela studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh and holds a degree in Global Health Policy. Her impactful climate activism has garnered an online community of over 300,000 combined followers reaching 1-10 million people per month with content on climate and social justice.
Jess Mally (they/them)
Co-Director & Co-Founder
Jess Mally (they/them) is an anti-racism practitioner, consultant, organiser, keynote speaker, and Strengthscope®-accredited coach.
They are the co-founder of the AWETHU School of Organising, host of the Third Way Podcast, and the National Organiser for the Anti-Racist Movement, a coalition between BLM UK, Maslaha, Migrants Organise and Right to Remain.
Jess draws on their experience as an organiser, writer, and thinker to help individuals, teams, and organisations build cultures of equity, accountability, and care. Their work spans facilitation, coaching, and consultancy — grounded in original frameworks on cultural transformation, anti-racism, and Healthy Humans for Social Change.
Quamina (they/them)
Project Manager
Quamina (they/them) is a dynamic freelance Event Producer, Administrator, and Project Manager working across multiple organisations rooted in the Black experience. They serve as the Organisational Lead for London-based LGBTQIA+ collective Dope Black Queers, Executive Assistant at Black Psychotherapy, and Project Manager for AWETHU School of Organising and Kinfolk Network’s Annual Convening. Birthed in the underground Queer club night; Pxssy Palace, Quamina work manoeuvres through and in spaces that centre wellbeing and community as necessary tools of liberation.
Christevie Ngoma
(she/her) Assistant Facilitator
Christevie is an AWETHU alumna from the inaugural 2024 cohort and now a member of the AWETHU team supporting cohorts across London and Brighton. Driven by a commitment to Black liberation and social justice, her work spans policy, advocacy, research, and grassroots movement building. She has led local initiatives addressing policing, mental health, and youth involvement in politics.
During her time in higher education, she co-founded a social mobility society designed to address institutional barriers in university for students from low socio-economic backgrounds through community-led events and initiatives. As a Politics graduate specialising in Postcolonial and African Politics, Christevie bridges academic research with action, having published work on gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Leveraging tools gained from AWETHU, Christevie actively organises around the ongoing crisis in Eastern DRC, fundraising for local education and anti-violence projects.
She is dedicated to translating theory into tangible community action and building sustainable networks across movement spaces.
Fezile Sibanda (she/her)
Outreach & Logistics Assistant
(Brighton & Hove)
Fez Sibanda (she/her) is an educationalist interested in scholar-activism and community building, with a commitment to creating spaces for collective learning and social change. Her community practice includes ongoing work with Women of Colour Brighton and BARCO, alongside wider grassroots projects such as SHY Collective, across Brighton and beyond.
Her political work spans education, academia and community organising/building. As a social justice and education scholar, Fez is particularly interested in creating free and accessible opportunities for political education that support people to develop their critical consciousness and capacity for collective action.
Fez is committed to using her access to academic spaces to redistribute knowledge, resources and opportunities beyond the university and into the communities they should serve.
Kornelia Theodoridou
(she/they) Social Media Officer
Kornelia (she/they) is the Social Media Officer at AWETHU. She was part of the 2nd AWETHU cohort and now works in media within organisations and spaces devoted to Black Liberation, such as AWETHU and BLM UK.
She is passionate about expressions of liberation and dreaming through culture and art, and how we can make organising spaces accessible and welcoming for young working class Black people! This is why they started Stories of Love, a collective for young Black people that is focused on political education through film and art, fostering discussion and providing resources for political involvement.
ADVISORY BOARD
Edward Adonteng
Edward Adonteng is an essayist, poet, artist, grower and researcher from South London. He credits himself as a bridge builder, facilitating discourses on several themes and creating platforms for people to thrive and fully exercise their ingenuity. He was published as a Contemporary Ghanaian Poet in 2024 and was a Barbican Young Poet for 2025/26. He focuses on intellectual histories, epistemology and anti-colonial thought/practice.
Fez Sibanda
Fez Sibanda (she/her) is an educationalist interested in scholar-activism and community building, with a commitment to creating spaces for collective learning and social change. Her community practice includes ongoing work with Women of Colour Brighton and BARCO, alongside wider grassroots projects such as SHY Collective, across Brighton and beyond
Her political work spans education, academia and community organising/building. As a social justice and education scholar, Fez is particularly interested in creating free and accessible opportunities for political education that support people to develop their critical consciousness and capacity for collective action
Fez is committed to using her access to academic spaces to redistribute knowledge, resources and opportunities beyond the university and into the communities they should serve.
Christevie Ngoma
Christevie is an AWETHU alumna from the inaugural 2024 cohort and now a member of the AWETHU team supporting cohorts across London and Brighton. Driven by a commitment to Black liberation and social justice, her work spans policy, advocacy, research, and grassroots movement building. She has led local initiatives addressing policing, mental health, and youth involvement in politics.
During her time in higher education, she co-founded a social mobility society designed to address institutional barriers in university for students from low socio-economic backgrounds through community-led events and initiatives. As a Politics graduate specialising in Postcolonial and African Politics, Christevie bridges academic research with action, having published work on gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Leveraging tools gained from AWETHU, Christevie actively organises around the ongoing crisis in Eastern DRC, fundraising for local education and anti-violence projects.
She is dedicated to translating theory into tangible community action and building sustainable networks across movement spaces.
Kojo Kyerewaa
Kojo Kyerewaa - National Organiser at Black Lives Matter UK