Board of Trustees
Niki Scordi
Chair
Niki has over 20 years’ charity experience including within the Violence Against Women and Girls sector, on the front line and at board level.
With extensive experience in strategic leadership, business development and change, her background also spans financial services and luxury retail.
Niki is well-known within the women’s sector, and for championing partnership working and intersectional approaches that tackle systemic inequalities and influence change for positive social impact. These include the development of community-based services, including a whole housing support service and a whole justice approach for women affected by domestic abuse, and specialist early intervention support for young women and girls.
Niki’s mission is to influence national and local policy to improve responses to women’s abuse and trauma.
Maya Rodriguez
Treasurer
Maya is managing partner of AZR Capital Ltd and has over 10 years’ experience in asset management.
Prior to founding AZR Capital, Maya led 36 South’s global sales, marketing, branding and PR strategies. Maya has also worked for Barclays Global Investors as an investment strategist.
Althea Cribb
Althea has over eighteen years’ experience in the domestic abuse and violence against women and girls sector, including frontline contact with survivors.
Freelance consultant Althea works with voluntary sector services and partnerships on their VAWG responses, delivering evaluations, needs assessments, and research with survivors.
She is a chair/lead reviewer for Safeguarding Adults Reviews, Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews, and Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews.
Althea has an MSc in Gender and Politics from Birkbeck University of London, and a PhD completed with the Connect Centre, University of Central Lancashire, researching the concept of ‘service user engagement’ in specialist domestic abuse services.
Debbie Freeman
Debbie has over 40 years’ experience as a people-focused and solutions-driven HR professional, most recently as HR Director for NTTDATA.
With substantial, broad experience across the IT, professional services and luxury retail sectors, Debbie has demonstrable senior HR skills, from recruitment through to disputed terminations, including employment law, organisational management, people development and training. She has supported significant growth and success as a member of a number of executive management structures where she has built and successfully led HR teams.
Debbie believes in building stronger, more successful organisations through effective and clear management of people.
Debbie Hartley
Debbie is a senior executive in the finance industry with over 20 years in banking and investment management.
She has extensive experience in initiating and developing strategic relationships. Debbie has held senior client relationship roles at Citibank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank.
Debbie is currently responsible for institutional investors in the UK and the US for Scope Corporation, a European rating agency.
Elizabeth Muir
Liz is a senior commercial solicitor with over thirteen years’ in-house legal experience across regulated sectors, including utilities, local government, the NHS, and financial technology.
Specialising in complex commercial contracts, governance, and public law, Liz has advised at senior levels throughout her career. She has held director-level responsibility and is now committed to supporting Woman’s Trust in its mission, as a Trustee. Liz is passionate about contributing to organisations that make a meaningful social impact.
Florence Acquah
Florence is a registered healthcare professional with 38 years’ experience of working in acute and community healthcare settings in the NHS.
Bringing more than 20 years’ experience in senior management, including as a public health specialist practitioner, she is also a subject matter expert for safeguarding adults at risk, and violence against women and girls (VAWG).
Florence has a lifelong, unwavering passion for advocating, campaigning and change on VAWG issues such as female genital mutilation, domestic abuse, and forced and early marriage. As Designate Safeguarding Adults Nurse, Florence participates in Domestic Abuse Related Deaths Reviews and Safeguarding Adults Reviews, on behalf of her local NHS Integrated Care Board.
Jazz Rehal
With a distinguished career bridging corporate affairs and psychotherapy, Jazz brings a wealth of experience and insight.
A transactional analysis psychotherapist with over a decade’s experience, Jazz is also a trainer and clinical supervisor in counselling and psychotherapy. Her work is deeply informed by a nuanced understanding of unconscious processes, power dynamics, and difference – and their profound influence on intrapsychic and interpersonal relationships.
Jazz previously had an award-winning career in communications and corporate affairs within healthcare, spanning three decades. Committed to social justice and transformative therapy, her background provides a unique perspective on the intersection between organisational structures and strategy and personal psychological development.
Laura McCarthy
Laura is a UKCP-registered psychotherapist and Certified Transactional Analyst, specialising in trauma, domestic abuse, and sexual violence, including grooming, trafficking, and ritual abuse
Laura works in private practice and as an outreach psychotherapist for East Kent Rape Crisis Centre. She brings lived experience of familial and partner abuse. Her work is grounded in trauma-informed, feminist, and anti-oppressive practice.
Prior to retraining as a psychotherapist, Laura worked in the music and events industries as a marketing director and has extensive experience in crisis communications.
Laura is a qualified clinical supervisor, and chairs the Ethics, Practice and Safeguarding Committee.
Linda McHugh
Linda has over 25 years’ experience in the private sector, including significant experience as a Chief Executive.
She then moved into the public and voluntary sectors, initially working as a Management Consultant. Linda spent seven years as a Member of the Parole Board for England and Wales, serving on its Management Board and was Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee. She was also on the Board of Community Housing Association for 12 years, as well as a long-standing Board Member of crime reduction charity, Nacro.
Nicola Peers
Nicola is an experienced marketing and procurement director, and non-executive director
Passionate about making companies more profitable, Nicola has worked for many FTSE 100 and 250 companies, as well as SMEs. She has worked on major global contracts in advertising and media and has strong stakeholder management skills.
She also sits on the board of the Blackhealth Society, a charity for the preservation of Blackheath.
Nicola chairs the Income, Communications and Policy Committee at Woman’s Trust.
Rebecca Williams
Rebecca is a highly experienced fundraiser and data strategist
Managing strategic charity relationships for Blackbaud, Rebecca previously led implementation of systems and fundraising data for the National Emergencies Trust £100M+ Coronavirus Appeal and has raised six figure, multi-year grants from major funders.
With extensive experience working with national and international charities, public bodies and grant-makers, Rebecca’s in-depth knowledge of the fundraising landscape and passion for harnessing data to maximise income are an asset to Woman’s Trust.
An academic background in women’s rights and lived experience of domestic violence, Rebecca has a firm belief in the transformative power of therapeutic services to enable survivors to heal and flourish.
Shivangi Medhi
A public health specialist with over 20 years’ experience, Shivangi currently leads the Health Improvement Team at Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, focused on improving health outcomes
Her background spans alcohol licensing, sexual and reproductive health, cancer screening, workplace wellbeing and domestic abuse prevention. A former chair and board member of Ashiana Network with extensive related experience, Shivangi also brings a strong commitment to equity, strategic leadership, and a deep understanding of the complex challenges faced by women experiencing abuse.
Shivangi is passionate about ensuring people have accessible, trauma-informed support, and driving meaningful change.
Vyara Stoycheva
Vyara is a highly experienced investment manager, with a background in finance and venture capitalism.
She brings a strong focus on governance, fundraising, scaling up and financial management – along with bold ambitions for Woman’s Trust.
In her role with us, Vyara is keen to help as many women as possible get the mental health support they need to recover from domestic abuse. As a mother of two young daughters, Vyara is also determined to contribute to a world that is kinder to women.
