Meet the HQ Team
Get to know the incredible team working behind the scenes to bring Migrateful cookery classes to a venue near you. Are you interested in working at Migrateful?
Join us!
Vickie Wambura, Interim CEO
Vickie grew up in Kenya and is passionate about social impact. She is founder of two organizations, Nafisika Trust, Kenya that works to integrate prison inmates into society and Spaces International, UK that promotes awareness of social barriers and empowers individuals to engage with social inclusion in a meaningful way.
Vickie joined Migrateful because it brings together her passion for inclusion and food. At Migrateful, Vickie is Interim CEO whilst Founder & CEO, Jess is on academic sabbatical.
Jess Thompson, Founder & CEO (on academic sabbatical)
Jess Thompson, prior to setting up Migrateful, studied abroad in Mexico, where she learnt about the causes of the global migrant crisis being rooted in the legacy of colonialism and the inequalities of the capitalist global economy. She then spent two and a half years working on the front line to support migrants and refugees in Ceuta, Dunkirk, and London. In 2017 she completed the Year Here Fellowship which gave her the training and network to set up Migrateful. She was featured on the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 List and also the 2020 Women of the Year List in recognition of her achievement.
Jess is currently studying a masters in International Migration and Public Policy at LSE.
The Chef Training & Support Team
Omar Abourgebah, Head of Chef Development
Omar is an experienced chef and cookery school teacher from Libya, with over 10 years of experience in restaurant kitchens in Bristol, New Zealand and London. He has spent the last 4 years teaching cookery classes at the Waitrose Cookery School in Kings Cross. The life changing role Migrateful plays in the chef’s lives is why Omar joined the team, along with the opportunity to cook with people from all over the world.
Elizabeth Kolawole-Johnson, Chef Support Officer
Elizabeth trained as a psychologist in Nigeria before moving to the UK, 10 years ago. She joined Migrateful as a chef in 2017 and managed to finally regulate her immigration status in 2018. She has first-hand experience of working as a chef for Migrateful and how life-changing the experience has been for her, making her perfectly placed to carry out her role as Chef Support Officer.
Chloe Jourdain, Chef Training Officer
Chloe grew up in Perth, Australia, and moved to the UK in 2019. She trained and worked as a lawyer but always found ways to bring her passion for food and inclusion into the office. In 2021 she started volunteering at Migrateful and decided she never wanted to leave. Chloe joined Migrateful because she wants to learn from and support the amazing people that are our chefs. She loves seeing how food brings people together, not to mention the fact that she has eaten some of the best meals of her life in the cookery classes!
Kate Edwards, Regional Development Manager
Kate brings 5 years’ experience in operations and business development in both the charity sector and the experiential events industry, as well as a creative background in film and photography. Kate is passionate about food and loves those magic connections that form between people when they sit down together and share a good meal. She wants people across the UK and beyond to experience that Migrateful magic!
The Operations Team
Georgia Luling Fielding, Business Development & Operations Manager (Bristol)
Georgia has been working in the migration sector for the last decade in London, Bristol, Northern France and EU contexts. She comes from a family of restaurateurs and worked for many years in hospitality and events – so hosting, cooking, eating are an important backdrop to her life. Seeing and experiencing the transformative potential of people cooking and eating together in different community settings, she’s excited to be able to bring her interests in food and social justice together in this role. She loves that Migrategful celebrates migration, raises awareness about and advocates for the rights of refugees and migrants, while also facilitating meaningful interactions between different people who call Bristol their home.
Tamara Mcqueen Ozdeniz, Corporate Operations Officer
Tamara was brought up in Turkey, has a background in events management, international development and experience volunteering in a humanitarian innovation social enterprise. At Migrateful, Tamara manages our corporate operations. Tamara is passionate about cooking and its potential to bring people together and create much-needed cultural exchanges and connections for a more integrated society.
Tia Moxon-Riedlin, Public Bookings Coordinator
Whilst undergoing a degree in Anthropology and Sociology, Tia co-founded a community fridge. This provided Tia with a true insight of the strength and bonds sharing food can generate. Using skills learnt from this and her experience in business development brought Tia to Migrateful as a Public Booking Coordinator, combining her want to drive social change and empower individuals with her love of food!
Samantha James, Corporate Bookings Coordinator
Samantha moved to London in 2015 from Wellington, New Zealand. Having grown up alongside a strong Chinese diaspora and community in Wellington, she was drawn to the vibrant melting-pot of cultures and cuisines in London. Starting off in hospitality, she later gained over five years of experience in international sales and strategy. Samantha is excited to combine her corporate expertise along with her passions for food and community in her role at Migrateful – and help in building towards a more integrated society.
Thea Sands, Cookery Classes Coordinator
Born in East London, Thea grew up in Paisley, Scotland and has a background in coordinating jazz clubs, pop-up festival bars and restaurants, concerts and contemporary dance events in Scotland and England.
Focusing her studies on challenging elitism in and widening access to the arts through education, Thea joined Migrateful first as a facilitator, then as Cookery Class Coordinator because it combines her practical experience organising venues with her passion for breaking down barriers between people and nurturing people through food. She is happiest when squeezing people around her table and serving out as many bowls of food as possible!
The Business Development Team
Carina Low, PR & Media Officer
Carina joined the organisation as a volunteer after working for a decade in music PR and completing a degree in Development Studies to support a career change. What Carina loves about Migrateful is its focus on change owned by the people it supports and creating spaces where the public’s part in this is not transactional. For her, its all about being part of something built around inviting people to actively engage with, learn from and celebrate refugees, asylum seekers and migrants as they pave their own way to integration.
Our trustees
Mireille Harper
Mireille is an editor at Square Peg, Vintage (Penguin Random House UK. Outside of work, Mireille works as a freelance writer, sensitivity reader and PR and comms consultant working with grassroots arts and culture organisations, black-owned businesses and black creatives. Mireille also volunteers as an Independent Visitor, mentors students and young people looking to get into the publishing and creative industries, and offers editorial advice to aspiring writers.
leave blank
Isabel Sachs
Isabel is an arts and culture manager with international experience in artists and event management and communications, having founded and sold an award-winning international production company based in Brazil. Isabel studied at Leiths School of Food and Wine to become a professional Brazilian cookery class teacher. She started volunteering at Migrateful in 2018 to help develop their cookery class model. She then worked as the Migrateful Event Manager for over a year, supporting its expansion, before becoming a Trustee.
leave blank
Habib Sedat
Habib is part of the Migrateful chef alumni. Habib managed to escape the talibans, using food as his tool to survive in the Afghan army; in Calais refugee camp and now to thrive in London. Habib says that teaching the Migrateful cookery classes allowed him to meet British people and it was a place where he could belong and people made him feel valued and trusted. Running the classes has also helped him to develop the idea of starting his own Afghan food company.
leave blank
Emily Miller
Emily heads up learning and partnerships at the Migration Museum in London. She coordinates all their work with schools, unis and other organisations in different sectors. It is through this role that she met Jess and came across the wonders of Migrateful. Emily is proud to be a trustee and help the organisation develop and grow – and help more people affected by the hostile environment.
leave blank
Daljeet Singh
Daljeet (or DJ as he is better known) is a freelance marketing expert using his 8 years of experience to provide marketing strategy & services for ethical businesses that are changing the world. His experience spans freelance writing work, co-founding multiple businesses, working in-house for a number of businesses, and providing ad-hoc consultation to clients at a business coaching firm he was marketing manager for. He started helping Migrateful through a mentorship programme and is thrilled to be a part of helping Migrateful become a self-sufficient enterprise.
leave blank
Mary Locke
After a career in international development and social investment, Mary now focuses on ways to deal with conflict and difference constructively. She works as a mediator and is exploring ways to evaluate the efficacy of community mediation and dialogue. She was drawn to Migrateful recognising the power of its model – not only supporting vulnerable migrants but also bringing people together through the universal love of food. She is also an active fellow of the RSA.
leave blank
Amaya Dent
Amaya works as a Creative Producer on a wide variety of cultural events and public art projects. She has significant experience in producing ambitious work in the outdoor realm. She is experienced in co-creating projects with the community, and firmly believes that things are rarely interesting unless everybody is in the room. Her work ensures that underrepresented voices get a say in the arts. Her methods remove barriers that prevent access to great art and culture for all people.
leave blank
Nora Bali
Nora has been working for over 10 years with the Credit team at The Charity Bank, an ethical organisation supporting charities and social enterprises on their journey to sustainability. Driven by her Syrian roots, Nora joined Migrateful to combine efforts and help migrants and refugees to become independent and dynamic members in their new communities. Nora has also a keen interest in Microfinance and has been to Kenya and India on a number of projects working on improving business acumen and financial management of small businesses.