Staff Profiles

Professor Naina Patel OBE
Founder and director of PRIAE

Naina established PRIAE in 1998 after recognising that a dedicated body specialising in ageing and ethnicity was needed in the UK and across Europe. Such a body would provide support for black and minority ethnic organisations working on old age and, where necessary, across all ages through policy, research, information service developments and training. Naina has built PRIAE from zero finance to the unique and respected charitable institute it is today, having designed and secured the funding for the majority of its ground-breaking initiatives. In 2001, Naina received an OBE from her Majesty the Queen as recognition of her pioneering work to improve the quality of life of ethnic elders. She accepted the award saying that it was in recognition to the area itself and paid tribute to all the elders and organisations who work tirelessly with little resources to provide much-needed service support.

Her first book in this area, Race Against Time? Social Services Provision to Black Elders (1990, Runnymede Trust) was credited to the inspiration from her mother and late father, and informed the need for an organisation like PRIAE. PRIAE’s first contract was from the Royal Commission on Long Term Care for the Elderly - just three weeks after the formal establishment of the charity – and gave the perspectives of BME elders in the UK (HMSO 1999, downloadable report – see publications).

In year 2000 she designed and wrote the entire submission for the largest research at PRIAE and indeed in Europe, called the MEC Minority Elderly Care Research under the EC Fifth Framework Programme covering 10 countries and generating 12 equivalent full time research posts for 3 years. The research began in year 2001 and staff at PRIAE were duly appointed. Naina’s 86 years old mother, husband and family have been key family volunteers at PRIAE since its inception.

Naina is Professor in Ageing and Ethnicity at the Centre for Ethnicity and Health at the University of Central Lancashire. She is also the UK representative on the European Monitoring Centre on Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism (EUMC) and Observer on ECRI (Council of Europe). In addition, Naina is a member of Leadership and Race Equality NHS Panel. She is part of the Old Age and Mental Health Delivery Board at the Department of Health and is on the Partnership Group for Older People at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Naina has written extensively on the subjects of age and ethnicity, race equality and social work. At the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW), Naina designed and led on the Curriculum Development Project, generating seven publications produced by academic-practitioner multi-racial teams for professional care training. These proved to be the organisation’s ‘best-seller’ for a number of years.

Clinton Cameron MBE
Operations Director

Clinton has recently joined PRIAE supporting the internal operations of the organisation, working part time. He brings with him considerable experience of housing, employment and local authority, being the founder and Chair until recently, of Unity Housing in Leeds. He co-set up the Ethnic Minorities Unit at Leeds City Council in the 1980’s and held the post of Deputy Chair of the Board at Leeds Metropolitan University until recently.

Samantha Turner
Project manager, AIM Project

Sam is currently leading on the AIM initiative (Ageing actively in Minority communities), funded by the Department of Health. The project is designed to increase physical activity of Black and Minority Ethnic elders to improve their health and independence, while recognising the importance of self-belief, culture and their own strategies in active ageing. Promoting current good examples in the area will be an important task. Sam also provides PA support to director Naina Patel. Sam has been involved in PRIAE’s contribution to the Age+ project and its conference in Amsterdam, examining the financial situation of older minority women in the UK. Until recently Sam was research assistant for PRIAE’s MEC (Minority Elderly Care initiative – the largest project of its kind in Europe – to draw attention to the needs of minority ethnic elders regarding the provision of health and social care services now and in the future. Sam worked previously for the Health and Safety Executive.

Dr Gonzalo E Shoobridge BSc MBA PG-Dip MPhil PhD
Project Director of CEMESME - Contribution of Ethnic Minority Employees to UK Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Gonzalo leads this major UK-European employment and enterprise research and development initiative at PRIAE. The main area of research in CEMESME involves the analysis of the contribution of the different ethnic minority employees to UK exports. This project intends to promote employment of the different ethnic minorities in the UK by demonstrating the positive impact of this important segment of the British workforce on the overall export performance of firms. The development aspects relate to a large European partnership that he co-ordinates which will generate useful materials in raising the profile of ethnic diversity and promoting increased opportunities for employment.

Gonzalo previously worked as project manager at the Bradford University School of Management focusing his activities upon economic development initiatives, making full use of his previous experience as special adviser and consultant on European policy affairs and external funds in the United Kingdom. Gonzalo has extensive experience in the international marketing arena and has worked as marketing manager and export manager in South America and Europe for the brewing and chemical industries.

Ahsan Malik
Project Manager of CEMESME - Contribution of Ethnic Minority Employees to UK Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

Ahsan provides essential financial and administrative management for CEMESME and ensures the initiative is delivered to the requirements of the European Social Fund and EQUAL who fund the project. He also manages the delivery of the Personalised Mentoring Programme in which postgraduate students from various ethnic backgrounds develop international trade activities in UK companies. The overall aim of this programme is to raise awareness among national SMEs of the importance of a multicultural workforce and its impact on international business and business performance.

Having worked in consultancy for ten years, Ahsan has been involved with public sector institutions to develop and deliver initiatives to build SMEs in the areas of exports and management. He has many years’ experience of delivering specific initiatives to ethnic minority businesses in the Yorkshire area, including promoting mainstream services and available support. Other attributes include a spectrum of project management skills and experience in bringing project ideas to life through various EU funding programmes.

Melnisha Davids
Project Officer - CEMESME

Mel leads on the logistics for CEMESME’s main outputs which include the training seminars, Diversity Management CD-Rom, joint publication, primary research questionnaire and the project-website. She recently planned and organised a 3 week training seminar programme focusing on Diversity in International Business Management. This was regarded as a useful and a successful event involving a cross-section of participants and presenters. A large part of Mel’s work includes communications with the project’s UK based partners and with the European partners in Spain, France, Lithuania and Germany. She is currently developing a comprehensive database of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and manages the questionnaire distribution to private firms.

Mel was born in Cape Town and worked for Vodacom. Her focus was on product training, corporate sales support and marketing. She is a lifetime member of the National Trust, a member of English Heritage and a keen supporter of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Akja Karajakulova
Research Officer for CEMESME – Contribution of Ethnic Minority Employees to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Akja provides research support for CEMESME. She is responsible for the development of CEMESME distance learning materials. She supports the potential new publications and research articles in the CEMESME’s field of research and creation of case studies for the CEMESME project.  She also assists in the information, research and development of work with PRIAE’s range of projects.

Akja comes from Turkmenistan. She obtained her Masters degree in International Business and Management from Bradford University in December 2005. Before her studies she worked for International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for six years. She started working for IOM in Turkmenistan and then she was transferred to its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland where she worked for the Holocaust Victim Assets Programme (HVAP). There she was responsible for the performance of various tasks related to the payment of compensations to HVAP claimants.

Amjad Rauf
Finance Manager

Amjad works three days a week for PRIAE as finance manager. His role encompasses everything to do with the management of money for PRIAE including setting up new accounts, running the pay roll, dealing with cash flows and the year-end audit, and reporting to the director and trustees of PRIAE. Amjad also ensures the smooth running of the office, meeting the working needs of his colleagues.

Sunjeeda Hanif
Project Manager, BME Elders’ Secretariat

Sunjeeda has worked with PRIAE since the organisation’s establishment when she helped to develop the prestigious commissioned report to PRIAE from the Royal Commission on Long Term Care for the Elderly. Working part time at PRIAE, she undertook a variety of roles in PRIAE’s projects from local to European levels.  She has had extensive contact with BME Elder organisations, multi-agencies & planners, practitioners, researchers / academics, commissioners & managers in health, social care & housing. She worked most recently on PRIAE’s Palliative Care PALCOPE project and coordinating PRIAE’s forthcoming film before the current Secretariat initiative which began in April 2006. Here as part of managing the Secretariat, she will establish BME elder-policy linkages through developing a comprehensive information and communication base, which will act as an important platform to help convey the voices of BME Elders and through their participation with policy and professionals, strengthen services in turn. Her high determination to create change via PRIAE’s work and with her personal experience of navigating the health and social care system as a Carer, and recently helping the media to reflect appropriately her local community of Beeston in Leeds and by so doing providing a voice for Muslim women in her neighbourhood, has provided her with a specific insight into exclusion and discrimination, experienced by BME Elders and carers. A graduate of business administration, Sunjeeda has worked for the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work. She also spent five years in the field of mainstream education, in Section 11-funded work to support BME secondary school children, developing a series of workshops including assertiveness and confidence building.

Ian Smith
Project Assistant, BME Elders’ Secretariat

Ian recently joined PRIAE on this important initiative and will provide critical information support to the Secretariat using his experience of social research and database management. As part of this he co-wrote the PRIAE response to the EC Green paper on obesity and physical activity; and provides support to the Manchester project since all PRIAE projects link into the Secretariat. Ian brings a strong commitment to the voluntary sector and for many years volunteered for York & District Citizens Advice Bureau.  Since leaving University he has gained exposure of working in both the public and private sectors.  Ian graduated with a First Class Honours Degree in Sociology from the University of Newcastle and subsequently attained an MA in Social Policy from the University of York in 2003. In 2004 he volunteered on a 3 month conservation project in South India and has retained a strong interest in social policy issues and social research. 

Consultants

Yasmin Gunaratnam
Project manager for PALCOPE

Yasmin manages a PRIAE project on palliative care, older people and ethnicity (the 'PALCOPE' project) which is using narrative based interviews with service users and palliative care professionals to explore experiences of service use and of caring for older people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Yasmin’s previous research has included work with children, carers of older people, mental health nurses and an ethnographic study of the production of race and ethnicity in a hospice. She has a particular interest in qualitative research methods and is author of 'Researching 'race' and ethnicity: methods, knowledge and power' (Sage, 2003). Yasmin is a senior researcher in ageing and ethnicity at the Centre for Ethnicity & Health at the University of Central Lancashire, an Honorary Research Fellow at Southampton University and has worked for the Open University and for Southbank University. She is interested in the relationships between art and research and is currently working on a collection of short stories and poems based upon her work with dying people.

Neera Deepak
Co-work with Project Manager for PALCOPE; AIM Project

Neera joined PALCOPE in its second year providing important community and professional links to the project. She worked particularly on designing the training and in carrying out face to face interviews with BME elders using or needing palliative care services. She will contribute to the AIM project particularly on its development of a training programme in physical active ageing. Neera brings considerable wealth of experience in arts, community work with cancer patients and is herself a yoga practitioner.

Dr Kathryn Watson
Research

Kathryn joined PRIAE in its MEC – Minority Elderly Care – initiative joining the project in its last phase as the principal researcher and helped to successfully conclude it. MEC research has produced ground-breaking statistical evidence on the circumstances and opinions of more than 20 different ethnic groups across Europe and is unique in the way it addresses service issues from three angles: minority ethnic (ME) elders, health and social care professionals and the ME voluntary sector.

Kathryn currently works on this project focussing on applying the research to local areas such as Leeds and Manchester; and extending the MEC research usage to other research applications at PRIAE.

Prior to joining MEC, Kathryn was a lecturer in marketing at the University of Bradford School of Management.

Dr Ranjit Arora
Anti- Discrimination Legislation

Ranjit represents PRIAE and its issues on the Age Reference Group which was set up to contribute to the Commission on Equality and Human Rights. PRIAE’s specific specialism of multiple discrimination (combining age and ethnicity with gender, religion, disability, sexuality) offers the Age Reference Group with a unique insight and Ranjit combines this with her considerable experience of race relations legislation, interpretation, application in a range of areas particularly in employment. Ranjit was previously the Head of Multicultural Unit at Bradford College.