Fiona Ellison = Co-Director 

Fiona works closely with the Board of Trustees and sector leaders, and continues to drive us towards our vision of a rent-free #HomeAtUniversity for all estranged and care experienced students. If you are interested in being a funding partner and working with us to increase the number of scholarships we deliver, Fiona would love to hear from you.  If you would like to provide a rent-free #HomeAtUniversity for estranged and care experienced students at your university, we’d be more than happy to share how it can be done. 

Fiona loves the great outdoors and enjoys a run when the weather and opportunity allows whilst dodging army tanks as she lives next to Salisbury Plain!

Laura Bowman = Scholarship Scheme Manager

Laura will be the person you speak to most if you’re a student on the scholarship, she works closely with our university and accommodation partners to make sure everyone feels welcome and safe at home. Laura will help get you settled in and check in with you along the way to make sure everything is ok. She has brilliant relationships with the university and accommodation teams and is always on hand to support you.

Laura lives in Aberdeen and enjoys making fictional plans to renovate chateaus in sunnier climates! When she’s not dreaming of sunny renovations, she enjoys exercise and learning about health, fitness and nutrition.

Helen Arber = Head of Operations

Helen heads up our operations which encompasses finance & quality assurance, student community and of course our scholarship.  She works with our university, accommodation and charity partners to ensure our support for the young people we work with is the best it can be. If you have an interest in data on student outcomes or a view on how our charitable operations can be enhanced, please drop her a line.

Helen’s favourite place is a greenhouse with a cuppa and some seedlings.

Ira Hakim = All of Us Programme Manager

Ira is working with care experienced and estranged students across the UK to lead the development of our community engagement strategy; helping to facilitate the growth of an inclusive community for all care experienced and estranged people in higher education. Find out more at AllofUs.uk

Engagement with our community will inform service delivery and policy making, and Ira will be supporting the student community to identify opportunities for action and activism. If you’d like to talk about anything student-community centred, Ira would like to hear from you.

Ira loves the outdoors, folk music, reading and dogs.

Kate Brown = Co-Director

Having covered for Fiona’s maternity leave in 2024, Kate has stayed around to support our strategy development process. We’re bringing together what we’ve learnt and reflections on the changing context, to plan how we can be most effective in securing a rent free #HomeatUniversity for all care experienced and estranged students. We’ll be working with key partners and stakeholders on this process, do get in touch with Kate to share your perspective on our impact. 

Kate is enjoying learning to boulder, and her daughters enjoy that they are better at it than her!