Fiona Ellison = Co-Director 

Fiona has been with the Foundation since 2021 and 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. She is focused on our political engagement across the devolved nations and working with Local Authorities to ensure the system can better support more care experienced and estranged students to get to and succeed at University. If you’d like to explore what more could be done to make our policy space work for care experienced and estranged students then do reach out to Fiona.

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!

Kate Brown = Co-Director

Having covered for Fiona’s maternity leave in 2024, Kate and Fiona are now Co-Directors of the Unite Foundation. If you are interested in being a partner and working with us to increase the number of scholarships we deliver, or want to know about how you can enhance your accommodation support for care experienced and estranged students Kate 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. 

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

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 supports 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.

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.