Meet the team
Karis Board of Trustees
Dr Ross Bryson
Ross Bryson has worked in primary healthcare development in a resource poor country and as a GP in a multicultural urban context for over 35 years. He has seen both the range of human need and the potential to meet that need through a compassionate and integrated primary healthcare team. Nevertheless, many needs exist which impact the health and wellbeing of patients which can't be met by the NHS. It is also true that there are resources within communities which could address patients' needs.
Ross helped to set up Karis Neighbour Scheme in the late 1990s to enable connections between those needs and these resources. Watching the way Karis Neighbour Scheme has developed, while staying true to its values, is a joy and an inspiration. Outside work he enjoys time hiking, cycling and holidays where the sun shines, with his wife, as well as times with his adult children and eight grandchildren.
Dr Gill Harley-Mason
Gill has been a GP at Karis Medical Centre since 1994. She loves helping people with their physical and psychological health needs through her work, and enabling Karis Neighbour Scheme to offer hope and support for social and practical needs, often where other services fail. Gill has been on the Board of Trustees for many years, and Chair since January 2024. She is married with three adult children and enjoys musicals and photobooking!
Pastor Henry Aggrey
For the past eighteen wonderful years, Henry has had the privilege of serving the Ladywood community as the Pastor of River of Life Church. He is also honoured to be a trustee at Karis Neighbour Scheme. Throughout the years, Henry has witnessed many changes, and is excited to continue supporting Ladywood by fostering a strong, healthy community and sharing heartfelt prayers.
With his wife Pamela, Henry is blessed to be both parents and foster parents. In his free time, he loves watching football, staying well-informed about international news, and is an enthusiastic cook.
Sir Alex Elphinston
Alex worked as a lawyer in central Birmingham for the last twenty years of his career. He is married to Ruth and has four adult children. When not visiting family – two of Alex's children live abroad – much of his time is spent helping and encouraging the many asylum seekers who come to the church he attends. Some of the asylum seekers are also helped by Karis Neighbour Scheme (KNS). For light relief Alex enjoys doing a good jigsaw, a good book and live jazz.
Ms Rebecca Cuthbert
Rebecca has been Involved with KNS for more than 20 years in different roles and as a Trustee since 2008.
She is a big believer in the impact that meaningful social interactions and contributions can have on one's mental and physical wellbeing, and has seen the evidence of that over and over again at KNS. Her professional life has included quite a range of strategic and operational roles, including community development and career coaching.
As a Trustee, Rebecca brings her experience of managing many different projects across the health, public and third sectors. She likes seeing the potential in people and projects and is motivated to develop that potential, always in partnership with others. Rebecca's motivation for being involved with KNS is that it's a small, local charity with a pretty simple yet profound vision, and it makes an unforgettable difference to the lives of many people, just listen to their stories to find out more!
KNS celebrates heart, human connection and looking out for others, which are rare and precious values that she wants to help grow. In her spare time she enjoys dog-walking in the woods, followed by a strong coffee with crusty bread and marmalade for breakfast!
Mrs Kathryn Miles
With a background in public health, Kat Miles works to enable new research to be developed within the university sector, often across academic disciplines and focused on creating solutions to real world problems. Using her skills and experience in development, governance, management and planning. Kat has been a trustee since 2015, helping KNS make the best use of resources for the benefit of Ladywood.
Ms Elizabeth Cudjoe
Elizabeth is an experienced finance professional whose career spans both the public and private sectors, giving her a well rounded and practical understanding of effective financial management. In her role as Treasurer and Trustee, she offers thoughtful oversight of budgeting, investment decisions, and financial controls.
Elizabeth joined the board to support the organisation's mission and to help ensure its financial practices remain transparent, responsible, and rooted in integrity. She is committed to serving the community with care and genuine stewardship.
Mr Andy Northcott
Andy trained as an RE teacher and taught for over 20 years before taking on a full time role as the pastor of 'Church Alive'. He has been living in Ladywood since 2006 with his wife, Emma, and together they are raising their family of four children. They moved here to join the church and have loved being a part of the community which they serve. Andy and his wife came across KNS when they first arrived and have been involved in various capacities, volunteering and working since then. He was delighted to be asked to join the trustee team in 2025.
Andy and Emma love the heart behind KNS to be a presence bringing hope to the community and see their involvement alongside many others from their church family as an important aspect of belonging to Ladywood. Andy loves playing Table tennis, recently ran his first half marathon, has an 'unlikely to be fulfilled' yearning to get back into rowing coaching and loves growing things in his garden.
Dr Ross Bryson
Ross Bryson has worked in primary healthcare development in a resource poor country and as a GP in a multicultural urban context for over 35 years. He has seen both the range of human need and the potential to meet that need through a compassionate and integrated primary healthcare team. Nevertheless, many needs exist which impact the health and wellbeing of patients which can't be met by the NHS. It is also true that there are resources within communities which could address patients' needs.
Ross helped to set up Karis Neighbour Scheme in the late 1990s to enable connections between those needs and these resources. Watching the way Karis Neighbour Scheme has developed, while staying true to its values, is a joy and an inspiration. Outside work he enjoys time hiking, cycling and holidays where the sun shines, with his wife, as well as times with his adult children and eight grandchildren.
Dr Gill Harley-Mason
Gill has been a GP at Karis Medical Centre since 1994. She loves helping people with their physical and psychological health needs through her work, and enabling Karis Neighbour Scheme to offer hope and support for social and practical needs, often where other services fail. Gill has been on the Board of Trustees for many years, and Chair since January 2024. She is married with three adult children and enjoys musicals and photobooking!
Pastor Henry Aggrey
For the past eighteen wonderful years, Henry has had the privilege of serving the Ladywood community as the Pastor of River of Life Church. He is also honoured to be a trustee at Karis Neighbour Scheme. Throughout the years, Henry has witnessed many changes, and is excited to continue supporting Ladywood by fostering a strong, healthy community and sharing heartfelt prayers.
With his wife Pamela, Henry is blessed to be both parents and foster parents. In his free time, he loves watching football, staying well-informed about international news, and is an enthusiastic cook.
Sir Alex Elphinston
Alex worked as a lawyer in central Birmingham for the last twenty years of his career. He is married to Ruth and has four adult children. When not visiting family – two of Alex's children live abroad – much of his time is spent helping and encouraging the many asylum seekers who come to the church he attends. Some of the asylum seekers are also helped by Karis Neighbour Scheme (KNS). For light relief Alex enjoys doing a good jigsaw, a good book and live jazz.
Ms Rebecca Cuthbert
Rebecca has been Involved with KNS for more than 20 years in different roles and as a Trustee since 2008.
She is a big believer in the impact that meaningful social interactions and contributions can have on one's mental and physical wellbeing, and has seen the evidence of that over and over again at KNS. Her professional life has included quite a range of strategic and operational roles, including community development and career coaching.
As a Trustee, Rebecca brings her experience of managing many different projects across the health, public and third sectors. She likes seeing the potential in people and projects and is motivated to develop that potential, always in partnership with others. Rebecca's motivation for being involved with KNS is that it's a small, local charity with a pretty simple yet profound vision, and it makes an unforgettable difference to the lives of many people, just listen to their stories to find out more!
KNS celebrates heart, human connection and looking out for others, which are rare and precious values that she wants to help grow. In her spare time she enjoys dog-walking in the woods, followed by a strong coffee with crusty bread and marmalade for breakfast!
Mrs Kathryn Miles
With a background in public health, Kat Miles works to enable new research to be developed within the university sector, often across academic disciplines and focused on creating solutions to real world problems. Using her skills and experience in development, governance, management and planning. Kat has been a trustee since 2015, helping KNS make the best use of resources for the benefit of Ladywood.
Ms Elizabeth Cudjoe
Elizabeth is an experienced finance professional whose career spans both the public and private sectors, giving her a well rounded and practical understanding of effective financial management. In her role as Treasurer and Trustee, she offers thoughtful oversight of budgeting, investment decisions, and financial controls.
Elizabeth joined the board to support the organisation's mission and to help ensure its financial practices remain transparent, responsible, and rooted in integrity. She is committed to serving the community with care and genuine stewardship.
Mr Andy Northcott
Andy trained as an RE teacher and taught for over 20 years before taking on a full time role as the pastor of 'Church Alive'. He has been living in Ladywood since 2006 with his wife, Emma, and together they are raising their family of four children. They moved here to join the church and have loved being a part of the community which they serve. Andy and his wife came across KNS when they first arrived and have been involved in various capacities, volunteering and working since then. He was delighted to be asked to join the trustee team in 2025.
Andy and Emma love the heart behind KNS to be a presence bringing hope to the community and see their involvement alongside many others from their church family as an important aspect of belonging to Ladywood. Andy loves playing Table tennis, recently ran his first half marathon, has an 'unlikely to be fulfilled' yearning to get back into rowing coaching and loves growing things in his garden.
Karis Staff
Harry Naylor
Chief Executive
Harry started with Karis Neighbour Scheme over 20 years ago as a volunteer helping with admin in the office, doing various practical jobs in people's homes, and making occasional appearances to 'croon' at some of the office Christmas parties!
He feels privileged to now lead the brilliant team and see the difference they make day in and day out, helping to build connection and bring hope in a myriad of ways for so many people in our community.
He says "It's great to continue to work in the community where I've grown up and also to work alongside lots of other wonderful organisations and groups that help make our community the thriving place it is. Outside of work I'm most well-known for my love of board games and badminton!"
Michaela Brookes
Administrator
Michaela is our administrator and office manager. She is married to James and have two beautiful girls. We live in south Birmingham and attend a church in Stirchley.
Michaela has worked for KNS for six years and enjoys the passionate team and amazing work that the charity does in the local community.
Felicité Boro Gouro
Finance and Operations Officer
Felicite Boro Gorou is an AAT level 3 certified and a part time BSc student at University College Birmingham. She was previously Church Central's Pantry stock Manager and also worked as an Accountant Assistant Traineeship at Netcom before stepping into this role. Felicite enjoys socialising, singing, jogging and drawing African dresses.
Hannah Eno
Fundraiser
Hannah has been at Karis since 2021, following 16 years as a fundraiser at the University of Birmingham. She has a background in NHS, charity and academic management and fundraising, including stints as Eye Bank Manager at Moorfields Hospital and Head of Admissions for a London medical school! Hannah's role at Karis is to support the work of the charity through fundraising and she has also been a volunteer here for several years supporting the baby bank.
In 2024-5 she spent a year managing the baby bank to cover maternity leave alongside her fundraising role. She loves working at Karis because it's the kindest, most compassionate group of people who do astonishing work in supporting communities in the wonderful city of Birmingham. She is married to Nick, Professor of Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham. She's also trustee on three other charities and home educates her teenager daughter.
In the little spare time that exists, she squeezes in knitting, crochet, sewing, swimming, gardening and walking the dog.
Project Staff
Rach D'Mello
Children and Families Project Worker
Rach joined the Children and Families team in 2025. She previously worked in the education sector with children who struggled to access mainstream education. Rach is passionate about supporting people from all walks of life to access everything life has to offer. In her spare time she loves being creative, sewing, painting, furniture upcycling, baking- the list goes on! Rach is married to Ethan - who has also worked at Karis previously!
Liz Brown
Children and Families Project Worker
Liz is also a Children and Families project worker. She joined Karis in January 2018. Liz's main role is to visit and befriend families that are lonely and vulnerable in some way, or who are new to the area. Through these visits, we try to help people integrate, make friends and build community. Liz is also an English teacher so she runs Karis's classes for those in the area who have very little English language.
Liz has been married for 40 years to Tim and they lead a small diverse church in the Highgate area which keeps them busy! She loves walking in the countryside, travelling to other nations, singing in a rock choir, reading and trying to keep fit doing Pilates. Tim and Liz have also taken up ballroom dancing but spend most of the class treading on each other's toes!
Laura Smith
Baby Bank Coordinator
Laura had volunteered with Karis for two years before joining the team as an employee and has always been especially passionate about the work that the Baby Bank project does in the community. She grew up in a Christian home and carries those loving values into her life and work now; going to church every week, living with the hope and joy of Jesus and doing her best to practice His generosity and care for those in need.
Outside of her work she loves to keep fit and explore the outdoors. Laura runs and swim every week and enjoys hiking in the countryside whenever she can, and whenever the weather allows! She is also a keen crafter with a speciality in crochet, which she uses often to make clothes, gifts for her friends and commissioned pieces under her creative title Cinnamon Breeze Crochet.
Helen Bell
Karis BeFriends Project Worker
Helen started working for Karis in August 2006, so 2026 sees her reaching her 20th year here! She trained as an Occupational Therapist, mainly working with older adults in mental health. Helen started volunteering for Karis when she was looking after her preschool boys by visiting two older sisters who lived two doors down the road. This later led to her role with KNS.
Outside of Karis, Helen loves spending time sewing, cycling, swimming and watching cricket and always enjoys time spent with others over coffee and cake!
Tahlia Green
Karis BeFriends Project Worker
Tahlia's background of music teaching stands her in good stead in her role as project worker with Karis BeFriends and she can often be found leading singing or playing an instrument with our older clients! Tahlia joined Karis in August 2024 and enjoys reading, walking and drinking coffee with friends.
Zoë Gordon
Karis BeFriends Project Worker
Zoë is trained in Debt and Welfare Benefits advice and has also worked in an Addictions Recovery Project. Prior to Karis she worked for Birmingham Settlement. Zoë trained to be a primary teacher but decided to work in Supported Housing and a Night Shelter as a volunteer before teaching.
She says "I wanted to work at Karis Neighbour Scheme because it is a Christian based organisation and as a Christian myself it holds the same values I have. This is in valuing people, advocating for people and recognising that every person is made in God’s image and many other values."
Her role at Karis means she meets up with lots of different people, particularly those with mental health needs and physical disabilities, to offer them support in identifying and applying for benefits. Much of this is done through home visits because leaving the house can be a challenge for some of the people she sees.
The work is very varied, and includes advising on Attendance Allowance, migrating to Universal Credit and sorting out Housing Benefit issues. It is really rewarding to help people, and Zoë derives a lot of satisfaction from helping to make their voice heard.
Zoë is married to Andrew and they have three daughters in their teens and twenties. The family own a campervan so in their spare time Zoë, Andrew and their dog, Rex, like to visit new places for a couple of nights. They also enjoy walking Rex, (particularly in good weather), around Edgbaston Reservoir, and enjoy watching films with the family and playing board games.
Lorrie Blake
Ladywood Community Advice Project Worker
Lorrie enjoys meeting new people and is passionate about giving advice and help that they need to claim what they are entitled to. She has been working in advice and guidance since 2012, primarily for Citizens Advice and Macmillan.
She is a follower of Jesus, is married with three boys and in her spare time she enjoys travelling, acting and dancing and has also been singing in a community gospel choir for 16 years. She has taken part in three TV quiz shows and hopes to do more.
Toni Green
Ladywood Community Advice Project Worker
Toni is a welfare benefits adviser with Lorrie, and has been doing this kind of work since April 2019 when she started in a paid role at Citizens Advice Birmingham (prior to this she was a volunteer for six months providing general telephone advice). Toni is motivated by wanting to give something back as she needed benefits advice when she was a single mom and it was the CAB who helped her to get on track and start claiming what she was entitled to. She also believes we should all try to leave the world a better place than we found it, so working in advice and helping people is her attempt to do that!
Toni's hobbies include going to see music – that's her Big Thing! She sees as many bands as she can (seeing one band she follows nine times in the last two years - not sure if that counts an interesting fact or if it's just obsessive!). Toni also reads a lot and has recently got into making mosaic coasters!
David Farrugia
Men's Space Project Worker
David has been with Karis Neighbour Scheme since September 2024, when he moved up from London with his wife and two boys. Starting with Karis in a voluntary capacity, he officially became the Project Coordinator of Men's Space in early 2025.
David says "It's been an amazing time getting to know the staff and clients here at Karis. As Men's Space Coordinator, I get to meet lots of interesting men and support them on their journey to wellbeing. Alongside that, I also get to run a range of weekly activities, including a gardening group, a walking group, table tennis, and a weekly drop‑in Coffee and Chat session.
I also host a monthly quiz or bingo night, usually with a food‑themed twist – one of these was a general knowledge quiz with the food them ‘build your own hot dog'!"
In his spare time, David loves getting out into the countryside for walks and taking photographs along the way. He also really enjoy putting together the posters for the Men's Space monthly events - it's a fun, creative outlet that he looks forward to.
Anthea Wright
Chaplain for Wellbeing
Anthea is a Chaplain for Wellbeing and part of the Listening and Guidance team based at Karis Medical Centre, since 2024. Her background is in Health and Social Care provision; this included working as a Community Occupational Therapist for many years and also as a volunteer chaplain in her spare time.
Anthea's hobbies and interests include animals/wildlife, being in the garden and the allotment, as well as spending time with friends and family. What motivates her in this job role is her love for God, her love for people, her love for a whole person approach to health care and a sense of calling.
Jane Grimshaw
Chaplain for Wellbeing
Jane Grimshaw has worked as a Chaplain for Wellbeing in Primary Healthcare since 2023. She is a member of the national committee for ACGP. She worked for over 30 years as an Occupational Therapist in adult brain injury rehabilitation before taking on the role of chaplain for wellbeing at Karis Medical Centre.
She values the opportunity to offer the time and space to walk alongside patients in their journey, allowing them a safe space to share their story and process what is going on inside, so that they can build up strength, confidence and courage to move ahead physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Alison Thompson
Chaplain for Wellbeing
Alison works with our Listening and Guidance team and comes from a background of working in prisons and the NHS.
Kalbinder Masih
Social Prescribing Link Worker
Kal took on our newest role of SPLW in 2025, a role that is shared between Karis Medical Centre and ourselves. This role ensures the holistic care of patients with complex medical and social needs, meeting with them and helping to navigate a range of solutions to their challenges.