Our Patron, Trustees & CEO

Monica Ali CBE

Patron

Monica Ali is a bestselling author, whose novels include the Booker-shortlisted Brick Lane, Untold Story and Love Marriage. She has been a visiting Professor on the MFA course at Columbia University, New York, and from 2015-18 was Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of Surrey. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Honorary Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Monica is the Chair of judges for the 2024 Women’s Prize for Fiction. She previously served as a Trustee of the St Giles Trust, which helps some of the most disadvantaged people in our society.

Simran Chawla

CEO

Simran has worked in the VAWG (Violence against Women and Girls) sector for 20 years. She has an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, London University). Her career has spanned gender equity work in the UK and internationally. She grew up in India and is fortunate to call two countries her home. She will often choose the company of animals over humans and can be found smashing the patriarchy on all days of the week that end in a Y.

Olivia Spruce

Trustee for Homecare

Olivia has 21+ years of public sector recruitment experience, 10 of which have been spent within a leadership capacity in the Health and Social Care sector. She is currently CEO of a specialist Healthcare Recruitment consultancy based in the city and is delighted to be part of a team of such positive people who strive so passionately to empower.

Ria Brookes

Trustee for Programmes

Ria believes advocating for, supporting and empowering women is in her DNA and at the very least, serves her soul. She was ignited by the CEO’s belief in what Hopscotch does, and her care and compassion for the welfare of its service users – which made becoming a trustee an easy decision. Ria is driven by her passion and enthusiasm for ending Violence Against Women and Girls, and helping them navigate their road to recovery.

Noureen (2)

Noureen Nunhuck

Trustee

Noureen joined the Board of Trustees at Hopscotch Women’s Centre in 2025. She is passionate about Hopscotch’s mission to empower women through advocacy, education, wellbeing support, and practical services. Noureen is particularly motivated by tackling inequality and supporting women from diverse backgrounds. She is delighted to serve as a trustee, and to contribute to an organisation that plays such a vital role in this.

Hinda

Hinda Omar

Trustee

Hinda is a safeguarding specialist with experience across the charity, criminal justice and VAWG sectors. She works closely with organisations to strengthen safeguarding practice, develop policies and strategies, and ensure safe, supportive environments for children and adults experiencing vulnerability or exploitation. Hinda is deeply committed to community-based support for women and families. She joined Hopscotch as a trustee to contribute her safeguarding expertise and help strengthen services that support women to live safely, independently and with dignity.

Meher

Meher Sutaria

Trustee

Meher Sutaria is a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan, where she leads global operations within the Corporate & Investment Bank. She has spent more than two decades in financial services, including roles at Nomura and Lehman Brothers. Meher is passionate about championing diverse perspectives and greater representation for women in finance. As a trustee of Hopscotch Women’s Centre, she is proud to support the charity’s work empowering women and helping them create brighter futures for themselves and their families.

Women’s Centre Team

Isabelle Terrisson

Head of Programmes

Being at Hopscotch enables Isabelle to work on women’s rights, and towards the realisation of women and girls’ empowerment, in a practical and tangible way. She believes that community organisations, such as Hopscotch, have an essential role to play in achieving gender equality.

Neena Kumar

Afghan Refugee Advocacy Project Manager - Programmes

Neena has been an integral part of Hopscotch Women’s Centre since February 2017. Initially bringing her expertise in the needs of vulnerable women moving into the job market – and the challenges that brings – she led on engaging businesses to understand the importance of working with all sections of society.

Since 2021, Neena has led on Hopscotch’s important work with Afghan evacuees, who were the last to leave Kabul and arrived in huge numbers, very traumatised. Neena mobilised a team full of speakers of the different languages of Afghanistan and implemented trauma-informed practice in the team, so that the highest quality of support could be given to the women and children who had been displaced.

Currently, Neena is leading the team so they can support evacuees with resettlement and integration into their new, local communities. 

Isabelle Terrisson

Head of Programmes

Being at Hopscotch enables Isabelle to work on women’s rights, and towards the realisation of women and girls’ empowerment, in a practical and tangible way. She believes that community organisations, such as Hopscotch, have an essential role to play in achieving gender equality.

Fairuz Choudhury

VAWG Manager - Programmes

Fairuz Choudhury has worked in the charity sector for the past 17 years. She has extensive experience of working with women and girls from Black and Minoritised Ethnic communities with multiple disadvantages and complex needs. Some of the key areas of her work have been – understanding trauma, its impact on women and children, intersectional experiences of and barriers faced by Black and Minoritised women and girls in accessing services and developing services to ensure a Human Rights framework is applied in community services. 

Fairuz was called to the Bar in 2009 and is a member of The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn. She is a UN Women UK Delegate for CSW68 and was invited to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva in 2024, to provide evidence on the human rights of women and girls in the UK, with a focus on intersectionality.

Neena Kumar

Afghan Refugee Advocacy Project Manager - Programmes

Neena has been an integral part of Hopscotch Women’s Centre since February 2017. Initially bringing her expertise in the needs of vulnerable women moving into the job market – and the challenges that brings – she led on engaging businesses to understand the importance of working with all sections of society.

Since 2021, Neena has led on Hopscotch’s important work with Afghan evacuees, who were the last to leave Kabul and arrived in huge numbers, very traumatised. Neena mobilised a team full of speakers of the different languages of Afghanistan and implemented trauma-informed practice in the team, so that the highest quality of support could be given to the women and children who had been displaced.

Currently, Neena is leading the team so they can support evacuees with resettlement and integration into their new, local communities. 

Homecare Team

Lucie Gourdin

Head of Homecare

Lucie brings decades of health and social care experience, as well as a compassion for those in need. She has a strong knowledge and understanding of CQC and local authority requirements which has helped in the restructuring of the service. She is keen to expand the service to a wider audience to include minoritised groups like the LGBTQIA+ community, those with mental health issues and those who are hard to reach members of society. 

Finance Team

Girish Popat

Head of Finance – Hopscotch

Girish is our Head of Finance and has worked in both the commercial and charity sectors at senior level. He has lots of experience in areas including strategic management, business partnering, management accounting, budgeting, treasury management and accounting systems. As a senior manager, he’s responsible for the financial strategic direction of the organisation. 

Shah Islam

Accounts Manager – Hopscotch

Shah joined Hopscotch in 2019 as a graduate trainee in finance and has progressed steadily – now working as an Accounts Manager in the Finance department supporting Girish. He is a joyful and integral part of the organisation, responsible for the day-to-day financial operations such as payroll, pensions, sales and purchase ledger and supporting business units to ensure that our operations run smoothly.