Our people

Luciana Berger is Chair of the MMHA and served as an MP for almost a decade. During her time in the Commons, she held prominent frontbench and backbench roles, including as the first-ever Shadow Cabinet Member for Mental Health. Luciana was also a leading member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee and presented the findings of the Committee’s inquiry into children and young people’s mental health to parliament.

Today she serves on the advisory board of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, and is Vice-President of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.

An award-winning campaigner, Luciana has long called for increased awareness, parity of esteem, and improvement of mental health services. A keen photographer, Luciana is Mum to Amélie and Zion.

Sakina is a Trustee at MMHA and first joined 2017 as a Champion. Having been redirected from her previous career as an actress due to her own lived experience during the perinatal period, she now works clinically and strategically in Perinatal Mental Health at CNWL NHS Trust and her own private practice as a therapist and coach. 

She is passionate about co-production, belonging and inclusion, grass-roots change and particularly how incorporating lived experience stories into institutions and structures can bridge gaps in experience and outcomes, for both systems and individual experiences.   

She is also a Director at Make Birth Better and a mum to two lovely young humans. 

Clare Dolman is a researcher and mental health advocate. Her PhD at King’s College London focused on women with bipolar disorder’s decision-making around pregnancy and childbirth, a subject she knew about as she has Bipolar herself and experienced a postpartum psychosis after the birth of her first child.

Clare was Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Lead for the Women’s Mental Health Section at King’s College for a decade and is currently a consultant on various research projects in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh involving women’s mental health, especially in relation to hormonal events such as childbirth and menopause. She recently received the Patient and Public Involvement Award from the International Society for Affective Disorders.

She is Co-Chair pf the Bipolar Commission and an Ambassador and former Chair of Bipolar UK. She is also a trustee of the Global Alliance for Maternal Mental Health (GAMMH) and APP – Action on Postpartum Psychosis.

Yasmin is a specialist registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, practicing in London.

She’s committed to resolving healthcare inequalities particularly those experienced by women due to their ethnicity or socio-economic background. Her commitment is at a national and global level. She advocates for required healthcare policies based on her clinical expertise and practice. One of Yasmin’s primary goals is for contraception provision for women, especially after giving birth, to be improved.

Yasmin’s approach in her clinical practice is a holistic one, recognising that a woman’s mental and physical wellbeing are interconnected. She knows that ensuring women have full access to healthcare that supports their wellbeing and improves their welfare is essential for a society to thrive.

She brings her passion, commitment, clinical and personal experience to her role as a trustee to the board of MMHA.

Lisa is a Senior International People & Support Manager for an International Water & Sanitation organisation for urban populations, leading HR and IT strategy across six countries. With over 15 years in the charity sector, she has held senior roles at Maudsley Charity and Chelsea & Westminster Hospital’s Friends Charity, with expertise in governance, operations, and diversity and inclusion.  

Alongside her professional work, Lisa has volunteered with charities supporting young mothers, women who have experienced domestic abuse, and families affected by birthmarks. She brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her role as trustee. 

Elizabeth is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years’ experience in the NHS. Educated in Cambridge, London and Leicester she has always had an interest in anti-racist practice, social justice and amplifying lived experience. Her clinical expertise spans paediatric and neonatal psychological care, and systemic practice. She was recruited into perinatal services in 2019 and she is responsible for the psychological care of women across the four community perinatal teams in Birmingham and Solihull. She is passionate about supporting mothers at this critical time, and is herself a mother of three teenage children. Elizabeth has always worked in diverse urban communities and is committed to developing safe, high quality and accessible services for minoritised and under-represented groups. She brings a passion for developing links between the NHS and the Third Sector into her role for the MMHA. 

Hannah is currently Deputy Head of Mental Health Transformation at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and has supported the delivery of the national plan for mental health within Nottinghamshire, including the transformation of Perinatal Mental Health Services. She graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2013 before embarking on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme; since then she has worked across acute, community and prison health services as well as in the charity sector as Head of Business Development for a growing national charity supporting young victims of violence. Hannah also works as a Crisis Support Worker for the Nottinghamshire Sexual Assault Referral Centre and sits on the board of trustees for a Nottinghamshire-based charity which supports children following disclosures of sexual abuse.   

The work of the MMHA resonates deeply with Hannah as she has lived through perinatal mental illness following the birth of her eldest daughter. She is now a proud mum to three little ones and feels honoured to be a part of the MMHA. She is fiercely committed to developing its impact and ensuring that every parent and child receives the support they need to thrive. 

Iulia Avramescu is the Treasurer of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. She is an ACCA Fellow and Strategy Director at Strategy&, part of PwC, with over 20 years’ experience helping organisations around the world improve their strategy, finance, and governance. Iulia started her career in PwC’s audit practice and has since worked on a wide range of transformation programmes, alongside holding Board roles with Cholmley Gardens Ltd and the charity Food4Heroes. She is passionate about using her skills to make a difference in healthcare and community initiatives, and is very excited to support the Alliance’s vital mission to improve maternal mental health. Outside of work, Iulia is the mum of a gorgeous four-year-old boy, Loki, who inspires her daily and gives her a very personal connection to the importance of supporting mothers and families. 

Sarah Arnold joined as a trustee of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance in June 2018 and at the time was also a trustee of an international charity; she held a position on the governance committee of that charity until 2025. Sarah is a solicitor specialising in trust and estate disputes and is a partner at Russell-Cooke. The reason for Sarah’s interest in maternal mental health and improving the lives of parents and children who suffer as a result of poor maternal mental health is due to lived experience. Sarah is particularly interested in the role that corporate organisations can play in supporting parents. This led her to co-found an organisation called Parents in Law, the members of which are law firms with the purpose of supporting parents, retention of staff and partners within firms and business networking opportunities.

Vivien is Deputy Chief Executive at Home-Start UK, where she leads the charity’s external relations work to champion and strengthen support for families. Home-Start volunteers stand alongside over 58,000 families and 75,000 children each year, making sure every parent has someone to turn to and every child gets the best possible start in life. 

She served as Interim Chief Executive from April to September 2025, guiding the organisation through a period of change and renewal. 

Alongside her work at Home-Start, Vivien has advised the Royal College of Nursing Foundation and volunteered as a trustee for arts and women’s health charities, reflecting her commitment to communities, creativity, and wellbeing. 

She recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Organisational Change at Warwick Business School, building on her interest in how organisations adapt and thrive. 

In 2024, Vivien was honoured with a CBE for her contribution to early learning. 

Dr Alain Gregoire is Honorary President of the MMHA. initially began his postgraduate training in obstetrics, but on seeing that women with perinatal mental illness were the most ill yet least well cared for, he switched to train in Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital in London. For over 30 years he has been a Consultant Specialist Perinatal Psychiatrist, during which he has set up and led multiple specialist perinatal mental health services. He has contributed extensively to the development of policy, strategy, guidance and clinical services in the area of parental and infant mental health in the UK and internationally. He has worked closely with several UK ministers in successive Governments and has been invited to speak to parliamentary meetings and ministers in several countries countries. He founded the Global Alliance for Maternal Mental Health and has informed the development of successful alliances in many other countries and world regions. 

He is currently Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Care Policy Evaluation Centre (CPEC). 

Alain has worked extensively in radio, television and film, including the multiple award-winning BBC documentary ‘My Baby Psychosis and Me’, and was a presenter on the BBC TV programme ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’. He is trilingual in English, French and Norwegian. 

Emily is the former CEO of the MMHA, and Development Coordinator of the Global Alliance for Maternal Mental Health (GAMMH). Following her experience of postnatal depression after the birth of her son in 2009, Emily founded, with her partner, the campaigning organisation ‘Break the Silence – PNI’. In this capacity, Emily attended the first meeting of what became known as the MMHA. She has been instrumental in its funding and growth to a 100-plus-strong coalition of UK organisations with the shared vision to see all women across the UK get access to consistent and quality care and support for their mental health during pregnancy and postnatally.