Our Team

Cara has a hard-working and experienced permanent staff to deliver its complex and sensitive programmes.

The delivery of Cara’s work is overseen by the Executive Director, with the support of the Deputy Director, Team Leaders, Programme Officers and Assistants.

Stephen Wordsworth CMG LVO
Executive Director
Stephen has been Executive Director of Cara since 2012. Before joining Cara, he was a career member of the UK Diplomatic Service, where his last two posts were as Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow (2003-2005) and British Ambassador in Belgrade (2006-2010). He originally graduated in Modern Languages (German and Russian) from the University of Cambridge. In March 2022 Stephen was appointed Chancellor of Cardiff Metropolitan University.

See Stephen's CV.

Zeid Al Bayaty
Deputy Director & Fellowship Programme Manager
Zeid joined Cara in 2011 and worked in positions of increasing responsibility before becoming Deputy Director in 2018.

Laura Puiggalí
Fellowship Programme Deputy Manager

Sara Bermudez
Team Leader, Enquiries

Sinan Özyürek
Team Leader, New Fellows

Lucia Simms
Team Leader, Active Fellows and Programme Manager, InspirEurope+

Jake Coulter
Fellowship Programme Officer

Jennifer Donnellan
Fellowship Programme Officer

Amanda Gamage
Fellowship Programme Officer

Alex Purser
Fellowship Programme Officer

Tim Riches
Fellowship Programme Officer

Oscar Saunders
Fellowship Programme Officer

Linh Dieu Tran
Fellowship Programme Officer

Eilidh MacDonald
Cara Scotland Manager (based in Edinburgh)

Kate Robertson
Middle East/Syria Programme Adviser
Kate joined Cara as Deputy Director in 2006, and developed and ran Cara’s first regional programme, for Iraq, from 2006-2012. The Iraq Research Fellowship Programme, which she developed as part of this, led to what is now the global Fellowship Programme. She stepped down as a staff member in July 2015 but continued to work with Cara, from home and in a consultancy role, to develop ideas for Cara’s regionally-based Syria Programme, which was launched the following year and which she still runs, supported by Cara staff.

James Keeley
Syria Programme Officer

Anouf El Daher
Syria Programme Officer

Katy Sansum
Syria Programme Officer

Ginya Marr
Syria Programme Officer

Ipek Velioglu Melis
Finance

"When I arrived in England in 1966, after months of solitary confinement in apartheid jails, I was a psychological wreck. You gave me wonderfully sensitive support. When I arrived in 1988, having been blown up by a bomb placed by apartheid operatives, I was a physical wreck. Once again Cara was there to help me..."

Justice Albie Sachs, Cara beneficiary 1966 and 1988