Our Team

All our Trustees have families with ADHD or related neuro conditions and so fully understand the challenges and opportunities for those with ADHD.   

Annette Wilson – Chair and Founder 

Annette is our Chair of the Board of Trustees.  She set up ADHD Embrace (previously ADHD Richmond & Kingston) in 2002 to create a support community for parents of children and young people with ADHD and to promote a better understanding of ADHD.  She has two children and, as a parent of a son with ADHD, is passionate about providing parents and professionals with knowledge and support to help children and young people with ADHD excel.  

Annette is a chartered accountant and spent her working career in financial services & investment management. Today she is actively involved in the tech start-up and scale-up space. In addition to her involvement with ADHD Embrace, she is also Chair of the Air Cadets, 39F Barnes and Richmond Squadron and previously was school governor and Founding Chair of another local charity.   

Dav Frank – Treasurer 

Dav is our Treasurer and a Trustee of ADHD Embrace, joining us in February 2021.  He has two young boys, one who received an ASD diagnosis at an early age.  He believes that, with the right support, children, parents, families and communities can ensure our neuro diverse groups thrive and not just survive.  Dav has had an extensive career within banking & financial services as COO, CFO and director, also previously served as Treasurer Trustee of CVS Richmond, another key Richmond based charity.  

Clare Mullane – Secretary 

Clare is our Secretary and a Trustee. She been involved with ADHD Embrace since 2018.  She has two children, where her son has ADHD.  With a young family, she is very aware of the challenges of balancing the demands of home and work for ADHD families.  Clare previously worked in a large telecommunications group, where she focused on change management.    

Dr Bozhena Zoritch – Trustee

Bozhena joined the Board in November 2022.  She is a Consultant Paediatrician and has extensive knowledge of ADHD having worked with young people with ADHD in diagnosing and treating them for over twenty five years.  She used to lead one of the largest ADHD clinics in the UK at St Peter’s Hospital and is today in private practice.  Bozhena is an advocate for ADHD and has been involved in giving seminars and teaching on ADHD related topics, setting standards for diagnosis and treatment of ADHD and in lobbying for services.  She continues to work in this area and has recently obtained a PhD on ADHD and mother blame.  Bozhena is passionate about ensuring children with ADHD and their families benefit from well organised public and voluntary services to help them strive and succeed. 

Sarah Woods – Trustee

Sarah joined in the Board in October 2023. Sarah lives in New Malden and has two sons; she has direct experience of ADHD through her family. Sarah has worked in the charity sector for over 25 years; she is currently Chief Executive of a charity called Help Musicians and prior to that worked in a number senior roles at the Royal Albert Hall.

Katie Virdi – Trustee

Katie joined the Board in October 2023. She grew up in the local area and now lives in Hampton with her husband and two sons, the eldest with ADHD. Katie has a passion for healthcare and in particular increasing equity of access. She has extensive experience in strategy, transformation and change. For the last 4 years she has focused on how technology can accelerate change and enable people to thrive.

Chris Burich – Trustee

Chris joined the Board in March 2024. He has more than 15 years of experience in fundraising in the charitable sector, with a focus on health and conservation causes. Originally from the United States, Chris now lives in New Malden. ADHD Embrace has been a significant source of support and education to his family as they have come to understand their ADHD. He is ambitious about growing ADHD Embrace’s income and extending their service offering. 

Jenny Cooper – Executive Director

Jenny is our Executive Director overseeing the day to day running of ADHD Embrace.  She has a strong marketing background spanning many years, mainly working in the Financial Services industry. She has been part of the  ADHD Embrace community for many years, initially attending seminars and events as a parent of a child with ADHD and thereafter volunteering by running Saturday parent and child meet-up sessions.  She is passionate about ensuring that children with ADHD, and the community around them, receive the support they need in order to help them thrive. 

Elaine Bird – Fundraiser

Elaine joined the team in May 2024 as our Fundraiser with responsibility for raising funds to support our charity’s service provision for our growing ADHD Embrace community.  Elaine has nearly 30 years experience in the corporate sector working in senior marketing roles including building partnerships.  Elaine has welcomed the move to be part of our team having had her own experience of neurodiversity with her daughter’s ASD diagnosis last year.  Elaine is dedicated to helping support the work of the charity and improving the lives of young people with ADHD in our community.

Claire Burnell – Family Support

Claire works alongside parents, carers and families by delivering our 1:1 Advice Clinics. With over 20 years’ experience working with children, young people, and families, Claire’s areas of specialism including supporting neurodivergent young people in mainstream and alternative education settings. She is an executive function coach and a trauma informed practitioner. Other experience includes working as an PSHE and Educational Consultant and as a primary school teacher in inner London primary schools. Claire is a champion for ADHD awareness actively promoting the interests of young people with ADHD by working with them, their families, and the school to help them to thrive.

Jemma Davis – Operations Administrator

Jemma is our Operations Coordinator and will be one of the first points of contact for all of our community who contact us through our inbox – often seeking help, support and guidance. She is a mother to three children, with her teenage son having ADHD and has a passion for helping others and providing parents with the best information to help with their ADHD journeys – having gone through it all herself..

Laura Ercolani – Community and School Outreach Manager

Laura is our Community and School Outreach Manager, organising and delivering a series of events, seminars and trainings for young people with ADHD, parents and carers, and teachers. Laura believes that through training and greater awareness, teaching staff and schools can better identify, understand and support ADHD. Laura comes from many years of experience working in Education and healthcare.  She has direct experience of ADHD in schools as she is the parent of two children who are diagnosed with ADHD. 

Cristina Peraleda – IT Manager

Cristina is responsible for the day to day operation and development of the charity’s IT systems. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the IT sector as a systems analyst. More recently, and after working in the corporate world for many years, Cristina has found a more meaningful purpose contributing to ADHD Embrace’s cause, where she started as a volunteer helping to enhance our IT platform.
She has a particular interest in mental health and has completed a mental health first aid course, and her passion in this area has led her to also achieve a Level 2 Certificate in Counselling and training in Mindfulness.

.

Jennifer Watson – Finance Administrator

Jennifer joined us in 2023 to look after the financial administration of ADHD Embrace. Jennifer has over 20 years of experience in finance with over 5 years within the not for profit and charity sectors. Jennifer has a passion seeing children flourish and reach their potential despite any obstacles they face. She is delighted to part of ADHD Embrace supporting all that we offer to families and young people and those supporting our future leaders.

Sonja Whitticase – Marketing Manager

Sonja joined ADHD Embrace in 2021 and manages all the marketing and communications activities. Sonja is passionate about spreading the word about the wonderful support ADHD Embrace can offer. Sonja has extensive marketing experience spanning 20 years from multinational brands to running her own small business. 

We couldn’t provide the services to our ADHD community without the help of our volunteers who help us improve the lives of children and young people with ADHD every day. Our volunteers are treasured members of our small and friendly team. Some of our volunteers have stayed with us for a short amount of time and some of them have stayed with us for years. Sometimes volunteers come to us looking to build their CVs which we are more than happy to support or sometimes our volunteers simply want to give back to the community.

 If you would like to volunteer at ADHD Embrace, just drop us an email,  including your CV and giving us a bit of information about how you would like to be involved.  Please email us at [email protected].

The sorts of roles we need help with are:

• Help at events such as fairs and coffee mornings
• Taking part in fundraising and challenge events
• Or maybe you have a specialist skill or experience in areas such as IT / database management, HR, social media, communications or fundraising experience. 
• Help with social media & writing communications
• Help with managing our inbox
• Assistance with writing fundraising bids
• If you have something else in mind, please do get in touch

We advertise our roles on our Facebook page or on our Reach volunteering page. If we are not advertising anything currently, please do get in touch with us anyway!