Our Team

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!

Elaine Bird – Executive Director

Elaine is our Executive Director, leading our dedicated team and continuing to build on the valued work of the Charity in improving the lives of young people with ADHD in our community. 

Elaine brings a wealth of experience from many years’ experience in the corporate sector in senior marketing roles. She joined ADHD Embrace initially as Fundraiser in 2024 having become a passionate advocate for neurodiversity following her daughter’s ASD diagnosis. Here she helped to develop and implemented our fundraising strategy, working closely with our funding partners and donors to secure the funding needed to deliver our services and in the process gaining valuable insight and experience of both our organisation and the sector.

Elaine is proud of our long history in supporting local families and professionals living and working with children with ADHD and the positive impact we deliver every day. 

Duncan Bull – Content and Marketing Lead

Duncan is our Content and Marketing Lead, responsible for all communications, and shining a light on the work of our charity whilst boosting community awareness. He champions our challenger events, helping to shape this key part of our community engagement programme. After a career in the food and drinks industry, Duncan now focuses on the family business part-time – a communications agency – and his two daughters, both diagnosed with ADHD. Duncan understands the challenges—and opportunities—families face in education and beyond and he is determined to turn this lived experience into positive impacts for our community of parents, carers, young people and professionals whose lives are touched by ADHD.

Molly Cove – Finance Administrator

Molly is our Finance Administrator with responsibility for supporting the finance and administration of the charity. Qualified with a Level 2 AAT in Bookkeeping, she also has hands-on experience managing and organising accounts through running her own small business. As a mother of two, Molly has lived experience of the challenges families with neuro diverse children face when navigating the education system, giving her personal insight into the support families with ADHD need. Molly hopes her role will contribute to supporting ADHD Embrace’s mission, where she will be bringing experience and empathy to the team.

Sallie Crook – Interim Schools Outreach Manager

Sallie is our Schools Outreach Manager working closely with schools to deliver staff training alongside ADHD awareness sessions for parents to build their understanding of ADHD and improve the support for children and young people with ADHD. Sallie has a background in teaching and has held various roles in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Sallie first became involved with ADHD Embrace when her son was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 15, having faced many years of challenges at school. Her involvement was initially as a volunteer and then working in this role for several years . We are delighted that Sallie is providing support again for us on an interim basis . She is passionate about making sure that schools are empowered to develop more appropriate support for children with ADHD, 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 – ADHD Adviser

Laura delivers our Advice Clinics, where families seek input and can discuss the challenges they may face around having a child or young person with ADHD.  Laura comes from many years of experience working in education and healthcare and also previously was our Community and Schools Outreach Manager, where she lead our Post Diagnosis Workshops and our Schools Outreach which included providing teacher and staff training.  She has lived experience of ADHD as a parent of two children who are diagnosed with ADHD.

Ana Russell-Omaljev –Service Provision Lead

Ana leads the development and delivery of our services, supporting children and young people with ADHD, their families and professionals across the community.  Ana brings a diverse background spanning research, cultural programme development, and community engagement. A versatile researcher and content curator, she has delivered festivals, exhibitions, panel discussions, and public programmes in the UK and internationally. Her work focuses on creating inclusive, accessible spaces that bring people together and foster meaningful dialogue. 

She holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading and is the author of a handbook distributed by Columbia University Press. Alongside her academic work, Ana has taught at undergraduate level, written for public-facing media, and led several cultural initiatives and community-focused projects.  Ana has followed the work of ADHD Embrace since 2023 and developed a strong commitment to neurodiversity following her son’s ADHD diagnosis. More recently, Ana has worked in social research, conducting in-depth interviews which has strengthened her experience in working directly with individuals, applying high standards of safeguarding, confidentiality, and ethical practice.

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.

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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 Wilson – Executive 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 families 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 families and professionals with knowledge and support to help children and young people with ADHD excel.  

Annette is a chartered accountant and has extensive management experience having held senior executive roles in financial services & investment management businesses during her working career.  Today she serves as non-executive director and adviser to investment management businesses.  She also has been a Trustee in the voluntary sector for over thirty years, and in addition to her involvement with ADHD Embrace, is former Chair of the Air Cadets, 39F Barnes and Richmond Squadron, former governor of Barnes Primary School and was 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.  

Corinne Raux – Secretary 

Corinne joined the Board in April 2026 as Trustee and Secretary. She works in finance and sustainability and also has experience of working with charities. She brings experience in governance, strategy and risk management across both larger and smaller organisations. She has lived experience of hyperactivity and has been part of the ADHD Embrace community for a number of years.  Through this experience she has developed a strong interest in the inclusion of neurodiverse people in society. She is very pleased to support ADHD Embrace in helping young people and their families to thrive. 

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.