Gabriel Ivbijaro
Founder & President
Lucja Kolkiewicz
Founder Member & Vice President
Michelle Riba
Founder Member & Director for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion & Director of Scientific Publications
Claire Brooks
Founder Member and Director of Research and Development
Jean-Luc Roelandt
Founder Member and Director for Collaboration
Pierre Thomas
Founder Member and Director for Professional Development
Henk Parmentier
Founder Member & Director for NGO Relationships
Lisa Weston
Trustee
Steve Maingot
Charity Secretary
A professional whose expertise is exceptional in the healthcare sector; he has experience at Board level in the NHS and the Voluntary Sector. The Provision of informatics and commissioning of health and social care services at all Care Levels. He has a very good understanding of healthcare and the digital health agenda.
Ljiljana Vucicevic
Head of Communications
Ljiljana joined the World Dignity Project in 2018, bringing her extensive communications, marketing and event staging experience. She is a senior communications and engagement specialist with 20 years experience in a variety of organisations – the NHS, voluntary sector and international development. Ljiljana worked for many years as Senior Communications and Engagement Specialist at Mid Essex Hospitals Group, West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust, Children and Family Health Services and East London NHS Foundation Trust.
Her experience and portfolio cover internal and external communications including change communications, media management, digital media, brand management, reputation management and stakeholder engagement. She is focused on strategic delivery communications, stakeholder relationship management and engagement and digital communications. In addition, she is experienced in developing and implementing digital communications strategies that support the delivery of organisational business objectives.
Matthew Jansick
Creative Director
Matthew joined the World Dignity Project as a volunteer in 2015. He has been involved in marketing and creative, specfiically developing the Dignity Symbol and branding for the World Dignity Project.
He is an adventurous and charismatic leader, creative director & user experience designer, with a bias for action, leveraging over 15 years of experience building and launching multi-channel campaigns and digital experiences. Skilled in digital strategy, user experience/web design and cross-disciplinary team leadership. A graduate of the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design.
Yaccub Enum
Senior Public Health Manager
Yaccub Enum is a Public Health Specialist with interest in mental health, sexual health and tackling stigma. Yaccub graduated in Civil Engineering at Middle East Technical University, Turkey, before moving into health. He has developed both clinical and public health expertise. He was a Clinical Nurse Manager at East London Foundation Trust, and then completed an MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Yaccub has experience of working with multi-cultural communities in deprived areas of east London. He led the development and implementation of a mental health promotion strategy with a strong focus on community empowerment. This included working with local people, faith leaders and hard-to-reach groups to demystify mental illness, promote mental health and improve access to services. He worked with local communities, raising awareness of HIV testing and commissioning community-based HIV testing services. Yaccub is currently a Public Health Principal in London and heavily involved in the Public Health response to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has co-authored a number of peer reviewed publications, including Delivering Universal Health: A Collaborative Approach. He was also a contributing author of the Primary Care Mental Health in Older People: A Global Perspective, an international collaboration of authors.
Dennis Thomas John Shorunkeh-Sawyer
Analyst & Project Manager
I am an experienced Project Manager with a track record of working in the hospital and mental health care industry. I am skilled in Systems and Data Analysis, Investment Banking, Public Sector, and Microsoft Excel and Access to VBA level. I have a strong professional base, with a BSc Construction Management focused on Building Construction Technology, Project Management, Law from South Bank University, London, UK.
I am very pleased to be working as a researcher supporting the World Dignity Project and bring my specialist expertise to our surveys and conferences worldwide so that every encounter can be a dignity encounter.
Christopher Soltysiak
Mental Health Commissioner
Starting a career in Banking, which included studies in Business Studies and Economics, my first honours degree was in social sciences which then led to postgraduate studies at London University and a Masters of Science in Politics. I was also a researcher at the University part-time helping set up an academic Journal and international conference events. Moving into the NHS, I worked for the organisation for over 25 years in various strategy, planning, and policy roles and was a regional council member for the Institute of Healthcare Management. This period included being an Associate Director leading on Mental Health commissioning for a whole area and working extensively across London. I was also the Head of Planning and Performance for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, the biggest Mental Health Trust in the UK. I was also part of the “Aspiring Directors” programme in the NHS and successfully did courses at Ashridge Business School and the Senior Managers Programme at the Kings Fund. More recently, I have completed a Diploma in Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Business and I have become an independent consultant with an interest in healthcare delivery and I am looking for opportunities to develop my interest in mental health.
Andrew Long
VP Consumer Research
Andrew joined the World Dignity Project as a volunteer in 2015. He has been involved in supporting fieldwork research and communications production for WDP since its inception.
As VP Operations of ModelPeople Inc., he leads the operations functions of a global Market Research and Strategic Branding consultancy, with thirty five years’ experience in automotive engineering, project management and research. He started his career with Jaguar Cars, worked for TI Automotive, and in project management with Ford and Chrysler in Detroit, before bringing his operations experience to the marketing consultancy industry. Andrew has a BSC. (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering, is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and also holds an MBA, and Post-Graduate diplomas in Operations Management and in Marketing.
James Long
Undergraduate Student, Cal Poly
James Long is an Undergraduate Architecture student at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. James has experience working in market research and knowledge of consumer usability, as well as a personal relationship with mental healthcare. He has assisted with several stages of research and is working on Young Adult outreach.
Prof. Roy Abraham Kallivayalil
Professor & Head, Dept of Psychiatry Pushpagiri Institute of Medical Sciences, Tiruvalla, Kerala - 689 101, India Secretary General, World Psychiatric Association President, World Association of Social Psychiatry (2016-2019)
Dignity calls for respecting persons with emotional distress or mental illness and treating them as valued individuals in society. Unfortunately, discrimination and stigma are universal. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse are wide spread and in some countries, persons with severe mental illness are incarcerated for long periods. Their human rights are denied, as are employment and life opportunities. This is a serious blot on mankind. It is time, all organisations dealing with mental health in all countries stand together to end this. Professor Gabriel Ivbijaro has created enormous good will among the mental health profession for the World Dignity Project and I wish it great success as a torch bearer for dignity in mental health.
Prof. Sir David Goldberg
KBE Professor Emeritus & Fellow, King’s College, London
The World Dignity project seeks to keep up the important work started by WPA on stigma reduction, as well as to offer educational projects for professionals in both primary and mental health settings. It also has to maintain pressure on workers in journalism and television to give a more positive view of mental disorders, rather than perpetuating the emphasis on negative messages. These are worthy aims, and I am happy to be associated with others working on these themes
Prof. Norman Sartorius
MD, PhD, FRCPych, President of the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programs
Dignity is a word with many meanings, most of them highly relevant to relationships with people with mental illness and the provision of care for them. Dignity refers to restraint and propriety in relation to others; conduct in keeping with ethical principles; the appropriate use of authority; relationship with esteem and recognition of value of others. All of these concepts refer to principles which should be respected in mental health work and it is noble, necessary and useful that the World Dignity project has taken upon itself to remind us of these rules and promote their application worldwide.
Dr. Ingrid Daniels
Chief Executive Officer, Cape Mental Health, President: World Federation for Mental Health
There are a few essentials humanity cannot live without. The most important of these is our dignity, our inherent value and worth as human beings. For many, the experiences of living with a mental illness strips them of their dignity. It is incumbent on us to ensure that our services restore dignity, and develop a personhood to face society as equals. Cape Mental Health, the oldest community-based mental health NGO in South Africa joined the World Dignity Project at its inception. This organisation holds aloft its umbrella of care and advocacy to restore dignity to persons with mental health needs and address factors that erode their dignity.
Deborah Wan
BBS, JP from Hong Kong, Past President of World Federation for Mental Health
Prof. Michael Kidd
AM FAHMS, Emeritus Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care
Every person who comes into contact with a health care service deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Sadly this is not the case for many people, and especially for many people with mental illness. If we are going to improve the health care provided to people with mental illness, then we need to work together to effect change. The voice of people with mental illness, and their family members and carers, must be heard. The World Dignity Project supports each of us to work together to consider how we treat other people, the impact this has on health care, and how we can all do better.
Prof. Igor Švab
University of Ljubljana Medical faculty
It was my privilege to be present at the launch of the project in Lille in 2015. I am impressed how this initiative has developed over the year and with the support it receives. This shows that the project is about values that are important not only to the medical profession, but also to patients, their carers and families. These values are also core principles of humane medicine that are also often considered less important in the world of technology and money. This is why they should be promoted: they hold the key to a better society.
Prof. Todd Edwards
PhD, LMFT, University of San Diego, USA
Dignity has been described as “the inherent and inalienable worth of all human beings irrespective of social status such as race, gender, physical or mental state” (Funk, Drew, & Baudel, 2015). In a world that often marginalizes individuals with mental illness, isolates them from friends and family, and strips away hope, mental health systems and interventions that promote dignity and social connections are essential. I feel honored to be a part of the World Dignity Project’s mission to provide quality mental health care for all.
Kathryn Goetzke
Chief Mood Officer & Founder, The Mood Factory
It is my great honor to know and work with the World Dignity Project, as there is nothing more important we can do for the world than teach each and every person with dignity and respect, no matter their physical or intellectual abilities. My participation in the Malta conference was a great step in our work on Hope, and I’m looking forward to working with them on operationalizing hope in the coming years as it is a basic human right. I encourage all to become involved in the World Dignity Project, sign the declaration, and carry the values of the project in your communities.