Director – Martin Drewry
Martin has a long background in the voluntary sector, initially as an award-winning grass-roots community development worker in the UK, before moving to international development. After a few years as national secretary of World Action, a pioneering Methodist programme enabling young people and adults to take action for social justice, he spent the next decade as head of campaigns at Christian Aid. Here he played leading roles in Jubilee 2000, Drop the Debt, the Trade Justice Movement and was one of the coordinators of Make Poverty History. Martin’s academic grounding came from the Bradford University School of Peace Studies in the mid-eighties, an experience he valued. He became director of Health Poverty Action in April 2006.
Head of Policy & Campaigns – Natalie Sharples
Natalie joined Health Poverty Action in 2013. Prior to this she worked in a variety of roles in policy, advocacy and public campaigning on issues including global justice, peace-building, migrant rights, age and gender. Natalie has a BA in anthropology and gender studies from the University of Hull.
Head of Fundraising – Kelly Douglas
Kelly joined Health Poverty Action in 2019. She has over 10 years experience in fundraising, with a focus in philanthropy and business development in both the charity and education sectors. Her career has been steeped in social justice, and continued in her recent roles as Associate Director of a Rape Crisis Center and Development Director with Center for Patient Partnerships, a patient advocacy organisation at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both located in the United States.
Kelly moved to London in 2017 for a Masters programme in Social and Cultural Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and completed her dissertation on how to effectively confront racial prejudice with White Americans.
Head of Programmes for Africa – Dr Tadesse Kassaye Woldetsadik
Tadesse started at Health Poverty Action in June 2005. Tadesse, an Ethiopian medical practitioner, received his Masters in Public Health from the Universitae de Libre in 2002, and has worked with CARE International in Ethiopia as a senior health adviser and HIV/AIDS programme coordinator since early 2004. Prior to that, Tadesse held programme management posts with the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF), Ethiopia, after five years with the Ministry of Health.
Head of Programmes for Asia – Mr Bangyuan Wang
Mr Bangyuan Wang is an experienced public health practitioner from China. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing and managing public health programmes in Asia and Africa. Having trained and worked in China as a community health practitioner, Bangyuan later got a degree in public administration. Over the last 20 years, he has worked at MSF, Health Unlimited and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (now called Frontline AIDS). Bangyuan worked for Health Poverty Action in China, Myanmar and Laos from 2003 to 2013, and rejoined the organisation as the Head of Programmes for Asia in June 2019.
Head of Finance and Administration – Sandra Tcheumeni Boschet
Sandra started her role at Health Poverty Action in March 2018. Her 11 years work career to date includes finance roles with Cardiff University and Senior Finance and business management roles with the Wales Deanery and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). During these years she has developed a wide range of skills and expertise in the financial management of Research and Development projects and Management Accounting best practices.
Sandra’s role at Health Poverty Action is to oversee and manage the strategic planning, financial and operational management of the organisation on a day to day basis providing a vital link between Management Executive and operational sections and teams.
Sandra graduated from University of Glamorgan (now University of South Wales) in 2005 with a BSC in International Accounting and Finance, following which she continued her studies with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Sandra is Belgian from Cameroonian descent and is fluent in French and English.