For all media enquiries, please contact the media team at uk.media@actionaid.org or on 44(0)7753 973 486.
For press enquiries outside office hours (Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 17:00 GMT/BST), please contact the duty press number 44(0)7753 973 486 before emailing.
Contact details for each member of the AAUK media team can be found below.
Frances Leach, Head of Media
As Head of Media at ActionAid UK, Frances plays a crucial role in driving the organisation's media strategy and amplifying its mission of the rights of women and girls across the world. Prior to joining ActionAid UK, she worked as a journalist and media professional in the INGO sector.
Isabella Cipirska, Media Manager
Isabella works in the ActionAid UK press office, working with the media to amplify the organisation's campaigns and goals. Prior to joining ActionAid UK, she worked as a journalist and media consultant.
Email: Isabella.Cipirska@actionaid.org
Shahina Khatun, Media Officer
Shahina works in the ActionAid UK press office, working with the media to amplify the organisation's campaigns and goals. Before joining ActionAid UK, Shahina worked as a journalist across several broadcast newsrooms, covering a range of national and international stories.
Email: Shahina.Khatun@actionaid.org
Nayla Ziadeh, Media Assistant
Nayla works in the ActionAid UK press office, where she monitors media coverage, distributes media releases, and provides administrative support to amplify the organisation's campaigns and goals. Before joining ActionAid UK, she worked as a youth worker while completing her master's at University College London.
Email: Nayla.Ziadeh@actionaid.org
Susan Mearns, Senior Celebrity Manager
Susan Mearns leads ActionAid UK's work with celebrities and other high-profile personalities, enlisting their support and developing and maintaining strong positive relationships so that their reach and public standing can raise ActionAid's profile.
Susan worked in PR in Scotland before joining the ActionAid UK media relations team in 1995.
Email: susan.mearns@actionaid.org
The Unequal Lens Network
The Unequal Lens Network, hosted by ActionAid UK, is a collective of journalists, communicators, filmmakers and activists dedicated to examining how power, race and inequality shape the stories we tell about crisis and conflict.
The network challenges paternalistic or dehumanising narratives, interrogates who is seen as a victim, and promotes storytelling that centres the voices and lived experiences of affected communities, fostering ethical, rights-holder-led approaches that resist oppression.
If you would like to sign up please email Frances Leach: Frances.Leach@actionaid.org
Page updated 27 January 2026