Who we are

Jude Habib

Founder and Director

Jude is a BBC trained reporter and producer with over 20 years’ experience of unearthing stories that need to be told. She founded Sounddelivery Media in 2008 to give charities and the people they support the skills and confidence to tell their stories. Since then Jude has trained thousands of individuals in storytelling, helping to raise awareness and inspire action on issues including mental health, domestic violence, homelessness, the care system, poverty and life in prison. sounddelivery became a charity in February 2021.

At the BBC Jude focused on human interest storytelling, developing and delivering high-impact social action campaigns across radio, television and digital.

Jude is a certified TPMA (Trainer Performance, Monitoring and Assessment) trainer and mentor, and a Fellow of the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Helena Hastings

Communications Manager

Helena joined the Sounddelivery Media team in 2016 to work on our Social Media Exchange event. Since then her role has grown to include all aspects of our work, from managing our communications, to delivering our events, content creation, research, supporting the design and delivery of our training programmes, and writing funding bids.

Helena is particularly interested in how stories can be used to change opinions and how charities can harness digital technologies to get their content seen and heard on different platforms.

Monica Tyler

Interim CEO

Harriet Beaumont

Media and Community Engagement Lead

Harriet joined Sounddelivery Media in January, 2025 to lead the media and community engagement across all our programmes of work. She has 15 years’ experience in media relations for large and small NGOs working on rights-based issues, advising on media strategy and approaches, crisis comms and messaging, and providing media training for spokespeople. 

Prior to joining Sounddelivery Media she ran the press office at the Law Society, international human rights campaigning organisation Free Tibet and managed communications for the wonderful international development charity Book Aid.

Harriet is passionate about amplifying the voices of people with first hand experience of injustice and inequality to inform public debate and policy development.

Suyin Haynes

Programme Manager Future Voices

Suyin joined the Sounddelivery Media team in October 2023 on a part-time, freelance basis to support the delivery of the Future Voices programme in partnership with Voice of Domestic Workers. Formerly Senior Reporter at TIME and Head of Editorial at gal-dem, she is now a freelance journalist and media consultant. Her work centres on storytelling around identity, culture and underrepresented communities.

Shannon Casey

Communications Officer

Shannon joined us a Communications Officer, with a focus on using strategic storytelling to drive social change. With a background in journalism, PR and digital marketing, Shannon develops and implements communication strategies and creates impactful content across various platforms. Her experience includes writing for publications like VICE and Nonchalant Magazine, where she has explored identity, culture and representation.

Shannon is a passionate advocate for amplifying marginalised voices and is particularly dedicated to working with the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) community, as an Irish Traveller herself. She is committed to empowering individuals to share their own narratives and challenge media stereotypes. Shannon is thrilled to be part of Sounddelivery Media’s team and contribute to the mission of creating a more inclusive and representative media.

Emma Harrison

Chair of Trustees

Emma Harrison is a strategic communications consultant. She is passionate about the role of strategic communications in changing attitudes; engaging the public with campaigns and building movements for change. Emma has held senior roles in charities across a range of issues including migration (previously chief-exec at IMIX), international development, the disability sector and the consumer movement.

As well as a strong background in multi-channel communications, Emma has significant experience of policy development and advocating for change which started during her time working at the European Parliament.

Akash Patel

Trustee Treasurer

Akash is a Finance Director with extensive experience in public and private sectors, specialising in partnership building, financial governance, and social value creation. As Trustee Treasurer, he aims to apply his skills to drive impactful outcomes for the charity. With a strong track record in financial management and a passion for helping others, he also cycles annually to support children’s charities. “I believe in empowering those without a voice, particularly children, to create lasting positive change.”

Lisa Jones

Trustee

Lisa has spent her career helping a range of charities and businesses improve their business planning and operations. She has helped businesses to grow from small start ups to established organisations. Currently employed as Assistant Director of Business Planning and Governance at the National Theatre, Lisa has previously worked for Creative Access, the City Zip Company and JSA.

Lisa has been informally supporting Sounddelivery for the last 8 years and is delighted to make that relationship more formal now that she is a Trustee.

Sylvie Carlos

Trustee

Sylvie is a multi-award-winning audio producer, host, writer, and PhD researcher. Diversity, inclusion, and decolonisation are at the heart of Sylvie’s values. And her work across the podcasting and radio sector has unapologetically focused on amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities, with a particular focus on Black-British stories. Which goes hand in hand with her doctoral research. Her most recent work includes producing 1Xtra Talks, a BBC Radio 1Xtra programme that deep dived into the social and topical content relevant to Black communities nationally. And co-producing the award-winning podcast series Coiled.

Sylvie has written for the Independent, highlighting her lived experiences. She is really passionate about the ‘Power of The Voice’, and regularly hosts workshops at schools and universities to empower others to self-advocate and find their USP using audio as their medium.

Rachael Mole

Trustee

Amanda Lee 

Trustee

Amanda has over 20 years of experience helping leaders and teams navigate big changes within organisations. She’s worked extensively in the public sector, dealing with complex organisational structures and collaborating with people across different sectors, teams and departments.

Amanda is a certified coach and is skilled at managing budgets, working with partners, finding practical solutions while always being mindful of others’ perspectives. She’s worked with boards of directors in various industries, including government, non-profits, and private companies. Currently, Amanda is the Head of Strategy & Research Development for St Oswald’s Hospice in Newcastle.

Andrew Swanson

Trustee

Andrew is a multi-award winning journalist and producer, with experience across the written press, radio, TV, apps and online. Starting out working for various national newspapers he moved on to work in communications for the government before developing a successful career in local and national radio. For the past 15 years Andrew has worked on some of the best known television shows in news, sport and entertainment, as well as launching, and growing, several YouTube channels, developing Bafta nominated kids’ apps and growing website audiences. His current day job focuses on reaching young people in underserved areas and helping to inspire them to pursue future roles in the media. Andrew has a Masters in Business and Strategic Leadership and a keen interest in developing effective strategy, innovation and culture in teams and organisations.

Emma Pears

Advisory Group member

Emma is the Founder and CEO of SELFA Children’s Charity based in North Yorkshire, an organisation which supports over 600 children and families every year.

Over the last two decades she has campaigned on a range of issues including access to services for families living in rural communities and children and young people’s mental health. This is deeply rooted in her own experience as a parent of a child with mental health support needs and emotionally based school avoidance.

Originally from Belfast, Emma is a qualified life coach, a West Yorkshire Health Equity Fellow and a speaker on a wide range of lived experience leadership topics including imposter syndrome and systems leadership. In 2024 she won the Rank Memorial Award to research leadership in the social sector and was one of Big Issues top 100 Changemakers of 2025 in the ‘Communities and Equality’ category.

Jan Cunliffe

Advisory Group member

Jan is one of the co founders of the campaign group JENGbA (Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association). Their tireless campaigning was undoubtedly instrumental in the 2016 Supreme Court victory, where senior judges acknowledged the law had taken a wrong turn in 1984. That’s 32 years of injustice. Now they have been vindicated the campaign leads the way in gaining acquittals for the wrongly convicted and achieving further legal reform in several different areas, such as abolishing life sentences for children and the mandatory life sentence that takes away the discretion of the judge when it comes to sentencing.

Steve Arnott

Advisory Group member

Zain Hafeez

Advisory Group member

Zain was nominated as a Top 100 Changemaker in the UK by The Big Issue. Zain has a decade of first-hand experience of the asylum and immigration system. This evoked a deep passion in Zain to campaign for policy reform throughout. Zain has given several public speeches on issues related to the asylum journey, mental health, access to higher education and co-produced an award-winning podcast series: We Are Voices. Zain obtained a full-paid scholarship to go to university and graduated with a First-Class Honours in Philosophy and Global Studies. Zain is currently a Community Organiser with Citizens UK, a Funding Manager at the Civic Power Fund and a Board of Trustee at IMIX. In his spare time, Zain loves to read and study Philosophy.