About the Team

With the right expert support, any organisation can move forward with small incremental changes, building up towards their goals. We work through a vetted network of expert multi-disciplinary collaborators, consultants and staff matched to client contexts and needs.

Our People

Margaret Ochieng

Village Director – Lead Psychologist and Solutions Catalyst

Margaret is an organisational psychologist specialising in inclusive leadership, talent, and culture. She works across the UK, US and Sub-Saharan Africa. Margaret enriches the village by designing thought-leadership models and evidence-based frameworks that are accessible, intellectual and practical.

Margaret supports organisations through consulting, training, coaching and research to embed inclusive and anti-racist practices into day-to-day organisational life. She is popularly described as impactful, authentic and thought-provoking. Through her lived experience and psychology expertise, Margaret “cuts through noise” to catalyse change at individual and group levels. She is a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS), a Fellow at the Royal Society for Arts (FRSA) and a visiting lecturer at Birkbeck University London where her PhD candidature explores the development of anti-racism practice in UK organisations. Margaret is also a talent assessor, coach, sought-after keynote speaker and panellist.

Mata Ayoub

Village Collaborator – Learning and Facilitation

Mata is the director of learning and teaching at Kingston University, a highly experienced leader, with lived experience, interest and expertise on race and disability. Mata enriches the village’s academic rigour and knowledge across multiple EDI strands.

Mata is the current chair of the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic staff network at Kingston university, and is skilled at creating effective frameworks for stakeholders to be heard, encouraging visible commitment to EDI, and supporting leadership teams. She is also an associate committee member on the HR board of Dimensions, an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities, autism, and complex needs within their local communities.

Taslim Tharani

Village Collaborator – Coaching, Learning and Facilitation

Taslim Tharani is an organisational psychologist, a lecturer, coach, and trainer. Taslim enriches the village by effectively combining a ‘human’ approach with evidence-base psychology, grounded in values of connection, openness, contribution to community, authenticity and integrity.

Taslim is highly skilled in research, training and consultancy and works across multiple sectors on race equity, health and wellbeing at work, career decision making and leadership development. Taslim excels at creating psychologically safer and culturally inclusive spaces enabling opportunities for transformative dialogue, deep reflections and change. She is a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and is proud to be a co-founding member of The Centre for Psychology at Work.

David Hill

Village Council – Public Sector and Large Organisations

David is a highly experienced public sector leader with 15+ years in the NHS. David’s insights strengthen the Village’s strategic, transformational leadership and service delivery plans to public sector and large complex organisations.

David has worked in various strategic delivery leadership roles including community paediatric services to specialist surgical care, NHS operational front-line delivery and regional strategic planning. David also previously worked in East and southern Africa, delivering programmes to support vulnerable communities, whilst promoting efforts to build and support local leadership. He is currently a parent school governor at a local Surrey school where he champions EDI and pupil premium.

Jim Emerson

Village Council – Global Leadership and Complex Organisations

Jim has held various CEO, governance, and senior executive roles in various large organisations. He brings to The Village a wealth of experience and strategic insight on our work with boards, non-profits and complex global organisations. 

Jim has lived and worked across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe for 40+ years; in urban slums, remote villages, and in disaster and conflict areas.  More recently, Jim has focused on complex interim and advisory roles. Working cross- culturally, Jim has championed diversity and inclusion throughout his career and continues to mentor emerging civil society leaders from the Global South.  Jim has family Burkina Faso, the home country of his spouse.

Panama Donaldson

Village Analyst – Relationships, Data and Impact

Panama is a data enthusiast with a gift of addressing stakeholder pain points. Panama enriches the village by ensuring our solutions continue to deliver impact, social justice, sustainable learning and long-term value to our clients and communities.

Panama has had a long career in the non-profit sector advocating for social justice. She continually centres human relationships and anti-oppressive practice in our service design, research and development of outstanding learning resources. She is also a qualified full-stack developer and supports our use of technology to create efficiencies, both internally and in our work with clients and communities, ensuring our values are embedded throughout our work.

Dr. Preskilla Munda

Village Collaborator – Global Partnerships, Africa

Preskilla is a clinical psychologist, a mental health and wellbeing practitioner, and lecturer based in Nairobi, Kenya. Preskilla enriches the village by leading our partnership with 247 Navigators Psychological Services to support our clients in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Preskilla has a science and a marketing background, with over 20 years’ experience of working in business, healthcare and education. She is highly skilled in supporting the development of women, younger people and leaders through psychotherapy, psycho-education, coaching, training and development. She is also currently the program lead for the PhD. Clinical Psychology program at Africa International University with strong links to academic institutions in East Africa.

Mata Ayoub

Village Collaborator – Learning and Facilitation

Mata is the director of learning and teaching at Kingston University, a highly experienced leader, with lived experience, interest and expertise on race and disability. Mata enriches the village’s academic rigour and knowledge across multiple EDI strands.

Mata is the current chair of the Black and Asian Minority Ethnic staff network at Kingston university, and is skilled at creating effective frameworks for stakeholders to be heard, encouraging visible commitment to EDI, and supporting leadership teams. She is also an associate committee member on the HR board of Dimensions, an organisation which supports people with learning disabilities, autism, and complex needs within their local communities.

Panama Donaldson

Village Analyst – Relationships, Data and Impact

Panama is a data enthusiast with a gift of addressing stakeholder pain points. Panama enriches the village by ensuring our solutions continue to deliver impact, social justice, sustainable learning and long-term value to our clients and communities.

Panama has had a long career in the non-profit sector advocating for social justice. She continually centres human relationships and anti-oppressive practice in our service design, research and development of outstanding learning resources. She is also a qualified full-stack developer and supports our use of technology to create efficiencies, both internally and in our work with clients and communities, ensuring our values are embedded throughout or work.

Featured Fellows

Margaret Ochieng

MSc, BEd, TUOP, TUA — Organisational Psychologist, 
Director & Founder, The Inclusive Village

Margaret Ochieng

MSc, BEd, TUOP, TUA — Organisational Psychologist, 
Director & Founder, The Inclusive Village

Margaret Ochieng

MSc, BEd, TUOP, TUA — Organisational Psychologist, 
Director & Founder, The Inclusive Village

Margaret Ochieng

MSc, BEd, TUOP, TUA — Organisational Psychologist, 
Director & Founder, The Inclusive Village

A Village Organisational Culture Model

It takes a village to attract, retain & develop the best talent and partnerships

Because great and inclusive organisations are great for everyone:

We enable organisations with a genuine desire and commitment for human-centric, fair, equal and inclusive workplaces to turn their commitments into actionable and strategic reality.

We harnesses behavioral sciences theories and practice to enhance individual and corporate motivation in creating a "work village" where the quest for common good is both a duty and a privilege for all.

We co-create practical solutions with our clients leveraging our core values; humor, curiosity, efficiency, optimism and respectful inquiry.

Village Pillars

Connectedness

Meaningful inter-group relationships that are not at the expense of sub-group and individual identities can truly enhance a sense of inclusion, minimising resistance to inclusive culture change. Such connectedness is sustained by ongoing learning, curiosity, and respectful inquiry to create a fertile ground on which inclusion efforts can grow.

People

Putting "people" at the front, back, and center of everything we do. We tap into the "hidden voices" of your people and leverage storytelling and reflection to build the case for change.

Science

Leveraging behavioral sciences to explain the "why" and "how", to enable conscious decision-making and commitment to change actions.

Data

Utilising multiple sources of data to generate highly personalised, actionable insights to drive the desired goals.