STAFF
Samuel Klein is Executive Co-Director of The Coexistence Trust
email Samuel Klein
Samuel is Executive Co-Director of The Coexistence Trust and a research fellow in the Faiths & Civil Society unit at Goldsmiths University where he is academic advisor to the national Religious Literacy in Higher Education Leadership Programme.
Samuel has utilised his significant experience and knowledge of organizational change and inter-communal dynamics to guide and successfully implement several high-level leadership development initiatives in the Jewish community and nationally and is currently on the advisory and strategy board of the Centre for Jewish Community Leadership.
Prior to his work with the Coexistence Trust, Samuel has been Community Director of the Saatchi Synagogue in London, Director of the ‘Champions of Change’ leadership initiative at the United Synagogue of Great Britain & The Commonwealth and lecturer in Community Development and Religion and Public Life at Westminster University and Birkbeck College respectively.
Samuel holds degrees in Theology and Religious Studies (Cambridge University), History of Art (University College London), Psychotherapy & Counselling Psychology (Regents College London) and is currently studying Conflict Resolution & Meditation (MSc) at Birkbeck College, London.
Samuel has three sons and resides in Hendon, North West London.
Rokhsana Fiaz is Executive Co-Director of The Coexistence Trust.email Rokhsana Fiaz
Rokhsana has over 15 years high-level experience in public policy research, community engagement, strategic communications and government relations, with a strong poliocy expertise in faith, integration and cohesion.
A former political journalist, she has spent her professional career undertaking policy analysis, alongside advising governments and organisations on messaging and communication with ethnic minority populations and in recent years specifically with Muslim communities in the UK and Europe.
In her role as director of The Change Institute, she led a research team undertaking a major research study titled ‘Understanding Muslim Ethnic Communities’ (2009), commissioned by the UK government’s Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG), to help them understand how to improve their engagement with, and inclusion of, all the diverse Muslim communities in England.
She is a member of the UK government’s Department of Work and Pensions Ethnic Minority in Employment advisory group, the Department of Communities and Local Government’s National Muslim Women’s Advisory Group and has a long standing interest and involvement in Muslim – Jewish relations in the UK.
In June 2009, Rokhsana was honoured with the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to Black and Minority Communities in the UK.
Lester Holloway is the Coexistence Trust's Communications Manager.email Lester Holloway
Lester has worked in the media for over a decade and was Editor of New Nation, a weekly BME newspaper. He has also worked for Eastern Eye, The Voice, The Guardian and the London Evening Standard.
Zahra Valji is the Coexistence Trust's Executive Assistant.email Zahra Valji
Zahra previously interned with the Coexistence Trust and currently works for the Trust on a part time basis whilst reading a BSc in Psychology at City University London. She intends to further her education by pursuing a Masters in International Relations.
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