Team

Before helping to establish Childlight, Paul spent over 30 years working as a senior law enforcement officer in the UK and overseas. As Regional Director for the UK’s National Crime Agency in Africa, and later as the Director for Interpol’s Global Organised Crime programme, Paul was responsible for developing a cohesive approach with heads of state, governments, agencies and key partners across the world to mitigate serious global criminality.  Paul sits on a number of strategic governance boards and has been responsible for establishing bespoke capability to tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse globally. 

Paul has worked as a senior law enforcement officer in the UK and overseas.  As the UK lead for serious and organized crime across Africa, and subsequent Director of Organized and Emerging Crime for Interpol, he was responsible for developing bespoke capabilities to combat a wide range of transnational threats, including child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Kelvin has significant experience in UK and international law enforcement. While with the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) in Kenya, Kelvin set up Africa’s first dedicated child exploitation and human trafficking units. Prior to this he was a Senior Investigating Officer within The Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre specialising in extra territorial prosecutions relating to child exploitation across the Globe. 

Kelvin has significant experience in UK and international law enforcement. While with the UK National Crime Agency (NCA) in Kenya, Kelvin set up Africa’s first dedicated child exploitation and human trafficking units. Prior to this he was a Senior Investigating Officer within The Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre specialising in extra territorial prosecutions relating to child exploitation across the Globe. 

Gemma has worked in the humanitarian sector in communications, advocacy and community engagement roles and in numerous humanitarian and emergency contexts, many of which had a strong protection element. Prior to her work with NGO’s, she worked in political research for a Government minister. 

Doug has significant experience in UK Law Enforcement. He has been in charge as Senior Investigating Officer of a number of high-profile child abuse operations and held the public protection portfolio. Doug sat on the National Executive Board for Family Liaison. He was formerly the Deputy National Co-ordinator at Operation Hydrant the UK response to non-recent child abuse.

Richard comes from a youth and community development background, supporting children and young people in a variety of settings including those impacted by child exploitation and abuse, before moving into service development, quality improvement, operational management and governance roles within third and public sector organisations. 

Arturo is currently the Director of the IMAGINA research center and Associate Professor at the School of Government at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia.  Arturo is interested in understanding the impact of adverse childhood experiences; designing and evaluating interventions that mitigate this impact, and identifying best-practices that improve health, education and child protection systems. 

Inga’s background is in applied social research for public and third sector organisations and she is passionate about producing research that impacts policy, practice, and children’s lives. Her work covers quantitative and mixed methods research on child sexual exploitation and abuse as well as adverse childhood experiences more broadly. 

Mengyao is a Research Fellow at Childlight and a member of the UK Young Academy's 2023 cohort. Mengyao’s research looks at sexual violence against children, particularly primary child sexual abuse prevention programmes in school settings. 

David is the Director of the Crimes against Children Research Center and Professor of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. David’s research interests include the epidemiology of child maltreatment, Internet offenses and adverse childhood experiences. 

Dr. Fang is Professor of Health Economics at the College of Economic and Management, China Agricultural University. He also holds joint appointment in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Prior to his current position, Dr. Fang served as a Senior Health Economist with the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. CDC. 

Liz is an Assistant Principal, Professor of Global Health and Development, and Director of the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Academy, a Fellow of the RSE and the Deputy Director International of the RCPE.  Liz  leads research on planetary health and the science and practice of compassion 

Ethel is Professor of Forensic Clinical Psychology in the School of Health in Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. As a clinical psychologist Ethel has worked with both sex offenders and victims and for over 20 years has researched technology-mediated crimes against children, collaborating internationally with government and non-government agencies in the context of research, policy and practice. 

Gemma has worked within the operations team of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry and with international schools and agencies arranging English language education to groups of children aged 9-16.  Gemma brings enthusiasm, strong administration experience and excellent organisational skills that keep the office running smoothly. 

Mark has considerable experience of technical and procedural design, development and management of data systems, working with big, complex and often challenging data sources. He has worked with clinical, management, administrative and economical data in the past and offers insight, consultancy and guidance on best practice policies for all things data. 

Srividya has conducted a range of research reviews to understand child protection systems and the magnitude, risks, responses and interventions of child violence in both online and offline spaces across the globe. Srividya is interested in using her skills to study and bridge the gaps in tech policies for online child safety. 

Karina is an international consultant in the field of children’s rights, particularly early childhood, child protection, citizenship, and risky living conditions, including areas with natural hazards. Karina has lead multidisciplinary teams in the design, implementation and evaluation of programs and policies related to populations living in vulnerable conditions.  

Jinjin is currently a PhD student at the School of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University. Her research interests include child protection, child human capital and food nutrition and health. 

Nanne contributed to the realist review on VAC interventions in India Together with Dr. Mengyao Lu, she analysed the interviews and formulated the initial programme theories of three multi-sectoral interventions as well as conducted the literature searches related to CHILDLINE India. She is currently finalizing her PhD dissertation in the field of social work at the University of Helsinki. 

Andrea is an assistant professor at the Department of Behavioral Science in the University of the Philippines Manila and a PhD Psychology candidate at King’s College London. Her research interests dealt with issues on mental health and help-seeking behaviour, violence against women and children, young person’s self-harm behaviour and drug use 

Sandra is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Manila National Institutes of Health, undertaking research on child abuse and neglect. She is also a Child Protection Specialist at the Philippine General Hospital Child Protection Unit. 

Sabrina is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Edinburgh, working with Childlight through a funded studentship, having completed her MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Sabrina has experience in several areas of gender-based violence research including intimate partner violence, child maltreatment, and violence against women and will focus on analysing the intersections in these areas using Disrupting Harm global data. 

María Paula Marmolejo Lozano is a psychologist with a strong interest in the field of education and child and adolescent development. Currently, she is in the last semester of her master’s degree in Psychology at Universidad de los Andes, Colombia. Her research focuses on exploring schoolteachers’ perceptions around their psychological and professional well-being.  

Katherine Jaramillo is currently a student of the master's degree in Public Policy at Universidad de Los Andes. She has over 7 years of experience working in Colombia’s public sector and in 2020, she founded the NGO Valientes Colombia. Valientes works to end Human Trafficking and CSEC through investigation, prevention and attention to people at risk, victims and survivors of the crime.  

María Fernanda Rodríguez Camacho is a knowledge management and innovation advisor at the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF). She is economist and holds a MA in Economics from the Universidad de los Andes. 

María Paula Contreras, a Lawyer, is currently a student in the MA in Economics at Universidad de Los Andes. Her current research focuses on corporate due diligence and risk mitigation in productive value chains, particularly in human rights, labour rights and environment related risks.  

Dr Konstantinos Kosmas Gaitis completed his PhD in Law at Edinburgh University and has worked as a Researcher for the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime and the Law Society of Scotland. He is a Scottish Justice Fellow, currently registered as Attorney at Law with the Athens Bar Association, he tutors at Edinburgh University and works as a Global Data Fellow in Childlight Institute.  

Garazi Álvarez-Guerrero is a pre-doctoral researcher and member of the at the eDucaR research team at University of Deusto (Spain). Her degrees are in Primary Education and Special Education. She has participated in several national and international projects. Her research interests are in dialogic interventions, inclusive education, and violence prevention. Her research focuses on the prevention of violence with students with Special Educational Needs. Currently, she is a visiting scholar at the University of Edinburgh. 

Ian Kut has been working as a Cyber Intelligence Analyst with the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit (AHTCPU) in Kenya since 2018. In this role, Ian provides technical assistance to law enforcement including analysis of online child sexual exploitation (OCSE) Cybertips reports and compiling information into an actionable package. His work has resulted to numerous successful investigations and interventions, ultimately resulting to rescue of vulnerable children and prosecution of perpetrators. Ian is currently undertaking his master's degree in data science at Edinburgh Napier University and joined Childlight Institute as a Global Data Fellow. 

Praise is an LLM in Human Rights candidate at the University of Edinburgh Law School who is currently undertaking her work-based dissertation placement in Childlight. She is also a practicing lawyer from the Philippines and her research interests focus on online child sexual exploitation and children’s rights. 

Sarah has a psychology and health background is a current PhD student at Edinburgh Napier University investigating how adverse and benevolent childhood experiences relate to the development of PTSD and CPTSD in adulthood. Her research interests include the effects of traumatic events across the lifespan, quantitative methodology, open science practices and moral decision making. 

Carleigh received her Masters in Teaching and was a primary school teacher prior to beginning her PhD in Education at the University of Edinburgh. She is passionate about teacher education and how teachers can act as key participants in the disruption and impediment of child abuse. Her current research focuses on the university’s role in educating future teachers on child protection policy, legislation and the rights of the child. 

James comes from a child protection background, having worked in frontline child and family services for several years in Canada. James started work in addressing online CSEA at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection in 2022, and will continue this at Childight. James is a part of the research team at Childlight, working as a research assistant.