Our staff

We employ over 28 members of staff at Uniting Friends. Meet the senior team here.

Russell Lerner (CEO)

Russell launched Uniting Friends in 1996 whilst working for Barnardos. In 2001, UF became an independent charity. He has overseen growth from just 3 members of staff to over 32 today. Read more

Ana Moreia - Finance, HR and Admin Director

Ana joined us in 2018. Read more

Karen McLaughlin Director of Operations

Karen joined Uniting Friends in 2010. Read more

Clare Haywood (Deputy Head of Service - Out There!)

Clare has been with Uniting Friends since 2014. Read more

Latest

UF Radio - May 2022: "My Eye Is My Ear"

11 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing. One of them is the Queen. Deaf people are more likely to have poor mental health. This month, the members have been discussing the awareness of deafness and how best to communicate with people who have hearing loss or are totally deaf. We had a guest speaker who invited the group to ask her questions about deafness. With the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations upon us, we have also been sending our messages to the Queen.
UF Radio - April 2022: "Nothing About Us Without Us"

With local elections on our doorstep, the focus of this month’s show is the importance of voting and having your say as a member of your community. We discussed our main issues, like safety on the streets, knife crime prevention, financial problems and paying for gas and electric bills, the war in Ukraine, supporting children’s and young people’s education after the pandemic, and more. Listen for a wonderful list of tunes to add some rocket fuel to your fire on route to voting!
UF Radio - March 2022: "War. What is it Good For?"

Sadly, this month’s show was an outpouring of the group’s feelings regarding the invasion of Ukraine and its devastating impact on the people of Ukraine. There has been no way to sugar-coat this topic. The members are equally traumatised, as is the most of the world. So, listen for a direct viewpoint from the members of UF Radio. We thought about the tunes that have a meaningful lyric and may bring some hope to our listeners.
UF Radio - February 2022: "We Love Romance"

With this month being the month of love and St. Valentine’s Day, we thought we would explore how the group felt about romance. Is it dead or alive, in their opinion? What does it mean to be ‘romantic’? We asked the group to plan a romantic date for a loved one or someone they’d like to take on a date. Romance was definitely in the air for the UF Radio crew! Listen to find out what people had to say, and hear our smooth, goose-pimple-inducing tunes!