Who we are
Rebecca Vagi: National Lead for Make a Change
Since 2008, Rebecca has worked in the field of gender-based violence, delivering and managing frontline services for women and children, coordinating local community responses to domestic abuse in health and housing settings and worked with organisations to develop in-house interventions to enhance how they deliver services to survivors and children.
In previous roles, Rebecca was the Programme Manager of the Whole Housing Approach project at Standing Together and prior to that the Development Lead at Women’s Aid Federation of England for the Change that Lasts project. She also led on a project with the South East Coast Ambulance Service to establish a domestic abuse response within the Trust, which was the first of its kind within an ambulance service in England.
Email: rebecca.vagi@respect.org.uk
Joanna Szuryn: Regional Practice Lead (Training & Diversity)
Before joining Respect in 2021, Joanna spent almost a decade delivering individual and group support, and managing various ‘whole family’ domestic abuse projects in community, education and social care settings.
Joanna is a qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advisor and a trained Domestic Homicide Review Chair. Joanna is also an accredited Adult and Children and Young People Recovery Toolkit facilitator, and holds a level 2 certification in Narrative Practice.
Joanna's previous professional background is in teaching, training and international business development. She is fluent in Polish and German.
Email: joanna.szuryn@respect.org.uk
Leah Morgan: Regional Practice Lead
Leah joined Respect in October 2021. In her initial roles, Leah led on the ongoing development, implementation and delivery of CLEAR, which forms part of the Change That Lasts perpetrator response in Wales. This led her to embark on a new chapter with the Make a Change team in the summer of 2023, to support the development of early responses to domestic abuse on a broader scale.
Leah has experience of working with perpetrators in the criminal justice system through previous roles in probation, and has also worked in specialist survivor services.
Outside of work, Leah enjoys beekeeping.
Email: leah.morgan@respect.org.uk
Karima Rahman: Communications and Policy Officer
Karima leads the communications and policy activity for Make a Change.
Karima’s background is in the children’s sector, and she previously worked at charity Children 1st. She has experience of working across a broad range of campaigns and projects, and engaging audiences through digital and print communications channels.
Alongside work, Karima also provides communications and policy support as a volunteer at #MEAction, a grassroots movement advocating for health equity for people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).
Email: karima.rahman@respect.org.uk
Olga Trilla Rodriguez: Data and Performance Manager
Olga joined Respect in December 2022 as the Data and Performance Manager for Make a Change.
Previously, Olga has worked both for the private and NGO sectors. Her interest in data comes from her background in Physics, but she soon realised that her passion is in working for charities in education and gender. She holds an MSc in Education and International Development (UCL). In her varied experiences, she led an NGO project in Ethiopia, was an IT consultant in Barcelona, a project manager for an ed-tech start-up and a data analyst for Standing Together in the UK.
Outside work, Olga is very active and enjoys the outdoors and climbing (when weather allows). She loves trying new food and is always up for an adventure exploring other countries.