Our Staff & Tutors

Our team is the beating heart of the Centre; all of them bring special skills and experience to the organisation and our users. Here you will find more details about each of them and their roles. 

Shantele Sutherland

Director
Experience & Skills
Shantele has been the Director of the Race & Equality Centre since the end of 1999. She holds a law degree and qualified as a barrister before going into discrimination casework, working previously for the old Merseyside Racial Equality Council.

Shantele is the chief operating officer and she has overall responsibility for the organisation, supervising all aspects of the services as well as the running of the Unity Centre. She is also a registered immigration adviser at Level 2.

Anita Dean

Information Officer - Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays

Experience & Skills
Anita Dean has been working for CHAWREC and The Unity Centre since 2010. She is responsible for the administration, reception and accounting for CHAWREC and The Unity Centre. Previously Anita worked for over 30 years as an Administrator in the printing industry.

LYDIA TSANG

Information Officer - Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays

Email: lydia@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Lydia joined CHAWREC in February 2022. She holds a degree in Business Administration from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. At CHAWREC, she is responsible for administration and reception duties. Previously, she served as our Project Officer for the Hong Kong BN(O) support programme.

KareN MANLEY

Immigration Adviser
Email: karen@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills

Karen joined the casework team in 2018 doing discrimination and employment work. She has an LLB (Hons) Law degree through Open University and has previously worked for Citizen's Advice as an Employment and Discrimination Caseworker. She qualified as an immigration adviser at Level 2 and now works solely on immigration matters. She is registered with IAA.

KELDA MANLEY

Immigration Adviser
Email: kelda@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills

Kelda joined the immigration team in 2021 as an administrative support and quickly progressed to qualify as a Level 1 Adviser registered with the IAA. Prior to this, she gained valuable experience as a caseworker support worker at Citizens Advice.

Dina Hussein

Asylum & Refugee Support Worker

Experience & Skills

Dina is our Arabic-speaking support worker. She provides various forms of support to asylum seekers and refugees in the area. She initially began as a volunteer interpreter to aid our classes and help refugees settle in, but in 2017, she was taken on as staff as a part-time teaching assistant.

NEgin Faninam

Governance Officer/ESOL Support

Email: negin@chawrec.org.uk

Experience & Skills

Negin joined CHAWREC in March 2024 as Volunteer Coordinator and later supported service users in accessing healthcare services as the BAME Health Inequalities Officer. She is now the Governance Officer and also provides administrative support to the ESOL team.

Iryna dubova

Ukrainian  Support Worker
Email: iryna@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Iryna supports Ukrainian community. 

Lionel Lee

Finance Support Officer

Experience & Skills

Lionel joined CHAWREC in February 2022. He has a Business Administration degree from The University of Warwick. Lionel moved to the UK from Hong Kong in 2021 via the BNO scheme.

Sophie Freeman 

Head of ESOL and Teacher

Email: sophie@chawrec.org.uk

Experience & Skills

Sophie joined the ESOL team in 2020 as a tutor, but now also works here as Head of ESOL.

She has over 25 years' experience working in the sector teaching English and in management in a range of organisations including Further and Higher education. 

She is also Designated Safeguarding Lead for CHAWREC.

KElsie Shute

ESOL Outreach Manager and Teacher
Email: kelsie@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills

Kelsie has almost 20 years' experience of teaching languages, and recently started teaching ESOL at CHAWREC. She loves working here with all our wonderful staff and students. Her role as Outreach Manager is quite varied, and she teaches at all levels in Chester, Northwich and Crewe.

Charlotte webber

ESOL Teacher and Admin Support
Email: charlotte@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Charlotte has been an ESOL and EFL teacher for many years. She has experience of teaching students from many different parts of the world. She also works as part of the ESOL Support team.

Ruth lane

ESOL Administrator
Email: ruth@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
 Ruth was an ESOL Tutor with CHAWREC for 4 years before moving into a support role. If you contact us about ESOL classes Ruth will be the person you speak to!


Nicola Oldfield

ESOL Tutor 
Experience & Skills
Nicola has extensive experience as a teacher of ESOL, German and French in college, university, community and business settings. Nicola has been working with CHAWREC for over 10 years and established the first ESOL classes at the Unity Centre. She also established and taught bespoke ESOL and ESOL Family Learning classes for refugees arriving in the area under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement scheme, as well as for Afghan families in hotel accommodation, and ESOL for Ukrainian guests. Nicola teaches the higher ESOL drop-in class and accredited classes at the Unity Centre, and, as a volunteer, a weekly ESOL classes for asylum seekers. In addition, Nicola delivers Volunteer and ESOL Awareness training within CHAWREC and to outside agencies. 

Jessica Brearey

ESOL Tutor

Email: jessica@chawrec.org.uk 

Experience & Skills

Jessica teaches our higher level Entry 3 and Level 1 ESOL accredited classes at the Unity Centre, Chester.

Mathew proe

ESOL Tutor
Email: mathew@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Mathew teaches our ESOL classes in the Cheshire East area. 

Aga Trigano

ESOL Tutor
Email: aga@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Aga teaches our ESOL classes in the Cheshire East area. 

JIM FREEMAN

ESOL Tutor
Email: jim@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Jim teaches our ESOL classes at the Unity Centre in Chester.

JANE HOPKINS

ESOL Tutor
Email: jane@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Jane teaches our ESOL classes at the Unity Centre in Chester.

JOSHUA OLDFIELD

ESOL Tutor
Email: joshua@chawrec.org.uk
Experience & Skills
Joshua teaches our ESOL classes at the Unity Centre in Chester.