Our Team

Sally Becker
Executive Director
Sally's work as a humanitarian has been well-documented, especially during the war in Bosnia where she crossed the front lines in an ambulance to rescue injured children from besieged areas. Amidst the carnage and the chaos, she managed to negotiate ceasefires in areas where others had failed and her evacuation missions saved hundreds of children.
Sally received several awards for her work in the 90's including the McWhirter Award for Bravery, Unsung Heroes, The Variety Club of Great Britain and the Women of the Year Award, Sicily.
In 2008 Sally became a Goodwill Ambassador for Children of Peace, a British based charity dedicated to building friendship trust and reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian Children. Sally is Patron of Faith Matters, an organisation working with faith communities to counter extremism, supporting integration & challenging hatred.
In 2012 Sally carried the Olympic Flag for Peace and Justice alongside Mohammed Ali and UN Secretary General Ban ki moon at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games. In 2016 she founded Save A Child to help children in areas affected by conflict across the globe.
Dr Hadi Mohsenibod
Senior Clinical Advisor
Hadi graduated from Tehran University Medical School in 1989 and worked in rural areas of Iran as a general practitioner before leaving the country in 1993 to start his training in paediatrics at the Mayo Clinic and Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Minnesota, USA. In 1997 he spent two years training in Paediatric Cardiology at Boston Children's and Harvard University . He undertook further training in paediatric critical care in Cape Town, South Africa; London, UK, and Toronto, Canada and trained in Paediatric Malnutrition, Paediatric HIV/AIDS, and Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (Liverpool).
Hadi taught paediatric critical care at Kuwait University (2 years), University of Toronto (7 years). He is currently a visiting professor in Tehran, Iran. He continues to be an honorary staff physician at the department of critical care at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto but at the end of 2015, he left his" day job" to work as a volunteer in conflict and resource-limited settings, in places such as Libya, Liberia, Malawi, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Guyana.
Hadi says " I feel honoured and privileged that I have been able to use my limited knowledge and skills in the service of sick children and in training healthcare workers who care for them in resource-limited settings. I joined the "Save a Child" network in the Autumn of 2021 through Doctors Worldwide and since then have witnessed first hand how effectively they have helped many children in Afghanistan and Iraq".
Pernille Richards
Project Development
Pernille’s principal competency is in digital project implementation. As Head of Project Implementation with a London-based digital software agency, she was responsible for the delivery of web-based brand management solutions to major clients and instrumental in setting and delivering strategic direction for client services and the product road map.
Pernille holds an MA in comparative literature and a PgCert in Information Management.
She has been working as a volunteer with Save a Child since 2019, assisting with project development.
Heather James
Chair
Heather has a successful background working with national and international companies, public institutions, voluntary and community groups. She has proven expertise and extensive experience of initiating and developing projects and has been recognised for her ability to build community cohesion and secure sustained benefits at both local and national level.
Heather was at the forefront of establishing Save a Child as a registered charity and has been pivotal in developing the organisation’s work. She currently works as an advisor to several charities including Hove Civic Society and Brighton Fringe, which under her leadership as Chair of the Board of Directors and Trustees for more than a decade, grew to become England’s largest arts festival.
Previous roles include Vice Chair of of the Disabled Person’s Transport Advisory Committee, which offers independent advice to the government on transport accessibility policy; Communications Director, where her work on community engagement was recognised as best practice at government level. She was also an elected Councillor for Brighton & Hove City Council where she led on environment, planning and housing.
Sarah K Griffin
Trustee
Sarah is a former partner of Milbank LLP where she specialised in domestic and cross-border debt transactions as part of the Global Leveraged Finance Group. Her work focused on representing major banks and other financial institutions, including Barclays Bank, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs in connection with corporate and acquisition financings.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor from Columbia University and a Masters of Laws in International Law from the London School of Economics.
Sarah has been at the heart of the Save a Child initiative since 2017.
Laura Webster
Trustee
Laura is an Investment Analyst at Coltrane Asset Management based in New York City. Prior to joining Coltrane, Laura worked at Deloitte, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
In 2003, she graduated from Cambridge University, where she received an MA in Economics and a MSc in Economics and Econometrics from Manchester University (2005).
Laura has supported Sally's efforts to help children in areas of conflict since 2017.
Graham de Smidt
Administration
Graham spent his early years in Lebanon and then South Africa, the country of his birth. He became an exile in 1977 and subsequently entered the to UK as a refugee. He has worked with homeless young people in London as a photographer and as a further education teacher and teacher trainer. Since his retirement he has volunteered with a number of organisations supporting people with disabilities in the UK and in China. Graham was a volunteer with Road to Peace prior to joining Save a Child.