Our Team
TortureID is a small, clinically led medical human rights charity. Our team brings together expertise in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, asylum and human rights law, research, evaluation, fundraising, organisational development and refugee health.
Our clinicians, report writers and trainers
Our clinical team includes GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists with expertise in refugee health, trauma, human rights abuses, medico-legal reporting, training and clinical assessment.
Dr Jo Miller
CLINICAL LEAD
Dr Jo Miller is a General Practitioner (GP) who has worked at a specialist GP practice for refugees and people seeking asylum since 2004. She has developed systems within general practice to screen patients for evidence of human rights abuses. These focussed assessments are the basis for referrals for treatment and an early intervention on documentation of medical evidence of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Jo was employed for 10 years as the lead clinician at the medico-legal report writing service based at the North-West Centre of Freedom from Torture, leaving in 2017. Â Her role included expert-witness report writing and the training and mentoring of other clinicians in the service. Her work as Clinical Lead at TortureID involves piloting new ways of gaining access to people who may have experienced human rights abuses. Development work includes the use of focussed tools, templated materials and short format reports.
Kirsten Lamb
CLINICIAN
Kirsten Lamb qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1981 and worked as a consultant clinical psychologist and manager in an NHS secondary care psychological therapy service from 2001 until 2016. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. From 2003, she also volunteered and/or worked at the North West Centre of Freedom from Torture as a therapist and medico-legal report writer. She co-edited the book Groupwork with Refugees and Survivors of Human Rights Abuses.
Dr Jonathan Mitchell
CLINICIAN
Dr Jonathan Mitchell is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council to practice in the UK as both a forensic psychologist and clinical psychologist. He has worked as a psychologist for over 20 years in young offender institutes, medium secure units, inpatient rehabilitation services and community psychology services. He has taught at the Universities of Huddersfield and Leeds. He sat on the NICE Guidance Committee for complex mental health rehabilitation, and has a particular interest in trauma. He has written medico-legal reports on overseas nationals for Freedom from Torture and TortureID for many years.
Dr Sawsan Saeid
DEPUTY CLINICAL LEAD
Dr Sawsan Saeid is a General Practitioner (GP) with a special interest in health equity and the care of marginalised communities. She completed GP training in the Pennine scheme (Yorkshire & the Humber) with additional Health Equity Focused Training (HEFT), which provided enhanced expertise in working with socio-economically deprived populations and inclusion health groups. Alongside her GP role, Dr Saeid is the Deputy Clinical Lead at TortureID, where she is involved in specialist health assessments and trauma screening reports for people seeking asylum, with a focus on documenting experiences of torture and human rights abuses. Her role also includes leading on training and supporting service development within the organisation.
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Email: sawsan@tortureid.org
Dr Amber French
CLINICIAN
Dr Amber French is a Core Psychiatry Trainee (CT2) in Greater Manchester with a strong interest in global mental health, humanitarian medicine, and human rights. She previously volunteered as a First Responder for the Salvation Army within the National Referral Mechanism, conducting trauma-informed assessments for victims of human trafficking and modern slavery in both custody and community settings. Amber has also undertaken humanitarian clinical work with No Border Medics in Calais and Dunkirk, focusing on refugee and asylum seeker health. She holds a degree in International Health and has published research on stigma and access to mental health care in Nepal, reflecting her commitment to health equity for vulnerable populations.
Dr Rukyya Hassan
CLINICIAN
Dr Rukyya Hassan is a Consultant General Adult Psychiatrist working in the North West region. She has an interest in the mental health of minoritised and marginalised groups, and has experience of working with refugees and people seeking asylum in a range of primary and secondary care and custodial settings. She is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Working Group on Mental Health and Forced Migration. She has been writing medico-legal reports for Freedom from Torture and TortureID for several years.
Dr Alison Summers
CLINICIAN
Dr Alison Summers is a general psychiatrist and psychodynamic psychotherapist who has worked with people seeking asylum since 2008. Her various roles have included providing psychotherapy, writing medico-legal reports, coordinating a local refugee group, and working on service development and population health needs assessment. Alison was previously an NHS consultant, first in public health medicine and then in psychiatry. She has also volunteered with Freedom from Torture, chaired a national mental health charity (ISPS UK), co-edited an international mental health book series, and worked in leprosy control in Malawi. She has recently co-edited the book ‘Seeking Asylum and Mental Health.’
Dr Abi Whittles
CLINICIAN
Dr Abi Whittles is a salaried GP at Abercromby Family Practice, based in Central Liverpool. She has a specialist interest in women’s health and health equity for asylum seekers and refugees. She qualified in 2022 and currently leads a clinic for asylum seekers at her practice and started working for TortureID in August 2025.
Our Staff
TortureID’s staff support the organisation’s clinical, strategic, operational, fundraising, research, evaluation and partnership work.
Kate Rosin
Ellie Smith
Director
Quality and Evaluation Lead
Kate Rosin brings rich international experience in the foundation and non-profit sectors, with expertise in strategy development, program design and management, communications, and partnership development. She has initiated and led projects advancing the rights and inclusion of vulnerable and marginalised populations – including asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants – securing funding and building collaborations to scale their impact. Before joining TortureID, Kate spent a decade at the Open Society Foundations, where she managed initiatives at the intersection of displacement, social inclusion, and public attitudes. She combines broad international expertise with direct support to marginalised communities through volunteer work.
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Email:Â kate@tortureid.org
Ellie Smith is Quality and Evaluation Lead for TortureID. She is a lawyer and researcher who has worked in the field of gross human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian and international criminal law for 25 years, with a focus on survivor experiences of violations, justice processes and clinical/forensic evidence. She was Senior Research and Information Officer at the Immigration Advisory Service (2000 – 2002), Human Rights Research Officer with Freedom from Torture (2002 – 2010) and most recently Senior Research Fellow on the Mass Grave Protection, Investigation and Engagement project, Bournemouth University (until November 2025). She holds a PhD in international law, psychology and victimology.
Our Board
Our Board provides governance, oversight and strategic direction. Trustees bring experience across clinical practice, law, research, safeguarding, refugee and asylum work, and fundraising.
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We share a common belief in human rights, and the inherent dignity and worth of each individual human being. We regard torture and other forms of severe ill-treatment as violations of fundamental human rights.
Jude Boyles
Trustee
Jude Boyles is a BACP Senior Accredited psychological therapist, having qualified in June 1994. In 2003, Jude established the first Freedom from Torture (FFT) rehabilitation centre outside of FFT’s headquarters in London. She managed the service for 14 years until April 2017. In 2017, Jude established and now manages a psychological therapy service for UN resettled refugees for the Refugee Council in South Yorkshire. Jude co-founded TortureID in 2018.
Dr Petra Mäkelä
Trustee
Dr Petra Mäkelä has a clinical background as a rehabilitation physician. Working as an academic in the North East, she has particular interests in how health and care services can better work with survivors of human rights abuses. She is committed to applied research that bridges the gap between evidence, policy and practice, and to participatory approaches that actively involve people with lived experience in shaping research that affects their lives. Petra works clinically with the NGO Medical Justice and is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatry Working Group for Mental Health and Forced Migration.
Dr Peggy Mulongo
TRUSTEE
Dr Peggy Mulongo is an active member of HARM (Honour Abuse Research Matrix) network (school of psychology), a lecturer in mental health nursing and practice, and the equality, diversity and inclusivity lead in the school of nursing at the University of Central Lancashire. She is also a cross cultural mental health practitioner with 17 years’ experience of working with people from diverse ethnic populations in the North West of England. She developed the health & wellbeing programme at NESTAC, a refugee community organisation based in Greater Manchester. Peggy is an expert in delivering cross cultural psychosocial therapy to refugees and people seeking asylum from diverse ethnic backgrounds. She has a special interest in supporting women and young girls who experience mental distress related to violence against women and girls and modern slavery, such as that associated with female genital mutilation and domestic servitude.
Dr Alison Summers
Trustee
Dr Alison Summers is a general psychiatrist and psychodynamic psychotherapist who has worked with people seeking asylum since 2008. Her various roles have included providing psychotherapy, writing medico-legal reports, coordinating a local refugee group, and working on service development and population health needs assessment. Alison was previously an NHS consultant, first in public health medicine and then in psychiatry. She has also volunteered with Freedom from Torture, chaired a national mental health charity (ISPS UK), co-edited an international mental health book series, and worked in leprosy control in Malawi. She has recently co-edited the book ‘Seeking Asylum and Mental Health.’
Hermione McEwen
Trustee
Hermione McEwen is a Tribunal Judge. Before she became a full-time Judge, she practised as a Solicitor in immigration, asylum, human rights and equality law. She was the Senior Solicitor at the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU) from 2004 to 2013; a Legal Officer in the medico-legal report writing team at Freedom from Torture North West from 2014-2017; and a Principal Lawyer in the strategic litigation team at the Equality and Human Rights Commission 2019-2022.
Alice Nicolay
Trustee
Alice Nicolay has a background in community development, fundraising, campaigning, and organisational development, having worked and volunteered with a number of different organisations within the charity sector since 2002. This has included ten years working with refugees and asylum seekers in organisations including Freedom from Torture, and as a trustee for the Survivors of Torture Relief Fund and Growing Together Levenshulme.