Our team

Andrew Copeland

Andrew joined the Centre in 2019 and provides comprehensive administrative support for both programme delivery and research. He has worked in the university sector since 2003.

Dr Alice Pettigrew

Alice Pettigrew is a social scientist and senior research associate who leads the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education’s research team. She was one of the principal authors for both of the Centre’s national studies, Teaching About the Holocaust in England’s Secondary Schools (2009) and What…

Dr Andy Pearce

Andy Pearce is Director of the Centre with overall responsibility for the Centre's strategic direction and its core business. He also contributes to the delivery of the Centre's national programme of professional development, and its empirical research studies. He is one of the lead authors…

Corey Soper

Corey James Soper is Lead of the Centre’s Beacon School Programme (hyperlink?), overseeing our sustained programme of continuous professional development with schools. Corey also teaches across the Centre’s programmes and has developed a number of online courses and resources for the Centre. Corey has a…

Dr Eleni Karayianni

Eleni joined the Centre in 2015 and currently works as a Senior Research Fellow. She is involved in the Centre’s research and evaluation activities. This includes the evaluation of our ITE and continuous professional development courses and our Beacon school programme, as well as large-scale…

Dr Emma Aoife O'Brien

Emma is an Associate Professor (Teaching) and has over 18 years of specialising in Holocaust education. Over the years she has spoken at teacher seminars and conferences in England, the Netherlands, Hungary, Croatia and Greece. Before specialising in Holocaust education, Emma was Head of History…

Helen McCord

Helen teaches across the Centre’s professional development programmes. She leads our successful ITE programme and she is a mentor for our Beacon School programme.   Helen has worked in education for over 20 year, joining the Centre in September 2019. Prior to this she had been a…

Kiera Fitzgerald

Kiera Fitzgerald is a Lecturer (Teaching) in Holocaust Education and a member of the Centre’s Kindertransport project team. Her work currently focuses on developing classroom resources, pedagogical approaches, and an online CPD course which will provide a foundational understanding of the history of the Kindertransport.…

Louise Palmer

Louise provides managerial support to ensure that the Centre's work streams are planned coordinated and delivered. She has overall responsibility for programme and project management, marketing and communications, and business affairs. Additionally, she oversees the Operations team which organises the Centre’s professional development programmes, research,…

Dr Luisa Nienhaus

Luke Sarsons

Luke joined the teaching team at the Centre in August 2024, having previously spent 11 years in the teaching profession. Before joining the Centre, Luke held roles including Head of History and Head of Year at a range of schools, both Independent and State-maintained, and…

Nicola Wetherall, MBE

Nicola is an Associate Professor (Teaching) at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, where she leads the Centre’s Quality Mark programme and works closely with Beacon and Alumni Schools to strengthen whole‑school approaches to Holocaust education. She supports national partnerships and sector engagement, working with…

Dr Tom Haward

Tom's primary interest is in how students learn about the past through visual sources. He has conducted research in this field and his most recent work, due to be published in 2026 by UCL Press, is a collaborative book 'Teaching with Art in History and…

Dr Rebecca Hale

Becky is currently the Centre's Head of Education and Research. In this role she contributes to the Centre's leadership, strategic planning and pedagogical vision, and continues to lead the Centre’s research agenda. Becky started her career as a secondary school teacher. The insights she gained…

Andy Lawrence

Andy works part time at the Centre, combining his role there with teaching History four days a week at Hampton School in southwest London.  He supporting our teaching programmes on a interim basis.

Ruth-Anne Lenga, OBE

Ruth-Anne Lenga is Associate Professor (Teaching) at UCL’s Centre for Holocaust Education. A leading figure at the Centre since its establishment in 2008 she created its Master’s degree module offer. Ruth- Anne has over twenty- five years’ experience training teachers, serving as a Lecturer at…

Shazia Syed

Shazia Syed, part of the administration team, is a key point of contact with teachers and oversees the logistics of the full range of professional development programmes and special events. In addition she provides financial administrative assistance and supports the MA module The Holocaust in…

Professor Stuart Foster

In his role as Executive Director, Stuart Foster provided strategic leadership for the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education from its inception in 2008 to the spring of 2025. During this period almost 40,000 secondary school teachers directly benefited from its internationally acclaimed programme of teacher…