about

With over 20+ years’ experience in education, community engagement and the non-profit sector, Mariama is an effective and empathic leader, with a deep commitment to human flourishing. She is an accomplished board member and has been Chair of two charities in recent years.

She has led an educational charity in London and worked as a Head of Careers, Teacher of Spanish, Teaching Fellow, and Community Engagement Officer in the past. A Fulbright Scholar, Mariama celebrates diversity and loves working with different heritages and empowering communities to access opportunities and resources.

State-school educated and the first in her family to go to university, Mariama graduated in modern languages from the University of St Andrews and completed her Masters and PhD at the University of Cambridge (Peterhouse). She has a second Masters in Careers Careers Education and Coaching from the University of Derby. Not one to ever tire of reading and learning, she is currently a doctoral researcher in Women’s Football at Loughborough University.

An ordained priest in the Church of England, Mariama trained at Ripon College Cuddesdon and served her curacy at St James’s Piccadilly, London. She continues to serve part-time as Associate Priest at St James’s Piccadilly alongside being Priest Vicar at Westminster Abbey, an appointment made in 2025. As part of her duties at Westminster Abbey, Mariama deputized for the Chaplain to the Speaker in the Houses of Parliament (2024-2025).

Outside of the Church, Mariama’s most recent executive role was at the Football Association as the Safeguarding and Welfare Oversight Lead for the England Women’s Teams (The Lionesses). She is the Chair of the Greater Manchester Women’s Football Board and is also proud to serve as a volunteer Chaplain to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal’s Volunteer Corps).

She has a penchant for crisps and Chelsea buns.

Born in London and brought up in Brent and Lagos, Nigeria, Mariama has been trying to see and meet the world ever since. Mariama is a Mental Health First Aider and understands the importance of an integrated sense of wellbeing and wholeness, and how this underpins both individual and corporate thriving.