Trustees & Directors
Bob Anderson
Founder & Executive
Director
Bob, a graduate MA, is retired as a secondary Head of English. He is TEFL qualified and has worked abroad and at Durham University Language Centre. He has been a photo journalist and been involved with the Burmese Karen since 1996. He sits on the Karen Education Department Advisory Board, and was long listed for the Guardian International Development Achievement Award in 2013.
Graham McNeil
Company Secretary
Graham, now retired, is a graduate who taught primary, and secondary English, and was a county advisory teacher for ICT. He has a TEFL qualification and has taught abroad. He ended his career involved in, in-school, educational software staff training. He has been a director since the charity’s inception.
Jo Burton
Chairwoman
Jo has a background in social work, and in education and training. She has lived in Yorkshire for most of her life except for a period of working abroad in Pakistan. More recently she has been involved in local politics and was a local councillor in Yorkshire.
Hannah Morris
Trustee
Hannah, a BA (Hons) and Masters graduate in Education, has spent most of her career teaching English and has taught across South and Southeast Asia. She is passionate about making education accessible to all and decolonising the curriculum. Nowadays, she is living in Edinburgh and works as an English teacher for refugees and as a learning designer.
Chris Crick
Trustee
Chris has a background in education. He taught English and ran an ESOL department in a large multiethnic Community School in Coventry before becoming Head of English at a Gateshead Academy. He went on to be an LEA English consultant, then Head of English and Assistant Head at a Durham Technology College before ending his career as an English Literature lecturer at Sunderland College. He was also a school governor at his children’s primary school. He has BA (Hons), M.Phil and PGCE qualifications.
Rob Gordon
Trustee
Rob is a teacher by trade. He taught in Primary schools for 15 years and spent 7 years as Headteacher of a North Bristol Primary school. Following this he enjoyed 8 years as Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of the West of England embracing the role of Partnership Director in which he established and developed training models with local primary schools. In 2013 he took a position with the British Council to mentor teachers in rural northern Borneo, before teaming up with MEP in 2016 to work in Kachin State and on the Thai/Myanmar border.
Wai Mar Phyo
Programme Director
MEPI
Wai Mar is MEP's Burmese Advisor and project co-ordinator who leads the MEP teacher Training Programme inside Myanmar She has taken a lead in advising on current issues in Myanmar, researching and developing projects within Burma. Our Education Advisor has been with Mobile Education Partnerships for a number of years as a teacher trainer. She holds a BA and Masters in English from Yadanabon University, Mandalay; a CELTA qualification; a certificate in Critical Thinking Skills from the Thinking Class Foundation, Chaing Mai; and a Certificate in Classroom Management from Khon Khen University. She has also worked as a primary school teacher, research assistant and translator.
Mark Brown
Trustee
Mark was a teacher for 15+ years, first teaching at several universities in Australia, then for many years at a school he started in Lashio, Shan State, before moving down Yangon to collaborate with community based organisations and continue teaching. In 2021 he moved to the UK owing to the political situation in Myanmar.
Managers & Officers
Nyi Zaw
Project
Co-ordinator
Mae Sot
Hi! My name is Nyi Zaw, also known as Sayar Nyi Zaw, and I have lived in Mae Sot since 2012. I studied at the Australian Catholic University (ACU) in Mae Pa, Mae Sot, and began my career in education at the Children's Development Centre (CDC), where I taught Primary level English from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, I completed MEP’s Cambridge PET Course, and I joined MEP in July 2017 as part of the Safe Child Thailand (SCT) Project, serving as a teacher Trainer until 2019. Again, from 2022 to 2023, I worked as a Lead Trainer and Education Liaison Officer, supporting teachers and education initiatives across the community. Since April 2025, I have been serving as a Project Co-ordinator, continuing my dedication to improving education access and quality for migrant communities.
Els Robertson
Fundraising and Communications Officer
Els has worked in education for the last 19 years as a teacher, a teacher trainer and a teacher mentor. Els has worked in Rwanda training teachers in active methodology and resource development; in the UK in Primary schools, specialist units and special schools; in Malaysian Borneo as a teacher mentor for the British council; and in the Caribbean as an Early Intervention Teacher for children with learning needs and disabilities, supporting children and their families in the community. She recently worked for two years as English trainer and Project Manager on the Thai/Myanmar border, before returning to the UK and taking up the role of fundraising and communications officer with MEP in July 2024.
Katharine May Programme Manager
Mae Sot
Katharine, a BA graduate, began teaching English as a foreign language in 2004. She worked as a teacher and director of studies in Europe and the UK before joining the MEP teacher training team in 2009. After four years on the Thai/Myanmar border as a teacher trainer and team leader, she returned to the UK, where she continued her involvement with MEP as a trustee and advisor, before taking up the position of programme manager for Mae Sot in 2024.
Nu Ra
Finance
Manager
Nu Ra is from Lashio, Shan State, Myanmar. In 2021 she moved to the UK due to the political situation in Myanmar. She has worked in the financial field for 14 years as a bookkeeper and accountant at local and international NGOs. For example, she worked with Metta Development Foundation Myanmar, Lashio Branch, and Welthungerhilfe (WHH) in Lashio and Yangon.
Sarinthip Phitchayut
(Pi Bie)
Office Manager
Mae Sot
Pi Bie is the local Office Manager for MEP. She deals with local financial and administrative affairs, liaising closely with Nu Ra the UK Financial Manager and Katharine May the Mae Sot Programme Manager.
Teachers & Trainers
Archo is married and has two children. She has worked as a teacher and as a health educator and translator. She has lived in a Thai refugee camp where she worked as a teacher two years, a psychosocial worker four years, at a Legal assistance centre for one year, and as a midwife translator for one year. She stayed there for nearly nine years. Since 2016 she taught at CDC migrant learning Centre for six years. She has a Bachelor's degree in Law and an English TOEFL diploma. She joined MEP in 2022 and says, ‘Now I love to work with MEP because I still need to learn many things to support my communities’.
I am Chaung Wah ( Nan Aye Aye Maw) from Karen State in Myanmar. In 2012, I arrived in Mae Sot to continue my education due to the financial problems of my family. After I graduated from grade-12 in a migrant school, I attended teacher training for 6 months and went to practise in a migrant school for 6 months. Later, I found that my passion was teaching, then I decided to teach in migrant schools and I taught almost 4 years there before I got a job in MEP.
Naw Eh Wah Phaw is from Kayin State in Myanmar. She graduated with a B.Ed. (Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics) from the University for the Development of National Races of the Union in 2019. She worked in her native town until before the military coup. In 2022, she and her family arrived in Mae Sot because she couldn’t stay in her home due to the war. But she really loves students and is keen to teach, so she decided to work as a teacher at the migrant school and taught there for almost three years. While working there, she attended the teacher training programs of MEP and Cambridge. In 2024, she worked as a volunteer teacher trainer at MEP.
My name is Zwe, and my journey with the Mobile Education Partnerships (MEP) has been deeply rewarding. After receiving pedagogical training in 2013 and Cambridge B1 course in 2014 from the MEP myself, I now have the privilege of empowering other migrant teachers, specifically by preparing them for their Cambridge A2 and B1 level exams
Snow is from Mawlamyine. She graduated BA (English) from Mawlamyine University in 2018. And then she went to attend teacher training at Teacher Education College in Mawlamyine in 2019. She worked as a primary teacher in a government school for one year. Then she moved to Mae Sot in 2022 and taught the monks English as a part-time volunteer in the monastery. Lately she has worked with Mobile Education Partnerships, volunteering in a migrant school as a freelance teacher. She is really keen on teaching and helping the students in rural parts and also on the border where they need education.
Phyo Myat Mon (Louise) is from Mandalay. She has been working for children's education particularly in remote areas of Myanmar as an English teacher and Teacher Trainer since 2015. Besides, she worked as an Education Officer at 360ed (EduTech social enterprise) with the aim of developing English subject applications by working together with the Ministry of Education in Myanmar under the democratic government. As she is passionate about social justice in education and loves children, providing quality education is her intention.
Over the Years...
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