Staff
Tina Bajec, CEO
Tina joined Interburns as a trustee in 2019 and became CEO in early 2022. A daughter of health professionals, she spent most of her childhood travelling between countries impacted by conflict, which contributed to her keen interest in humanitarian work. An MA in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS reinforced this interest. Tina is a fundraiser by heart but loves leading teams and developing organisations. She has worked for agencies including UNICEF, the British Heart Foundation and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).
Lucy Kynge
Head of Communications
Lucy has a background in international development and lived in Asia - Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and China - for nearly 20 years, developing and managing programmes for the European Commission and the UN Development Programme. Since returning to the UK in 2008 she has focussed on programme management and developing digital tools to increase access for healthcare workers in low resource settings. She works across all Interburns programmes.
Nikki Allorto
Surgical Lead
Nikki qualified as a general surgeon with critical care training and runs a burn service in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She is involved in all aspects of burn care from research and teaching, resource management, surgery, outreach and telemedicine. Nikki has developed multiple databases and apps for burns and has a passion for getting the basics right and being practical in the development of a service. Nikki has participated as faculty in a number of Interburns trainings including ABC (Surgery) Ethiopia in 2020 and the UAE 2024 and has contributed to the development of programmes.
Dominique Potokar
Nursing Lead
Dominique is a specialist burn nurse and has worked in Europe and many low resource settings for Interburns and Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF). Dominique has led the development and delivery of Advance Burn Care (Nursing) in Bangladesh, Ghana, Nepal and Ethiopia and regularly contributes to training programmes as lead nurse, most recently for the Essential Burn Care (EBC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. She was lead supervisor for a nurse mentorship programme for quality improvement through sustainable projects by nurses, physiotherapists and dieticians in 2021.
Alberta Rockson
Rehabilitation Lead
Alberta recently completed a PDH. She also has a BSc in Physiotherapy, an MSc in Disability, Rehabilitation and Development with 14 years of clinical practice. She was Head of the Physiotherapy Department, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana (2014-2015) and is Team Lead and Clinical Instructor at the Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre where she is Deputy Chief Physiotherapist. Alberta is Chairperson of the National Council and General Secretary of World Physiotherapy Africa Region (2020-2024). She has participated as a key member of faculty in programmes in Asia and Africa and supported victims and healthcare staff following the mass fire disaster in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Andy Ferguson
Programme Development Lead
Andy has a background in family medicine, public health and tropical medicine. Having worked in the Middle East and the Balkans, he spent 17 years as a health advisor to NGOs working in Asia and the Middle East alongside clinical commitments as a GP and trainer in the UK. Andy worked as Director of Programmes for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) until 2022, leading the strategic development of health programmes in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. He is CEO for the Foundation for Family Medicine in Palestine (FFMP) and is Co-chair of the charity, IDEALS, supporting projects in the Balkans, Middle East and south-east Asia.
Rojina Shilpakar
S.E. Asia Regional Clinical Lead
Rojina is a general surgeon and Deputy Medical Director of Sushma Koirala Memorial Hospital (SKMH), Kathmandu, Nepal. She has worked in burns for 11 years in hospital and through surgical camps in rural areas. She was a participant in EBC ToT and ABC (Surgery) in Nepal in 2018. and faculty in EBC Tanzania in 2022 and ABC(Surgery) UAE in 2024. She is involved in preparing guidelines and training of health professionals at peripheral health care facilities of Nepal supported by National Health Training Centre.
Amy Hughes MBE
Research Lead
Amy is a Clinical Academic Lecturer in Emergency Response at the University of Manchester. She is developing the UK International Emergency Trauma and Medical Registers and completing a PhD on the role of foreign medical teams in sudden onset disasters. Her particular interest lies in improving the training and knowledge for health care professionals wishing to work in complex humanitarian environments. For Interburns, Amy led the consortium to develop EU Burn Assessment Teams (BAT).
Andy Roberts
Operations Manager
Andy joined Interburns in March 2018 from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he was Project Coordinator on a Commonwealth-wide eye health project. Prior to that, Andy worked in international development in Angola and Botswana. Andy is responsible for all aspects of finance and manages complex logistical arrangements especially surrounding the delivery of Interburns face to face training programmes.
Anil Dhital
Regional Operations Manager, S.E. Asia
Anil has an MA in Sustainable Development and has worked in international development since 2011. He is responsible for project management and regularly trains others, advocating for local participation and decision-making to encourage sustainability. Anil is involved in burn prevention work with various stakeholders and plays a key role in supporting the dissemination of Interburns approach across the region. He is based in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Maria Holden
Quality Improvement Scheme for Nurses
Maria is a children's nurse with a background in emergency nursing. She is currently Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham, School of Health Sciences. Maria completed her PhD ‘An exploration of factors associated with paediatric burn injuries in rural and peri-urban Malawi’, in 2018 and has since been involved in research to understand the uptake of alternative cooking technology in Tanzania and Malawi. She has worked with Interburns since 2018 to help design, deliver and evaluate the Implementation and Improvement Science course for nurses in resource poor areas. She has led the Quality Improvement (QI) scheme for nurses since 2023.