CATALYST TEAM MEMBER
Maria Adebisi
Maria holds responsibility, along with the Programmes & Partnership Director, for the delivery of Catalyst’s projects relevant to our Programmes & Partnerships initiatives.
The Programme initiatives are aligned to the Black Thrive Programme which aims to articulate the changes in systems conditions that will enable the black community to thrive.
Position: Programmes & Partnership Consultant
Contact Maria
Email:
maria.adebisi@catalyst4change.org.uk
Telephone: to be confirmed or 0844 884 3318 (leave a message)
Maria's Background
Maria is a programme and partnerships manager, with a background in community
engagement and operations management.
Maria has a proven track record of stakeholder management and utilising data insights to understand
service user behaviour. She has worked in world leading tech startups and non-profits for several years
where she was responsible for managing community operations teams and resolving complex issues
related to user safety and risk. Maria acted as a global escalation point, aligning with various stakeholders
from councils to local enforcement teams.
Throughout her career, Maria has always prioritised a person-centred, community approach.
During her work at Beam as a Community Operations Manager, she supported service users experiencing homelessness, refugees and domestic violence survivors who were predominately from African-Caribbean communities. Outside this work, Maria is a proud blood donor and writes novels for young people that spread awareness about sickle cell anaemia using Nigerian mythology. Her debut novel Koku Akanbi and The Heart
of Midnight was published in August 2023.
Maria is also currently a PhD doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham.
Her project traces the journey of Yoruba Adirẹ textiles from their early display at the University of Ibadan
in Nigeria to their current place in the University of Birmingham’s African collection and examines their
relevance for Black communities living in Birmingham today.
Community programmes involvement
At Creative Module for Thinking Black Maria develops content for Creative Modules aimed at gifted and underprivileged Black Sixth Form students
Supports Cianna’s Smile (sickle cell charity), and partnered with Coram Beanstalk - the UK’s
largest children’s reading charity
Engagement in an interdisciplinary PhD project using diaspora and decolonial theory to provide
in-depth critical assessment of African art objects from the University of Birmingham
Involvement in equitable co-collaboration models that position Black leaders in the community to make significant contribution to debates on the colonial legacy of museum collections
As a children’s author Maria is passionate about decolonising the curriculum, offering inspirational talks to UK schools covering topics of Sickle Cell awareness, African History and others
