TEAM | Your MEP

Trustees/Directors

Bob Anderson

Founder & Executive Director

Jo Burton

Chairwoman

Chris Crick

Trustee

Graham McNeil

Company Secretary

Wai Mar

MEPI

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.

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.

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.

Chris, an MPhil in Linguistics with a PGCE in English/TEFL, has been an Assistant Head Teacher, an LEA Consultant and Head of English, as well as Head of an ESL Department in a large, multi-ethnic inner-city school. He was also an English Lecturer at an FE College and has been a primary school governor.

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.

Managers/Officers

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.

Katharine May

Project 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.

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.

Nyi Zaw

Project Co-ordinator

Hi! My name is Nyi Zaw, also known as Sayar Nyi Zaw, and 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 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.

Our Current Team of Teachers and 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.

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.

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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.

Teams, over the years...