Who is Lisa Aïssaoui?
"Il faut toujours s'endurcir sans jamais se départir de sa tendressse."
Lisa Aïssaoui is a French-Algerian creative polymath. Photographer by passion & at the beginning of the profession she has been doing an internship at 50Golborne Art Gallery in London. As Public Relation Manager at Open The Gate, cultural organisation aiming at promoting African cultures through music & arts, she has been highly active within the African communities in London.
She graduated in 2016 with a BA in Social Anthropology & African Studies at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) and has previous undertaken a foundation course in World Art History & Issues in Development Studies. Enrolled for a MSc in Global Mental Health at LSHTM & KCL (IoPPN) in 2017-2018, she was also part of Friends of MSF committee as Co-Event Organiser and Student Liaison Officer for the Centre for Global Mental Health.
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With her interest & expertise in a veriety of fields Lisa received two Make A Difference Award in 2014 for her ‘great leadership and initiative’. She has also been organising annual commemoration event combining talks, film, live music, spoken words, storytelling and visual arts, inviting artists from Africa or African artists residing in Europe to perform. She was the president of the SOAS Photography Society and organised workshops, exhibitions as well as competitions for students.
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Lisa worked in Social Media & Public Relations as a Freelancer & was teaching languages such as French & Hausa to individuals and groups. Between August 2013 to July 2019 she ran a MeetUp group for conversations in French called "Les Salons Francophones" with 967 members. In 2015, she founded AfroShoot, a platform for photographers from Africa & the Diaspora.
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Now focusing on the field of Global Mental Health, intervention and research, she has been working at the NHS and WHOCC for training and research in mental health in Lille to then move back to England as Ethnographic Researcher on a Global Epilepsy project with Oxford University.
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Due to past work and personal experiences, main interests in the field lie in emergency interventions, capacity building, digital tools and new technologies inclusion in mental health services and ensuring that all actors within the sector (from professionals, carers and, mental health service users) are heard and that a truthful collaboration can happen.
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More about my entrepreneurial path: read blog article