At Black Students Talk we....
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Co-design, develop, and facilitate peer wellbeing support groups, workshops, and psychoeducation resources for Black students.
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Co-design, develop, and deliver wellbeing workshops and psychoeducation resources for Black staff; parents, carers, guardians, and friends of Black students; and non-Black students and staff
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Provide training opportunities for Black students to be able to facilitate peer wellbeing support groups in their institution.
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Conduct co-design workshops with and for Black students to continuously provide quality services.
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Carry out routine evaluations of BST services to improve design and delivery.
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Organise and run public and stakeholder engagement events on Black student mental health wellbeing.
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Conduct and disseminate research activities on Black student wellbeing.
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Consult on matters of Black student mental health & wellbeing, Equality Diversity & Inclusion.
OUR TEAM
Meet the Black People Talk team
Yannick Yalipende
Founding Director
Yannick is currently training as a Clinical Associate Psychologist within the NHS, and also completing an MSc in Applied Neuropsychology from University of Bristol. He holds a BSc (Hons) Experimental Psychology from University of Bristol. Yannick has over 9 years of experience working in clinical and community mental health and wellbeing services. Yannick’s lived experience with mental ill-health during his undergraduate degree sparked his passion and interest in researching and working towards reducing mental health inequality; and improving mental health services marginalised communities.
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Nkasi Stoll
Co-Founder and Black Students Talk Director
Nkasi is doing a PhD in Psychology at King’s College London titled: “Mental Health and Wellbeing of Black University Students in the UK” which is funded by ESRC LISS-DTP and supported by Student Minds. She holds a MSc in Mental Health Studies from King’s College London and a BSc (Hons) Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience from University of Nottingham. Nkasi has over 10 years of clinical and research experience working in mental health and wellbeing services. Nkasi’s passion for research, and setting up and improving services for students comes from her own struggles with depression, anxiety, and Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder whilst studying at university. Upon completion of her PhD, Nkasi hopes to work in university student services to improve wellbeing services for under-represented and marginalised students. Nkasi is Jamaican and Guyanese, and born and raised in London.
Abiy Babatunde
Black Students Talk Project Manager
Abiy is a mental health advocate and multidisciplinary creative. She holds an MSc in Affective Disorders from King’s College London and a BSc (Hons) Psychology from De Montfort University. Abiy has over 6 years of experience working in youth and community services, forensic mental health, and clinical services. Abiy’s experience supporting those who have lived experiences of both physical illness and mental disorders, has spurred her interest in research and making others aware of the realities of living with a mental disorder. Abiy believes that everyone has a right to feel at home within themselves, and this belief has carried forward in her working towards uplifting voices of those within marginalised communities through research, and self-expression through the arts.
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Hayat Hussein
Black Students Talk Psychologist
Hayat is completing a Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology. She is working as a Counselling Psychologist within the NHS. Hayat has experience in working within complex trauma, primary care and community mental health services. Her doctoral research explores different cultural meanings of distress and different barriers to accessing mental health care. This research has pursued her passion in considering how social, cultural and political contexts can influence individuals and how clinicians need to be more culturally competent, flexible and understanding towards this.
OUR TEAM
Meet the Black Students Talk Facilitators
Dionne Laporte
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Dionne is working towards a PhD in Psychological Medicine. She holds an MSc in Clinical Forensic Psychology from King’s College London and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Kent. She has over 10 years working in the mental health and research sectors. She is keen to pursue her interest in understanding the manifestation of health inequalities in marginalised communities and interventions that would improve the quality of life for these communities. Following her PhD, she hopes to pursue a career in both mental health research and psychological interventions.
Shyaam Bundy
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Shyaam is a writer, podcaster and Psychology graduate from Nottingham Trent University; now working as a Mental Health & Therapeutic Playworker in CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services). He is also the Co-Founder of Young Black Psych, A social enterprise company specialising in spreading awareness and providing useful, easy-to-use resources for children and young people’s mental health within the BME community.
In his NHS role, he offers individual and group low-intensity psycho-therapeutic work with children and adolescents who are experiencing both common and more complex mental health difficulties. Before this, he trained as a Therapeutic Play Worker at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education in London. He also has experience working in a play-based therapeutic manner with early years and secondary aged children.
Jhanelle White
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Jhanelle is studying for her Doctorate in Chemistry at King’s College London. Outside of her studies, one of her key interests is widening participation in HE of groups traditionally alienated from education and ensuring adequate support systems are in place when there.
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She is the current president of KCL Black in STEM, a representative on the faculty Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and a Peer Support Facilitator at Black Student’s Talk.
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Upon the completion of her studies, she is interested in pursuing a career in science communication, with the aim to make science more accessible to those outside of academia.
Jodian Dunkley
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Jodian is a final-year BSc Psychology student and part-time Black Students Talk Peer Support Facilitator at King’s College London. She is currently undertaking an undergraduate research dissertation focusing on the influence of ethnic identity, minority stress and imposter syndrome on the mental wellbeing of UK students. Her experience as an IAPT Honorary Assistant Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner has allowed her to further campaign for equal access to mental health care support within the NHS by contributing to numerous outreach projects.
Jodian is strong advocate for psychoeducation within the black community, and her active role as a Widening Participation Ambassador at King’s College London has helped her to tackle racial inequalities in educational achievement, and removing the stigma around mental health amongst high school students. Her research interests include race and ethnopsychology, and the integration of cultural idioms of distress into mental health care. She hopes to pursue a career in health psychology and psychotherapy in order to help to reduce stigma and improve black representation within mental health care.
Chinelo Nnadi
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Having completed 3 years of her medical degree at King’s College London, Chinelo is carrying out a research year in Regenerative Medicine and Innovation Technology before returning for her final 2 years of clinical medicine. She plans to use this year to deepen her understanding of biomaterials for medical devices and clinical entrepreneurship in relation to healthcare social enterprises. Chinelo is particularly interested in a social model of healthcare and works at her local community centre, coordinating with the StockWellBeing Primary Care Network to increase vaccine uptake among the African, Caribbean and Portuguese communities on her estate. She works part-time as a Peer Support Facilitator at Black Students Talk and is the events officer for the King’s College London Medical Ethics Society. Outside of student groups, Chinelo is part of a developing project aiming to increase access to excess skin removal surgery for bariatric patients, as well as a small research group reviewing the effect of capsaicin on Alzheimer’s Disease. A young leader building experience in collaborative event planning and community-led initiatives, Chinelo hopes to champion holistic models of healthcare, widening her skill-set beyond the realms of her medical degree.
Sapphire Francis
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Sapphire is a 2nd year BSc Psychology student at King’s College University. She works part time as a Peer Support Facilitator at Black student’s Talk and an Inclusive Education Student Partner at the King’s College London’s Student Union. Playing an active role in creating an anti-racist culture within her university, she is passionate about racial equality and mental health, and seeks to help promote diversity and inclusion. Her identity as a young black woman has motivated her interests to instigate change in society, leading her take on several other roles including Mental Health Officer at KCL’s African and Caribbean Society, and a Student Wellbeing Officer with the Black Excellence Network. She hopes to pursue a career in Clinical psychology, to provide representation in the sector and help challenge inequalities within health care.
Idriss Kamtcheu
Black Students Talk Facilitator
A Psychology Master's student at London Metropolitan University. Idriss works as a private tutor, a Training facilitator for The Prosperity Project, an anti-racism training company, and is Director of Event and Logistics at the BIPP Network, an organisation dedicated to advance the interests of BME individuals within the field of psychiatry and psychology. Through his community work, from volunteering at an asylum seeker and refugee’s rights charity as a teenager to working as a mental healthcare assistant in a psychiatric hospital, Idriss has shown a passion for the mental wellbeing of people from marginalised backgrounds. With a particular emphasis on how people from the Black community experience and are impacted by racism, Idriss is keen to encourage difficult conversations revolving around race while ensuring the safe space needed for these conversations to take place. Having joined the organisation #WOKEWeekly as a mental health coordinator, facilitating debates and conversation about mental health in the Black community, Idriss has continued to expand his knowledge and understanding of the complexity of Black mental health in relation to racism. Currently receiving counselling as well as being part of a focus group of Black men looking to help improve mental health provisions, Idriss is familiar with establishing and facilitating safe spaces for people of African descent to freely express their often misunderstood and dismissed reality.
Elijah Giraudel
Black Students Talk Facilitator
Elijah is currently working full-time as a Learning Assistant for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at the Motor Vehicle and Engineering Department at City of Bristol College. He is a member of the newly founded Equity Team which has been created to improve the quality of diversity and inclusion at the college.
He holds a Bachelors of Arts Joint Honours Degree in Theology and Sociology from the University of Bristol. He was a facilitator for Black People Talk at the University of Bristol, playing an active role in advocating safe spaces for students who self-identify as Black.
In September, he will be studying the Postgraduate Diploma in Law at BPP University, with the hope of becoming a criminal law solicitor in the future.