Meet the Team

mdeducational foundation team works passionately to promote, develop and support holistic wellbeing initiatives to better support students across the UK and Ireland

Leah Iles, Chief Executive Officer

“I think back to when I was in sixth form and there was no such thing as mental health. Even though we’ve come a long way since then, and mental health is much more openly discussed now, there’s still a real gap in mental health provision for young people.

I’m passionate about the fact the foundation is supporting more than just mental health. In fact, we’re really supporting the overall wellbeing of 16-18-year-olds to prevent them from getting to the point of leaving school and feeling like they haven’t achieved what they (or someone else) wanted them to. I’m passionate about offering young people the guidance to make the right choices about their future.

I really admire the work the team has done to date to get our first wellbeing professionals into schools. My vision is now to see this flourish and to be able to support more schools as quickly as possible. In an ideal world, I’d love to have a Wellbeing Lead support every school and every pupil.

To do this, we need to break down the barriers between schools and us, and see how we can help smooth the process, whether that’s through helping with recruitment, resourcing or whatever else they might need. We want to make this support as much of a no-brainer option for schools as possible”.

Hear from Leah: One year towards a brighter future – Leah Iles, CEO at mdeducational foundation