Our Team
Papaya have a dedicated team of presenters focused in Bristol, Bath, Hampshire, Southwest London, Surrey, Yorkshire and West Sussex.
PAPAYA BRISTOL
Dr Susie Davies
Susie Davies is a GP with a special interest in adolescent mental health. She is the founder of PAPAYA and is passionate about improving mental health outcomes for today's adolescents. She founded PAPAYA six years ago when she began recognizing the link between technology use and poor mental health in students. She is the author of the forthcoming book The Healthy Selfie: How to Like Yourself in the Digital Age.
Dr. Davies is available to give KS2 and KS3 workshops and parent talks, as well as for interviews and podcasts.
Shona Beats
As former COO of global meditation app Headspace, Shona is an expert in technology and wellbeing. Having spent over 15 years at the forefront of app development, she understands first-hand the effects of big tech on our health and happiness. Now a parent to two young children, Shona has swapped Silicon Valley for Somerset and works as a strategic advisor and Board member for multiple international health tech platforms.
Shona is passionate about helping families to thrive in today’s digital age; sharing fascinating insights into how big tech works, the risks associated with social media and smartphones, and tips on how to positively integrate technology into our daily lives. An inspiring and engaging speaker, Shona is available for parent talks, interviews and podcasts.
Laura Storey
Laura is a fully qualified teacher with 20 years of experience working in schools. She now works as a private tutor and workshop facilitator and is training to be a psychotherapist. She has a great interest in mental health and enjoys working with young people, empowering and equipping them to navigate the exciting and often daunting world they’re growing up in.
Laura is particularly pleased to be working with PAPAYA, encouraging young people to take ownership of their screen time in a non-judgmental way and, in doing so, take positive, achievable steps to support their own mental health. Laura is available for KS2 workshops in the Bristol area.
Sarah Reid
Sarah has 25 years of experience in education, specializing in teaching and mental health support for secondary and primary students. She has also been involved in voluntary roles with children and teenagers for many years. Her passions include outdoor activities and working with young people.
As both a professional and a mother of two teenage boys, she has seen the impact of technology on young people. While technology has its benefits it also poses challenges, particularly for young, developing minds. She believes in the importance of helping children navigate the pressures from global corporations and social media.
PAPAYA BATH
Nicola MacDonald
Nicola MacDonald is a mindfulness-based resilience coach and the author of Resilient Teen. She is the founder of Bath Mindfulness and runs resilience workshops and talks for primary and secondary schools, parents, and adults in the workplace.
She empowers people with tools for managing stress, anxiety, anger, and low self-esteem. Nicola is available for KS2 and KS3 student workshops and KS2 and KS3 parent talks in the Bath area.
PAPAYA HAMPSHIRE
Hannah Verney Lloyd
Hannah is a qualified teacher with over ten years of experience and, most recently, served as an Assistant Head Pastoral at a London prep school. She is passionate about mental health and wellbeing and cares deeply about empowering parents, children, and teenagers as they navigate managing their online lives to achieve the best possible mental health and happiness.
She joined PAPAYA through her voluntary work with Smartphone-Free Childhood, and after hearing a talk by Jonathan Haidt, she became more convinced than ever that the safest space for children is one where they are free to be themselves. Hannah is available for KS2 and KS3 workshops and parent talks from October.
Sam Duffin
Sam is a positive psychology practitioner, coach and forest bathing guide, who enjoys a portfolio career that supports her goal of helping people to feel better about themselves. To date she has taken roughly 1500 NHS staff forest bathing, coached NHS patients and students in a secondary school, designed workshops that she delivers in the corporate sector, and volunteered for two youth mental health charities.
As a parent of two adolescent boys and a younger daughter, Sam was relieved and excited by the surge of activity that ignited in early 2024 in response to the link between children’s mental health and screens. After attending a Papaya Parent talk, she knew she had to involved, and is now available for KS2 student and parent talks in the Guilford area.
SOUTHWEST LONDON AND SURREY
Jennifer Powers
Jennifer was dismayed to discover that nearly every child in her son's year had a smartphone by January of Year 6. In the time-honoured fashion of busy women everywhere, she determined to "do something about it." Jennifer joined the Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) where she is the leader for the SW London region and part of the SFC advocacy team.
Jennifer is a strategy and policy consultant with over 20 years of experience in energy, infrastructure, and technology. She was a Special Adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on energy, regulation, and business policy. Since leaving Downing Street, she has worked on creating the UK's green hydrogen economy and for National Grid ESO. Jennifer is available for KS2 parent talks.
Sammy Mackey
Sammy is a mother of two pre-teens and a dedicated educator with a passion for nurturing young minds. With a background in primary teaching and experience as a nursery school head teacher, she brings extensive knowledge in child development and emotional well-being.
Sammy recently joined the team after attending a PAPAYA parent talk at her children’s school. Impressed by the initiative’s impact and the positive changes that followed, she eagerly joined the team. She believes that sharing ways to navigate the challenges posed by technology with young people will profoundly impact the future of the next generation. Sammy is available for KS2 workshops.
PAPAYA YORKSHIRE
Sally Hall
Sally is a mother of five boys and brings a wealth of realism and compassion in her approach to supporting young people navigate a fast-paced world. Working in the Early Years sector and married to a Deputy Head of a Secondary School, Sally has witnessed first hand the noticeable shift from a play-based childhood to that of a phone-based one over the past decade, and the subsequent impact on mental health, academic achievement and social skills.
She is particularly passionate about empowering young people to make informed decisions in their daily lives as well as their future, and about bringing parents together to support them in their goals; a 'problem shared' philosophy! Sally is available to give KS2 workshops in the York area.
PAPAYA WEST SUSSEX
Kate Edgcumbe-Rendle
Kate is the founder of ID YOU and a presenter for the Rap Foundation. Her passion for educating students has led her to deliver talks in both the private and state sectors, as well as overseas.
Kate is a mother of three boys and recognizes the challenges faced by kids today. Her interest lies in equipping young people with the toolkit to tackle everyday life. The impact of technology has had a dramatic effect on young people, and Kate believes that through education, we can really start to see a change and help families make the right choices. Kate is a named speaker for the Smartphone-Free Childhood movement and has been delivering online parent talks in support of this movement.
Our CEO, Trustees and Volunteers
We are four parents who care deeply about the impact the use of technology is having on the mental health and wellbeing of children today.
Dr. Susie Davies
Susie is the CEO and founder of PAPAYA. She is a GP in Bristol with a special interest in adolescent mental health. She is married to Hugh, and they have three school-aged children (16, 14, and 12). As the founder of PAPAYA, she is passionate about improving mental health outcomes for adolescents today
“I decided to set up PAPAYA as I have seen a dramatic increase in the mental health problems in young adults over the past 6 years. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that these are the first generation of young people to grow up with smart phones and social media. I can’t help but project on ten years to when my children are in their early twenties and wonder if their generation are likely to have the same complexity of mental health problems unless something significant changes.”
Alice Bond
Alice is the pastor of Hope Chapel, Bristol and founder of Biblios. She has three adolescent children and understands the difficult journey of successfully navigating parenting in the digital age.
As a mother of a teenage daughter and two sons she is passionate about helping young people get a healthy balance with tech. She has been involved with PAPAYA since it’s launch in 2018 and is excited to be joining the trustee team in November 2023.
Joe Watson
Joe is the creative director of a company that creates media for international students. With a passion to see people equipped and set-up to succeed Joe has found a career that she hopes will have a profound impact on students as they transition to new countries.
Joe has also set up and co run a charity in Uganda, has run multiple fundraising events and is a keen advocate of introducing healthy habits to children around social media and screen time.
Jo Crow
Jo is a Professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Bristol. Having worked in higher education for almost twenty years, she has witnessed significant changes in the way students approach and experience university life. Particularly noticeable is the increasing pressure they feel, much of which seems to be linked to phone use and social media.
She has two children in secondary school and is constantly considering how best to help them make good use of the exciting digital tools available while also being very cautious of – and wanting to protect them from – spending too much time online. She has been a follower of PAPAYA since its inception and joined as a trustee in early 2024
John Beckwith
John is a business consultant, and father of two twenty-year-olds; the first generation to get smart phones. He has spent the past 30 years working with senior executives to build, develop and optimise their organisation’s delivery and operating capabilities. Having started his career creating and scaling SME businesses, he has more recently supported the safe delivery of £100m contracts for blue chip FTSE 100 organisations. Due to his broad technical background, he helps with a range of activities, from IT enablement to business strategy.
John has volunteered for PAPAYA since 2023, offering business advice, management strategy, and tech support.