September 28, 2020

The BEARR Trustees are delighted to welcome our new Information Officer, Louisa Long, who took up her post in September.  She comes to BEARR with an impressive range of skills and experience and we look forward to working with her in the challenging times ahead.

Louisa Long

Louisa studied Russian alongside French at Cambridge University as an undergraduate and spent her Year Abroad in Moscow. Here, she studied at Moscow State University while volunteering at the Civic Assistance Committee, teaching English as a Foreign Language to migrants.

After graduating, Louisa took a law conversion course and worked as a solicitor for three years before leaving to complete a Master’s in International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University. She has remained interested in the EECA region throughout, revisiting Russia and spending time in Kiev, Ukraine and travelling around Georgia. She hopes to do the Trans-Siberian as soon as possible.  

Louisa has a longstanding commitment to supporting vulnerable groups and has volunteered as an advocate at Hackney Migrant Centre and at the South London Refugee Association, as well as setting up a volunteer-run project for migrants at her old law firm. Alongside working at BEARR, she currently tutors Russian and French part-time and continues to volunteer with the Women’s and Youth Groups at the South London Refugee Association.

At the same time the Trustees want to thank Sophie Vandyck for all she has done for BEARR in her time as Information Officer.  Sophie helped to set up BEARR’s new website, and she has been a delightful, energetic and enterprising colleague. We wish her all the very best as she moves on to the next stage of her career in international development.