Secretariat
The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance maintains a core team of staff that supports the network and coordinates projects focused on social service workforce strengthening. The Alliance also frequently works with and hires external consultants.
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Alliance Secretariat
Hugh Salmon
Director
Hugh is a qualified social worker. He has served as the Director of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance since 2022. At the start of his career, he worked in direct social work practice with children and families in the United Kingdom and since 2000 he has worked internationally in a variety of roles, as a trainer, consultant and program director. He was a member of the leadership team that established Family for Every Child as a global alliance, committed to reforming and improving children’s care worldwide. Hugh has also worked as a consultant on a range of regional and national initiatives to map, assess, develop and strengthen the social service workforce, focusing on its role in child protection and social protection in particular, but also in health, education and justice systems. He has master’s degrees in social work from Goldsmiths, University of London, and in civil society management from London South Bank University. He is currently based in London, UK.
Alena Sherman
Communications and Advocacy Manager
Alena has nine years of experience designing and implementing strategic communications to disseminate knowledge and showcase learning from a variety of initiatives focused on international development and humanitarian assistance. Specifically, she has focused on strategic communications within the areas of global health; water, sanitation and hygiene; and education in emergencies. Alena also has five years of experience working as an English Language Acquisition and Work Readiness Instructor for resettled refugees and immigrants in Colorado, USA. She is responsible for supporting the Alliance in developing and deploying strategies to communicate with Alliance members and external audiences and engage them in efforts to jointly build knowledge and advocate for the social service workforce. Alena holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado and a master’s degree in international human rights, with a focus on humanitarian assistance, from the University of Denver. She resides in Colorado, USA.
Dr. Natia Partskhaladze
Senior Technical Advisor
Natia has 20 years of experience in the field of child and social protection systems, alternative care and social service workforce strengthening, both at the policy and programming level. She is a founder of the Georgian Association of Social Workers and one of the establishers of social work academic education in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, teaching social work at the graduate and undergraduate programs. Currently, she is a Chairperson of the Georgian State Council on Social Work Academic Education. Natia has worked for UNICEF Georgia and UNICEF Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia in Geneva for almost 10 years and has contributed to reforming child care and strengthening the social work profession in Georgia and other countries of the region. She earned social work, medical and policy graduate degrees from leading universities in the USA, Georgia and Hungary and has a doctoral degree in social work.
