PSEI – Pakistan Special Education Initative
Advisory Council
Sadaf Mateen – CEO, The Circle: Caring for Children
The CEO & Chief Speech-Language Pathologist at The Circle: Caring for Children. TC is a therapy centre providing treatment to children with autism, speech-language and learning disorders. It also provides counselling, psychological assessment and teachers’ training programs. Sadaf has 25 years of experience and she talked about her own struggle with SEND which brought her into this field. Sadaf highlighted that this is one of the main reasons why a lot of professionals entered into SEND due to their own personal experiences of having a loved one needing special attention and care.
Aaron Awasen – Director, Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) Development, Deaf Reach School
An accomplished professional with over 17 years of experience in education, advocacy and accessibility for Pakistan’s Deaf community. He has been instrumental in creating the first ever Pakistan Sign Language. Deaf Reach now has 8 campuses across Pakistan especially covering some major rural centers of Pakistan.
Nazia Hozaifa – Head of Physical Therapy and Sports Department
A Master Trainer for MAITS, which provides training courses to train key workers to deal with children with special needs.
Ayesha Mian – CEO, Synapse
A US-trained, adult and child and adolescent psychiatrist with extensive experience in teaching, capacity building, and program development in the areas of leadership, mental health, medical education, cultural intelligence, and gender.
Dr Nazish Imran – Associate Professor, King Edward Medical University
Professor and Head of Child & Family Psychiatry at King Edward Medical University, Lahore, with oversight of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services at Connections. A Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK), she holds a PhD in Psychiatry focused on school mental health and a Master’s in Health Professions Education. Trained in the UK, she played a pivotal role in establishing Pakistan’s first dedicated child psychiatry inpatient unit. Her research and clinical interests include school mental health, autism spectrum disorder, and emotional disorders in children and adolescents. She serves on the World Psychiatric Association Presidential Working Group on Medical Students and directs Pakistan’s first interactive online course in child mental health.
Aysha Jamall – Co Founder & Chief Care Officer at Center of Inclusive Care
Aysha S. Jamall brings 15+ years of experience in inclusive education, psychotherapy, and remedial therapy. She is UK-certified in integrative counselling and supervision, and a pioneer of Special Needs Departments in mainstream schools. Aysha leads multidisciplinary initiatives that promote systemic inclusion and collaborative community support, driven by her belief in unlocking human potential through social-model approaches.
