Ursula Elisara is a co-founder and CEO of Immerse Charitable Trust, a foster care and trauma-training agency established to help create a transformed and transformational culture of foster care across Aotearoa. Ursula is an experienced entrepreneur with many years’ experience within the space of foster care and adoption in New Zealand and abroad. With a qualification in delivering trauma- informed interventions, and a passion to see the outcomes of children in foster care equalise alongside their more advantaged peers, Ursula is on a mission to empower others.

As a survivor of her own complex developmental trauma, a wife and mother of four children (including disability and adoption), Ursula believes that ‘children who come from hard places’ require adults who understand their histories if they are going to be able to help them heal and thrive.

Ursula brings formal training, business experience, personal insight, and empathy to her work. Under her dynamic leadership, Immerse has experienced exponential growth year on year and continues to pivot to meet the changing needs of the care and protection system.