Rockford Manor

Presentation School
“Inspiring Minds” Careers Conference

March 8th 2018

(International Women’s Day)

“A Christian environment where teaching and learning nurture

the personal development of every student”
Welcome to Rockford Manor School’s “Inspiring Minds” Careers Night. It is the
first time in many years that this event has taken place and we are delighted that
so many people have agreed to take part.

It is often difficult for students to decide what they would like to do after
school. Young people today are more likely to change careers a number of times
throughout their working lives than ever before. With this in mind, we believe it
is very important to expose students to a wide variety of career options as early as
possible in Secondary school.

The many professionals representing a diverse range of careers this evening

provide an excellent opportunity for students to learn about different careers and
the pathways they may take to pursue them.

I would particularly like to thank all of the professionals who have taken the
time to join us this evening. Students are encouraged to take advantage of this
fantastic opportunity to ask questions, explore their options and reflect on the
many possibilities open to them.

Finally, best wishes for an entertaining, informative and inspiring evening and
many thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of this event.

Liz Caffrey
Room 2 - The Future of Work
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Lil Hennigan

Peter Cosgrove

The future of work – “the key skills students need to develop in the future”.

Peter Cosgrove holds a BComm and a MBS from UCD. He is a director with CPL, the
largest recruitment and outsourcing consultancy in Ireland and founder of the Future of
Work Institute. He is a regular contributor to the national media on areas of skills, talent,
diversity, and the future of work. Peter is on the steering committee of the 30% club which
promotes gender diversity and on the board of the mental health charity Aware. He is also
the current chairman of Blackrock Athletic Club.

3
 Room 3 - Medical and health Care
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Collette O Boyle

Mr Edward Dervan: MB BCh BAO, MSc, MD, MRCophth,

FRCSI (Ophth), Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Mater
Misericordiae University Hospital, Bons Secours Hospital,
Dublin and Mater Private Hospital, Dublin. His subspecialty
interests are glaucoma and cataract surgery. He qualified
as a doctor from University College Dublin in 1998. He
completed his ophthalmic surgical training in Ireland and
was awarded fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland (Ophthalmology) in 2013. He also completed an
advanced surgical fellowship in Perth,Australia specialising
Mr Edward Dervan in anterior segment disease, focusing primarily on glaucoma
and complex cataract surgery. He previously worked as a
Consultant Ophthalmologist in Perth before accepting a position as Consultant Ophthalmologist
specialising in glaucoma at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in 2015. His research
interests include understanding the basic science of glaucoma, improving the clinical outcomes
and the provision of services to patients with glaucoma. He was awarded a research medical
doctorate from University College Dublin for his research on pseudoexfoliation glaucoma.

Dr. Julie Broderick is a physiotherapist and lecturer in

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She worked for a number
of years as a physiotherapist before moving to the university
setting. Her research and clinical interests are in the areas
of cardio-respiratory, oncology and mental health. She is
supervising a number of projects which study the effect of
exercise in people with chronic (long-term diseases) and
how technology can help to encourage people with chronic
disease to be more physically active.
Dr. Julie Broderick

Ailbhe recently graduated from Medicine in NUI Galway in

2017. She started her intern year in Cappagh hospital and
completed her rotation in Orthopaedics. Ailbhe has since
moved to Beaumount hospital where she has completed her
surgical rotation in urology. She is currently on her third
rotation in Beaumount Hospital working in the acute stroke
ward in which she helps treat stroke patients in hospital as
well as liaising with the other healthcare professionals in the
after care of patients once discharged.
Ailbhe Raftery

4
Room 4 - Living Environment Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Kathy Behan

Edward qualified from UCD in 1997 in Veterinary Medicine.

He holds a Masters in European Food and Regulatory
Affairs and obtained the General Practitioner Certificate in
Small Animal Surgery in 2009. His interests are mainly in
the area of soft tissue surgery and is particularly skilled in
the field of orthopaedic surgery and fracture repair. Edward
lives in Meath with his family.

Edward Gillic

Conor Studied Science at NUI Galway and graduated in

2014 with a degree in Zoology. Since then he has been
working in the Aquaculture (Fish Farming) industry and
is currently working as hatchery manager for Keywater
Fisheries in Co. Sligo where they breed and grow Perch for
the Swiss market. Conor is currently undertaking a Masters
degree in Civil Engineering through NUI Galway where
he is studying the efficiencies of fish farms. In September
this year he will also start a Masters in Business and
Conor Behan Biotechnology in UCD and he hopes to move his career
into the Biotechnology industry.
Gavin Fleet is third generation member of An Garda
Siochana. His Father and both grandfathers were members
of the force as well. From an early age he had a good idea
someday he might join An Garda Siochana. After finishing
his leaving cert in 1998 Gavin went on to Study Mechanical
Engineering In Institute of Technology in Tallaght. After
finishing with his studies there he applied for An Garda
Siochana. He was successful with his interview and entered
the gates of Templemore in 2003. In April 2004 Garda
Gavin Fleet Fleet was attested and got his first posting as a Garda in
Dun Laoghaire. While stationed there Garda Fleet has
completeted many courses within An Garda Siochana to
progress his career like car&van course, probationer trainer, interviewing skills, survival
course, public order training, mountain bike course and many more.
Garda Fleet is now stationed in Cabinteely Garda Station where he is involved with
Community Policing a role he is really relishing and enjoying.

5
Biography of Participants Room 6 - Arts and Creative
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Tony Collison

David Caffrey began his film & tv career with various production roles on
b-movies with Roger Corman. Short films, CONNIVERS, BANTAMS & BOLT
caught the eye of the industry, resulting in a move to the feature film arena with
DIVORCING JACK for Scala Productions then onto the 18th Century Mini-series
ARISTOCRATS for BBC/WGBH. ON THE NOSE, a comedy feature for Subotica/
Universal & GRAND THEFT PARSONS for Swipe Films/Lionsgate followed. Since
then work has alternated between commercials and television drama; the latter
including series one of LINE OF DUTY for BBC/World productions, 5 Seasons of
LOVE/HATE for RTE/Octagon & LUCKY MAN for SKY/Carnival. More recently
he completed the full first season of PRIME SUSPECT 1973 for ITV/NOHO & the
David Caffrey
latest series of PEAKY BLINDERS for BBC/Tiger Aspect/CM Production.

In 1999 Larry Founded ShinAwiL Productions Ltd. Larry has Executive Produced
the Irish versions of series’, The Apprentice that won 2 IFTA’s, Dragons’ Den, Master
Chef Ireland, The Voice of Ireland & most recently the hugely successful Dancing
with The Stars. Other recent productions include Home of the Year, What are
you Eating? Now the ShinAwiL focus is on International Drama. Larry has sat on
many boards including: Screen Producers Ireland, Screen Training Ireland, Board
of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, currently sits on the Irish Film Board &
Entertainment Masterclass. He has also sat on a jury for the International Emmys, Rose
d’Or, BANFF & Real Screen Television Awards. Larry has guest lectured at DIT Dublin,
Larry Bass IADT Dublin, MipTV & MIPCOM, SPAA Australia & Entertainment Masterclass.
In his spare time Larry is Chairman of National League Soccer club Cabinteely FC.

Karla Zambra graduated from DIT with a first class honours degree
in Media Arts with French. She specialised in radio in her final year
and her radio documentary “A Little Grey Matter” won Newstalk’s
Emerging Voices competition. Karla started her career at City
Channel where she was part of the IFTA nominated news team and
also produced and presented a weekly movie review show. Since
then she has worked on a wide variety of programmes for RTÉ and
TV3. She is currently an assistant producer on Ireland’s Got Talent.
Karla Zambra

Eimear is a full time actor, voiceover artist and facilitator. She holds a
BA in Theology and Sociology from Maynooth University. She spent
time as a primary school teacher after graduating, but returned to
education to train as an actor in 2006 at The Gaiety School of Acting.
March 2018 see’s the nationwide release of Damo & Ivor The Movie in
which Eimear Plays Tracey Rooney. Her voice can be heard regularly on
TV and Radio and she has a CV that spans stage and screen. When she
is not performing Eimear enjoys teaching acting to young people, is a
Eimear Morrissey founding member of D15 Youth Theatre and has worked extensively in
the field of Theatre in Education.

6
Room 8 - Science and Engineering
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Mella Brophy

Jane holds a PhD in biology, in which she studied how breast

cancer cells respond to drug treatments. After completing
this degree at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, she
carried out further cancer research in a lab in Vancouver,
Canada. Jane then returned to Ireland to work in science
communication and education of people young and old, at
Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork. She now works with
school teachers to enhance their professional development
in technology at Trinity College Dublin.
Jane O’Hara

Grace runs the CodePlus programme in Trinity College

Dublin which is an ongoing research project seeking to
explore the reasons for female under representation in
Computer Science at University level. CodePlus works
with girls schools to teach students and teachers coding,
computational thinking and to provide opportunities for
girls to explore careers in CS. Grace holds a B.Ed having
worked as a primary school teacher before studying
Computer Science and Education at Trinity College Dublin
Grace Lawlor (M.Sc) and is currently studying for a Ph.D in the School of
Computer Science and Statistics.

Lisa took her first flying lesson at the age of 13, and took
inspiration from this to set about planning a career in
aviation. She graduated from DCU with an honours degree
in Applied Physics and gained employment as a flight
dispatcher in Dublin Airport. With lengthy costs involved
to fund flying lessons, Lisa set up a cupcake business,
where she baked and sold over 10,000 cupcakes to fund her
private pilot’s license. Having completed the first part of her
training, she was selected as 1 of 12 out of 3000 candidates
Lisa Cusack as a cadet pilot, by Aer Lingus. She is now a qualified pilot,
flying the Airbus 320 daily across Europe. The start of the
summer sees her moving on to the much larger Airbus 330
and flying to America. Lisa’s next ambition is to achieve her
ultimate dream of becoming a Captain for Aer Lingus.

7
 Room 9 - Business and Languages
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Liz de Patoul

Francisco holds a Bachelor Degree in Business

Administration. He started his career in the Marketing
department of France Telecom in Spain, before the www
existed. Since then his career has been linked to the IT
Industry in Spain with different management positions.
Two years ago, he moved to Dublin with his family to lead
a sales team in LinkedIn that helps companies to sell more
efficiently by using better the digital channels.

Francisco De Sebastian

Teodora Stoyanova is the Relationship Manager at LinkedIn

and has been working within the company for 3 years. As
a Relationship Manager she works with Spanish companies
helping them to optimize their recruitment and employer
branding strategy. Before LinkedIn, she worked at Google
for one year as a Business development specialist.

Teodora Stoyanova

Dr Derval Conroy is an Associate Professor of French in UCD.

She holds a first-class honours BA in English and French from
Trinity, a Masters in French from the Sorbonne Nouvelle and
a PhD from Trinity where she taught first before moving to
UCD. She has published widely on seventeenth-century French
literature and history of ideas, and has a particular interest in
the history of equality. She is deeply committed both to the
role of the Arts and Humanities in developing critical thinking
skills and to the specific importance of languages in opening up
new horizons. She is former director of the BA International
Dr Derval Conroy
Modern Languages programme in UCD and the director of the
new English, European and World Literatures degree, which will welcome its first cohort in
September 2018.

8
Room 10 - Society and Government- Education
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Elisabeth Sinnott

Since graduating in 1991 with a diploma in Child Care most of my

professional work has been with young children and their families.
I have been involved in Early Childhood Education and Care for
the last decade and my ultimate aim as a lecturer is to help students
develop into self-regulating, reflective practitioners. I have an interest
in experiential and self-directed learning, so supporting how students
learn on placement is one of my passions, so much so I am doing a
PhD about how placement learning happens.
Lillian Lancaster

Susan holds a First Class MSC in Primary Education, in which she

researched how Irish teachers are prepared to deal with Critical
Incidents in schools. Prior to this, she completed a Bachelor
degree in International French and Modern Irish in UCD. She
spent a year working as an English Language Assistant in a
Primary School in Bordeaux in order to gain valuable teaching
experience before beginning the Masters programme. She now
works as a learning support teacher for early intervention with
Susan Bracken Junior Infants in a Primary School in Terrenure.

Lesley Naughton is a final year B.Ed student in DCU institute of

Education. She has worked in the food industry for the last three
years and as a carer for the elderly. She also qualified as a zumba
instructor in her first year of college. Nearly ready to step in to
the working world, she hopes to give you all any information you
might seek and to answer your questions.

Lesley Naughton

Paula gained her childcare qualifications in 1997-1998 with the

School of Practical Childcare. From then until 2014 she mainly
worked in customer Service, administrative and executive roles and
managed a busy Career Development Unit. She re-joined the Early
Years sector in 2014, as a preschool teacher. In 2017 she graduated
from University Limerick after studying the Leadership for Inclusion
in the Early Years (LINC) higher education programme and is now
the Inclusion Co-ordinator for her setting, whereby she supports
Paula Myler any child with an additional need in the Early Childhood Care and
Education Programme (ECCE).

9
 Room 13 - Science and Engineering
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Kate O Toole

Fabian is Lecturer in Transfusion Science in Dublin Institute of

Technology and Member of the Transfusion Transplantation
Advisory Board of the Academy of Clinical Science and Laboratory
Medicine(ACSLM). He studied in DIT receiving his BSc from
Trinity College Dublin in 1992 and his MSc, with distinction,
from TCD in 2000. Fabian worked as Medical Scientist for 17
years in several locations in Dublin, including the Irish Blood
Trans Service and the Mater hospital before becoming a Senior
Medical Scientist in 1998 in Tallaght Hospital. In 2001, he moved
to the Netherlands where he worked in research in the department
Fabian McGrath of immunopathology at Sanquin Blood Centre in Amsterdam.
While there, he published several scientific papers on the immune
system protein Complement C1q. Since 2007, Fabian has been lecturing to undergraduate and post
graduate students in DIT and is the Chair of the MSc in Clinical Laboratory Science.

Fiona studied Physics, Biology, Home Economics, and French in

secondary school. She then went on to study science in Trinity. In third
year Fiona decided to specialise in Immunology. This is the study of the
immune system and examines ways in which diseases can overcome
the immune system and ways in which our body tries to defend against
disease at a cellular level. During her time in Trinity Fiona completed
two summer internships in laboratories in other universities, one in
UCD and one in UCC. After graduating in 2014 Fiona decided to
continue in research and decided to do a Ph.D. in Epidemiology. This is
the study of population health and how certain factors can affect health
Fiona O’Sullivan outcomes in the population. Fiona’s research was based on vitamin D
and UVB & the risk and survival of oesophageal and gastric cancer.
This research involved examining vitamin D levels in a large population of Irish adults & using data from
European Space Agency (ESA) satellites to measure UVB levels over Ireland.

Joseph recently started working in an engineering firm in

South Dublin. Joseph worked as a volunteer civil engineer
and has completed 2 years working with the Alan Kerns
project in Zambia in which he managed the development
of water treatment centres and the construction of
residential areas for orphans. Joseph has volunteered in
civil engineering projects in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and
Guatemala. Joseph completed his civil engineer degree in
DIT after completing a diploma in engineering in GMIT
Joseph Mclean in Galway.

10
Room 14 - Society and Government Journalism Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Laura White

Niamh was awarded with an honours degree (2.1) in a Bachelor of

Arts -Journalism, where she studied an array of subjects including
online, print & broadcast media, as well as writing a thesis
examining how the public interpret images of female athletes output
by the media. After completing this degree at Dublin Institute of
technology, she worked in many areas in the field & was hired by
DIT & Campus.ie as editor running a newspaper for over 13,000
students across Dublin & a website with over 100,000 views per day.
Niamh gained incredible experience on a six-week internship with
RTE Radio (News at one) and now works as a freelance graphic
Niamh Haskins designer and writer with both VIP Magazine and the Gazette
Group, along with running Campus.ie.

John Fogarty (38) has been the Gaelic Games Correspondent

of the Irish Examiner since 2010. Prior to that, he was a
sports reporter and chief sports sub-editor with the Irish
Mail on Sunday/Ireland on Sunday where he worked
for 12 years. John studied English and Sociology in NUI
Maynooth, editing the college newspaper in his final
year there. He was awarded the McNamee National GAA
Journalism award in 2006. He lives in Firhouse, Dublin.

John Fogarty

Adrian Eames hails from Sligo and has vast experience working
in radio as a presenter, commentator and producer. Now with
RTE, he has previously worked for Mid-West Radio, North West
Radio (now Ocean FM) and FM 104. Joining RTE in 1998, he
has presented all of the flagship sports programmes on RTE
Radio, including Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport, Sport at 7,
Drivetime Sport and Game On. He works both in radio and
television. Adrian has been Head of the RTE Radio Team for
three Olympic and Paralympic Games (Beijing, London and Rio
De Janeiro). Having commentated on the World Cup in South
Adrian Eames Africa (2010) and Rio (2014) for RTE Television, he will take on
that role for the third time this summer, when he travels to the
World Cup in Russia as television commentator for RTE. Adrian has won many awards for
his work, including the ESB Media Award for Best Sports Programme, PPI Gold Radio Award for
RTE’s radio coverage of the Beijing Olympics, Best Producer/Presenter of the Paralympic Games
and has twice won the FAI Communication Award for Feature/Broadcast of the Year.

11
 Room 15 - Business and Languages
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Aine Mclean

Des is the Chief Financial Officer at a financial services group

in Dublin. Des is responsible for the day to day running of
the finance department, which includes financial reporting,
planning and record-keeping, managing the financial risks
and the IT function of the Group. Des studied at NUI Galway
where he completed a BA in Legal Science and Economics
and continued his studies in DCU where he completed
a professional diploma in accountancy. Des joined the
accountancy and advisory firm Deloitte in 2007 where he
Des Mclean qualified as a chartered accountant and has since held a
number of positions ranging from finance to operational risk.

Mark holds an MSc in Strategic Procurement and is

the Procurement Manager with Bord Bia - The Irish
Food Board. Mark is a procurement, supply chain and
management professional with more than 30 years
experience. This experience was gained working for national
and international, private and public organisations in
manufacturing, telecommunications and the health and food
sectors. Mark was also a Judge for the National Procurement
Awards in 2012 and 2013. Marks role helps organisations
Mark Kedney to increase value, reduce costs, perform process analysis
and implement improvements, manage projects, prepare,
analyse and award tenders, and negotiate contracts.

Ciara studied Computing in IT Tallaght and then Computer

Applications in DCU. She worked in Amazon during
college as a Systems Engineer Intern for 6 months. She
joined Workday as a Graduate Software Engineer in 2016 as
part of their Technology Rotation Program. Workday is an
American cloud enterprise software company with its EU
headquarters in Dublin. Ciara is now finished the graduate
program and working as part of the Statistics Warehouse
team which deals with processing and storing petabytes of
Ciara Mc Auley data.

12
Room 16 - Medical and health Care
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Miriam Howlin

Moya Doyle is a Senior Occupational Therapist (OT) working for the HSE
in Primary Care in Dublin South City. She worked for 22 years in Canada
and has extensive experience working with clients with neurological
conditions and traumatic brain injury. Since returning to Ireland in 2014
she joined the primary care OT service and her area of clinical interest is
in Dementia. Moya completed a Dementia Champion course with DCU
in 2016 and is a Dementia Awareness Facilitator through DemPath (St.
James’s Hospital). Together with her colleague, Katie Barry, Senior OT,
Moya Doyle she developed a Community OT Clinical Care Pathway for clients with
Dementia which is being shared nationally.
Alison Gandola holds a BSc in Midwifery from University
College Dublin. She is Registered Midwife working in the Labour
Ward in the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street. After
completing her Leaving Certificate in Rockford Manor Alison
worked in retail, as a Youth Worker, Childcare assistant and as
a Special Needs Assistant. Inspired by working with and caring
for people Alison studied Nursing Studies in Dun Laoghaire
Further Education Institute where her results ensued a place for
Alison Gandola her in UCD, where she graduated with first class honors in 2017.

Helen Tuffy studied intellectual disability nursing in St Joseph’s Hospital

Clonsilla where she qualified in 1996. She started work as a staff nurse in
Carmona services Glenageary (St John of God). After a years’ experience
under her belt she moved to New York to work as a medical counsellor
& health care specialist for 2 years for the largest learning disability
agency in NY state. Children’s nursing followed with a postgraduate
diploma from UCD in 2003 and a nursing career in Temple St Children’s
University Hospital since. She completed her BsC in Nursing leadership
Helen Tuffy and management in 2004. With posts in surgical nursing and education,
Helen is now the Cleft Clinical Services Coordinator at the hospital.
Roisin completed her nurse training in the University of Central
England (UCE) now known as Birmingham City University
(BCU). She has 15 years’ experience in nursing and has worked
in a variety of nursing fields in England and Ireland.
Roisin has worked as a fertility nurse specialist for the last 5 years,
she works as part of a multidisciplinary team to help people fulfil
their dream of having a family.
Roisin Baggott

13
 Room 30 - Science and Engineering- ICT
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Mr Jason Burns

Phoebe Collison is a Trinity College scholarship graduate

with a B.A. in Business, Economic and Social Studies
and M.Sc. in International Management. She also holds a
Diploma in International Business Development from the
Irish Management Institute and is a published author from
her research into the role of Chinese foreign direct investment
in Ireland. She has held a number of Commercial, Product
and User Experience roles within the mobile technology
industry in both the UK and Ireland and is currently working
Phoebe Collison as a Digital Insights Analyst at Travelport Digital, an app
development company for travel brands, based in Dublin.

Natasha has always had a huge interest in Computer Science

since her early years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business
Computing. She studied many different programming languages
including Java, JavaScript and Ruby. Today she is an iOS Developer
switching between Objective-C and Swift depending on what
projects she is working on. Natasha is currently contracting in
a company called CarTrawler (recently voted the 16th best place
to work in in Ireland) working on an SDK for car rental during
booking. She previously worked on the easyJet application in a
Natasha Cole company called Travelport Digital since 2014 and has had many
other projects throughout her career.

After completing my Leaving Certificate in Rockford Manor

through the LCA programme, I Moved to Northen Ireland to do a
two year gap programming doing youth and children’s work. After
that I moved back to Dublin to study in The Liberties College for two
years. Year one was Care of the Child with Special Needs – Special
Needs Assistant and year two I studied Networking Technician.
After the first year of college I set up a youth group for children
with special needs called EXPECTANT and it is still going today.
Now I am I’m currently in my second year in Dublin Institute of
Technology studying to get a Bachelor of Science in Information
Carissa Smith Technology and Information Systems. Where I won the award
for “EIR Disability Champion 2017” and I am now a Technology
Mentor. I run workshops and create learning materials such as tutorial videos, infographics and
instructional documents over the academic year to promote innovative and exciting tools among
the 1,400 students registered with the Disability Support Service in DIT.

14
Room 31 - Society & Government Education & Global Dev.
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Breda Smith

Ciara qualified with a Masters in Dramatherapy from NUI

Maynooth. She is now employed by the School Completion
Programme in Finglas to work with young people who are
at risk of leaving school early. Ciara, a qualified mindfulness
facilitator teaches teachers a mindfulness for teens programme
in the schools that she works in. Ciara has worked for the Gaiety
School of Acting on their Outreach Programmes where she has
provided workshops on communication skills and confidence
building and on their “Breathe” programme, a positive mental
Ciara Cassoni health workshop for secondary school students and their
teachers and parents. Ciara also teaches for the Academy of
Dramatic Arts in Meath and teaches Mindfulness privately.
Ciara has also had her own plays performed in Cork, Meath and at The New Theatre in Dublin.

Nichola holds a BA hons degree in Training & Education

coupled with a dip in nutritional coaching. After completing
this degree within NUI Galway, she became the Head Of
Training and Education for Irelands largest pharmacy group.
Here she introduced the Training department and developed
their curriculum for 1000 staff members. Through her career
within the pharmacy sector and her passion for health and
nutrition she gained a dip in Nutritional Coaching here she
designed and developed the Change your health direction
Nichola Flood programme for Lloyds Pharmacy. After 17 years within the
Training Education field she decided to turn her passion into
her career and is now the owner of The Queen Of Health.

Maria McLaughlin has been working as Manager of programmes

Maria Mc Loughlin
in international development with Plan International since
March 2017. She has been working in technical advice, research
and programme management in long term development
work in Africa and Asia for almost 15 years. She specialises in
youth and women’s economic empowerment and enterprise
development. Before moving to West Africa in 2006, Maria
managed youth projects in Ireland and London, and was a
strategy advisor to local government and public services in
London. Maria has a BA (hons) in Peace and Conflict Studies
from University of Ulster, and a Masters in Development and
Anthropology from London School of Economics.

15
 Room 32 - Society and Government-Fitness and Leisure
Biography of Participants
Assigned Teacher Chairperson - Ms Sandra Joyce

Grace completed a one-year course in Hairdressing and Beauty

therapy in Blackrock College of Further Education with State
exams in Hairdressing and in Beauty Therapy. Grace continued
her apprenticeship with Peter Mark which followed on into
management, during her time in Peter Mark she was a member
of the Irish Hairdressing team and competed in national
and international competitions. Grace was also an in-salon
trainer from the time she qualified with the company. Grace
has an ITEC diploma in Holistic massage therapy, Anatomy
Grace Lawlor and physiology and Indian head massage. Grace has been in
Sallynoggin College of Further Education since 2002 & has
taught Hairdressing QQI level 5, Junior & Senior Trade Hairdressing, Communications, Team
Leadership level 6, Health Promotion Level 6. Grace is a past student of Rockford Manor.

Lisa has a Distinction Bachelor of Arts degree in leisure

management and soon to have a Bachelor of Science (Hons)
degree in Leisure Management through Dublin Institute of
Technology. She currently works for DLR Leisure and holds
various Internationally recognised fitness qualifications,
from swim teaching to gym instruction and various group
exercise qualifications. Lisa has experienced all elements
of life after secondary school, failed attempt at 3rd level
education, working full time, PLC courses and now back to
Lisa Donnelly third level while maintaining a full-time job.

Paul is currently working as a leisure supervisor and sports

officer for dlr leisure monkstown. Paul has been working in
the industry for 16 years and has a wide range of qualifications
including diplomas in gym instruction personal trainer and
sports massage. As part of his job Paul works closely with
local communities, youth groups and schools in developing
programmes. Paul also has a wealth of experience working
with league of Ireland clubs at youth level such as Bray
Wanderers and Bohemians as a strength and conditioning
Paul Murphy coach and sports therapist.

16