NICIE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Principal of Enniskillen IPS
- Western Trust
Adele Kerr, Principal of Enniskillen IPS. Native of Belfast who graduated in 1989 from Stranmillis and after teaching in Whiteabbey PS for four years took up a Teaching Principal role in Belleek in 1993 on relocation to County Fermanagh due to getting married. Appointed to Enniskillen Integrated PS in 1999 to a school in temporary mobiles and single class entry, with an enrolment of 185. Enniskillen Integrated PS now has double year entry, a nursery unit and operates in a permanent building with ongoing works through Freshstart to double the current building in size. School population 436. DE asked Adele to contribute to the existing handbook for new buildings after the last build. Adele has been a member of APTIS since 1999 and was the GMI representative on the Joint Negotiating Council for one year. Served as a governor on Erne Integrated College for 21 years including holding the roles of Secretary and Chair of Governors.
Acting Principal for Clogher Integrated PS in its final year, whilst still Principal of Enniskillen, as the parents attempted to achieve GMI status from DE. Adele had the privilege to deliver a speech on her experience of integrated education at The House of Lords by invitation of the IEF. Has mentored new principals within the GMI sector and currently a mentor for newly appointed principals within the Western Area for EA for all sectors. Currently the Lead of the Fermanagh Early Years Cluster for DE. Adele served as an AA for ETi for three years and has presented for ETi at conferences and workshops including a video on EASGS TV on the use of data in primary schools and contributed a case study for ETi paper on Self-Evaluation to aid improvement. Created and organises annual joint staff professional development for the three primary schools in Enniskillen. Delivered staff training over two consecutive years for GMI schools. Adele has been a board member of The Western Area Charitable Trust for Integrated Education (WACTIE) since 1999 and holds the office of Company Secretary.
Ashleigh Moran is from Glenarm in the Glens of Antrim and qualified from St Mary's University College in 2011.
After working and travelling extensively abroad, she settled back home in Glenarm and began teaching in her own previous school, Seaview Primary School.
Ashleigh was one of the key members of staff involved in the successful transformation of Seaview to Integrated status which she credits as being one of the proudest moments in her career. She now sits as the teacher governor on the newly formed Board of Governors for Seaview Integrated Primary School as well as being Integration coordinator, ICT, Shared Education and World Around Us coordinator.
For the past number of years Ashleigh has been a facilitator for the EA Pathways Senior Leadership programme, delivered induction training in coordination with the EA, worked with NICIE on the projects and is currently an accredited forest school leader. Ashleigh is passionate about the environment and works hard on the Eco Schools programme and has co-authored an outdoor learning resource for teachers.
Job Titles:
- Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants
A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants trained in Belfast before moved to run his fathers practice for over 40 years before retiring in 2017. A keen golfer has been treasurer & Captain of 2 different golf clubs. He has been a board member of a number of Charities & was the Managing Trustee of a local Pension Scheme.
Job Titles:
- Representative
- Trustee
- Beltie Trust
Cathal Mullaghan is a Trustee representative. He has been actively involved in the Integrated Schools movement since 1985 and was a founder parent of Hazelwood IPS and Nursery. He is a director on the Belfast Charitable Trust for Integrated Education. When his children left Hazelwood IPS, he was invited to join Hazelwood College, where he is now a foundation governor. Now retired, Cathal worked for the NI Tourist Board, serving as head of research, and then head of marketing services. He has served as a councillor on Belfast City Council for 6 years until 2011, during which time he was a member of BELB. His other roles have included councillor non-executive director to the Public Health Agency Board, and councillor non-executive director to the Libraries NI Board.
Claire Loftus MCIPD MSc is an experienced HR professional with over 20 years experience working with both private and public sector. In 2017 she launched her consultancy, she and her team support a range of clients in Northern Ireland, the wider UK and also in Republic of Ireland not to mention further afield in Europe where they have been recognised by Enterprise Nation as one of the Top 50 Advisors in the area of HR and in 2022 was selected by Small Business Britain as one of the Small Biz 100.
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Member of the Sub Committee
- Principal
- Principal of Fort Hill Integrated College
Colin Millar is Principal of Fort Hill Integrated College, a controlled post-primary located in Lisburn. On completion of post-16 studies in Omagh and Belfast, he moved to England and worked in community projects before marrying and settling in Nottinghamshire. His studies in Applicable Maths with Religion: Culture and Belief led to a teaching qualification. Employment followed in two contrasting comprehensive schools led by Headteachers who had founding roles in the National College of School Leadership. He took up school leadership in North Belfast in 2011 before appointment as Principal in Fort Hill in October 2016. He has two children and coaches a learning disability rugby team.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of ARAC
- Portfolio of Non - Executive Director
Dr Anne Marie Telford has a significant portfolio of non-executive director experience. She served as Council member of Ulster University for seven years up to 2015 chairing its Strategy and Governance Committee. Anne Marie has just completed a five-year term chairing an all -Ireland body overseeing the performance of an Institute of Hospice & Palliative care. She is currently a member of a Departmental Project Board, reporting to the Health Minister, on regulation of the pharmacy profession in N Ireland. Other roles have included Council membership of the General Dental Council, the Pharmaceutical Society of N Ireland and membership of the Stroke Association N Ireland Committee. Areas of expertise include strategic planning and decision-making, corporate governance and performance monitoring. Anne Marie qualified as a doctor at Queen's University Belfast. Prior to her retirement in 2009 she worked as a Director of Public Health leading the planning of many regional and local health care services in N Ireland.
Dr Anne Murray, BA, Dip Ed, DASE, M.Sc (Ed Man), M.Sc (Ed Tech). Educationalist 40+ year, N Ireland (also Sudan, Macedonia, USA). Founder Principal of Oakgrove Integrated Primary & Nursery School (starting with 68 students, currently 450) Board Member & Deputy Chair CCEA for 9 years. Worked as an Associate for RTU, NI and NICIE training and supporting school leadership development. Member of DENI's Costello Committee's ‘Post primary Review'. Board member of the Junction, Derry/ Londonderry for community relations and peace building. Member Board of Governors (& currently Chair) of Oakgrove Integrated College. Board member of Foyle Trust or Integrated Education.
Duncan Morrow is an academic and community activist with a long-term interest in inter-community relations and peacebuilding in Northern Ireland. He is married and lives in in Belfast. Duncan is the father of 3 children who completed 14 years of integrated education, and is currently a director of Lagan College. He is currently the Director of Community Engagement at Ulster University in Belfast at a time when the University is going through its biggest-ever transformation by relocating its largest campus into the centre of the city. His interest in inter-community relationships and questions of peace and conflict have shaped both his University career and his activity outside those walls. For nine years, Duncan was Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, and since then he has worked with the Scottish Government as the chair of independent Ministerial advisory groups on tackling Sectarianism and on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion. Duncan has written and researched widely on conflict, politics and religion and issues peacebuilding and this year supported the Sir George Quigley Fund in writing a review on the evidence of ongoing Sectarianism in Northern Ireland.
Eamon Quinn joined the NICIE Board in December 2014. He has over twenty years' experience as a manager, fundraiser and consultant within the arts and charities sectors in Northern Ireland. He has worked for organisations including Tinderbox Theatre Company, Queen's University of Belfast, Arts Care and War on Want NI. Eamon teaches on the Arts Management MA at Queen's University of Belfast and among his freelance roles he is the Northern Ireland Grants Advisor for Comic Relief.
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Education Manager at CCEA
- Secretary of the Institute of Physics
Gavin Gray is an Education Manager at CCEA and an award-winning Chartered Science Teacher. Gavin is the Secretary of the Institute of Physics (Ireland) and a governor of Belfast High School. He previously served as Chair of Trustees of the Association for Science Education (UK) and served as a successful Middle and Senior Leader in Comprehensive and Grammar Schools. He is a member of the NI Assembly All Party Group for Science and from 2010-2014 advised the schools minister for England during his appointment to the BRG Educational Policy Reference Group.
Helen Smyth is an education professional with diverse experience and skills gained through research, teaching, education authority and administrative roles. She has taught in a range of post primary schools across Northern Ireland's distinctive system of controlled, voluntary, maintained and integrated schools, including grammar and comprehensive systems, single sex and co-education schools. Helen joined Lagan College, Northern Ireland's first planned integrated school, in 1982, a year after its foundation. She worked as Head of Geography at Lagan College. At her retirement in August 2019 Helen had contributed 37 years to teaching in Integrated Education in Northern Ireland. During that time she also secured a secondment to Belfast Education and Library Board as Curriculum Support Officer with responsibility for teacher training and resources in the Belfast area. Helen has been active in the NASUWT and was school NASUWT representative between 2015 and 2019. She held the post of President of the North Down Association of the NASUWT, 2017-2018. She continues to actively support the work of the NASUWT.
John Scott is from Whitehead and in 2017 completed eight years as a Department of Education appointed governor at Ulidia Integrated College, Carrickfergus. Now retired, John has over thirty years' experience at senior levels in the NICS and the private sector. In both, he was responsible for managing and providing information technology solutions and services to major clients within Northern Ireland and Great Britain. In these roles he gained significant expertise in all aspects of provider/ client relationships, financial and staff management, project delivery and planning and reviewing.
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Senior Development Officer
Job Titles:
- Board Chair from November 2020 )
- Chairman of the NICIE Board of Directors
Maeve Marnell is a Queens graduate and qualified as a solicitor in 2000. She specialised in defence litigation before setting up the charity Food For Thought Africa in 2007. The charity works to overcome poverty in Africa through education and she regularly travels to Kenya to manage the charity's projects there. Maeve was appointed chair in November 2020.
Job Titles:
- Finance Officer
- Admin & Finance Team
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Member of APTIS
Nigel is an active member of APTIS, the Association of Principal Teachers in Integrated School and is the current treasurer. As an APTIS member, he was elected to the NICIE Board of Directors in 2015 and served 2 terms through to 2019, also chairing the ARAC committee during this time.
Patricia Douglas trained as a nurse in the RVH. She qualified and was a staff nurse in the cardio thoracic and casualty wards for four years. She then trained as a midwife and worked for 3 years in the Ulster Hospital. After a break of 4 years, she worked as a classroom assistant in Downey House Preschool for 7 years. During this time she completed a BA(hons) in Early Childhood Studies at Stranmillis University College - progressing on to a PGCE. After qualifying, she secured a teaching post in the Hazelwood IPS nursery. She served on the Board of Governors for four years and has been the teacher representative on the PTA for eleven years.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Marshall
Roisin Marshall, the Chief Executive Officer, is responsible for strategic planning, policy, raising finance and liaising with key stakeholders in the public, private and voluntary sector.
Chief Executive Officer of the Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), Roisin Marshall was awarded an OBE by the Princess Royal for services to Education and to Community Reconciliation in Northern Ireland on the 11 October 2023 at Windsor Castle.
Roisin spent 12 years working as a teacher in both St. Mary's on the Hill Primary School, Carnmoney where she promoted classroom initiatives to bring pupils together with students at the nearby Controlled Primary School attended by children from a mainly Protestant background, and St. Colm's High School, Twinbrook.
She joined the Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) in 2002, following her struggle to get her son into an Integrated school four years after the signing of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement. There she began working with parents' groups to help them establish new Integrated schools and Transform existing schools to Integrated status. The Agreement had declared Integrated Education to be an essential aspect of reconciliation and its 25th anniversary was marked in April 2023.
Roisin was a governor of Oakwood Integrated Primary School and Malone Integrated College for 8 years in total, schools that both of her children attended at primary level and her son at post primary level.
In 2007-2012, after her first five years at NICIE, she was seconded to the North Eastern Education and Library Board to support greater integration through primary school partnerships. She established a network of 28 rural primary schools from different sectors to work together, improve outcomes for children and young people and bridge divides amongst the staff, governors and parents in schools.
She returned to teaching from 2012 in Fleming Fulton Special School using her Masters in Special Education and experience from both volunteering and paid employment during summer breaks in Ruby House, Newcastle, Co Down, for 13 years, which offered respite care for people living with disabilities and their families. She had also been a volunteer for 20 years with her local Junior Gateway Club, a charity which had supported her younger sister who was born with Downs Syndrome and Autism.
Roisin re-joined NICIE in 2016 as its CEO. The number of students attending Integrated schools in Northern Ireland has increased to over 27,400 and the number of Integrated schools has increased to 71. She supported the Integrated Education Bill and subsequently the Act (NI) 2022, which reformed NI's education legislation and established a duty to not only ‘encourage and facilitate' but also to support Integrated Education, almost a century after Lord Londonderry's proposed Education Act that would have resulted in children from both main traditions in NI being educated together.
As a child, in 1978 and 1979, Roisin travelled to Wisconsin, in America with a group of Catholic and Protestant young people and went on to volunteer from 1990 to 2006 with the Children's Program of Northern Ireland (CPNI) which involved over 3,000 children, over 35 years, from both sides of the divide spending a summer in Minnesota and Wisconsin highlighting Northern Ireland's story at the height of the troubles. Roisin feels indebted to this programme and believes that CPNI which was the first of its kind in the US deserves to be recognised and its story told.
More recently, she has made representations in the Oireachtas on the importance of Integrated Education to fulfil the vision set out by the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and continues to share her expertise with a wide range of global human rights and educational charities. She is a member of the Corrymeela Community, Northern Ireland's oldest reconciliation organisation.
Sandra Patterson BA(Hons), PGCE, MEd, MCCT. Sandra studied Human Geography and also completed a PGCE at Aberystwyth University in Wales. After teaching in Wales for 5 years she chose to return home to Northern Ireland and teach at Ulidia Integrated College. Sandra chose to work within the Integrated Sector as she strongly believes in both the importance and in the ethos of Integrated Education.
Sandra has been a teacher for over 19 years, and completed her MEd in 2012, focusing on Leadership and Management within an Integrated School setting. A strong advocate of Integrated Education, having taught for over 14 years in Ulidia Integrated College as Head of Geography. The role encompasses her passion to support all young people in their care to reach their potential through an academically excellent all-ability education within an Integrated School.
Sandra also volunteers in her spare time within Mid Down Integrated College Steering Group, to further the development of Integrated Education in Northern Ireland, as she truly believes we are all ‘Better Together'.
One of my Sandras' priorities as a Geographer is to promote environmental leadership and community engagement skills among young learners. Sandra presented at COP26 to an audience of global decision makers to highlight the Environmental Education approach taken at Ulidia Integrated College. Recently She gained her Climate Change Teacher accreditation from the UN.
Job Titles:
- Media Entrepreneur and Investor
Shane Greer is a media entrepreneur and investor. He is currently the owner of Campaigns & Elections, a B2B media business that serves the political campaign industry in the United States and Latin America. He is a trustee of Integrated AlumNI and a member of the US board of Cooperation Ireland. Square Mile magazine recognized him as one of the Top 30 people under the age of 30 in London in 2011. In 2016 the Irish Echo recognized him as one of the 40 Under 40 Irish and Irish American's in the United States. Shane attended Lagan College from 1994 to 2001