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With a medical degree from Trinity College Dublin and later a Masters in Multimedia, Colman has ten years of experience across: community development overseas, IT systems design and people & organisational development. After completing his internship in St James Hospital, Colman worked in the Rwandan Refugee Crisis with GOAL in 1994. He returned to Africa a year later, moving to Nairobi, Kenya, where he supported the Gatoto Community School during its early stages.
On his return to Ireland, Colman obtained a Masters in Multimedia from Trinity College. He then worked for two years as an IT Manager, with Proctor and Gamble, later as a Software Development Manager with General Electric. More recently, he worked as the Organisational Development Manager with Enterprise Ireland on Performance Development and Change Management. Between these roles he continued his involvement with the Gatoto School spending an additional two years in Nairobi, supporting the development of that organisation.
Colman first became involved with Suas during its early stages, joining full-time in 2004 and becoming CEO in June of that year. He has since led the expansion of the volunteer programme as well as the development of the organisation overall. He was one of the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awardees in 2005.
A graduate of Trinity College, Claire has a degree in Music Education and recently completed a Masters Degree in IT in Education. Before joining the Suas team, Claire taught music and history for a number of years, at both primary and secondary school level. Claire has also been involved in several community music youth groups for a number of years, teaching music to students of all ages in her local area.
Claire has a keen research interest in the area of technology-mediated teaching and learning, particularly in relation to collaborative learning. Claire joined Suas in November 2007 as co-ordinator of The Bridge to College programme, which provides young people from designated disadvantaged second-level schools with an innovative learning experience using technology.
A native of Dublin, Dermot studied Computer Engineering in Trinity College Dublin, before beginning a career as a software developer. In Trinity, Dermot joined the Society of St Vincent de Paul, and began to take an interest in social disadvantage. Since graduating, Dermot has volunteered with the Society in several capacities, working both on the ground and at organisational level.
In summer 2009, Dermot travelled to Kenya with Suas as Team Coordinator for Maweni Primary School in Mombasa. This experience highlighted the benefits of quality education and in-service learning. Following this trip, Dermot joined Suas full-time as manager of the Mentoring Programme, supporting a network of peer to peer mentoring programmes addressing educational disadvantage and promoting social inclusion nationwide, engaging volunteer mentors and benefiting those from under-resourced communities.
Evie joined the Suas team in October 2009 as the Societies Programme Manager. Her role is to support the Suas societies in various colleges in Ireland to organise activities around the themes of Educate, Engage and Inspire to advance the Suas mission of supporting high quality education in under-resourced communities.
Evie is originally from West Cork and has an Arts degree from UCD as well as a Higher Diploma in Community and Youth Work from NUI Maynooth. She participated in the Suas Volunteer Programme 2009 as a team coordinator with the team based in Prayas in Delhi.
Prior to joining the Suas team, she worked with the Galway Traveller Movement as a community development worker. Before that she worked as an English language teacher and language school manager in the Atlantic School of English and Active Leisure.
Joanne joins the Ireland team in October 2009. She first came to know about Suas in 2003 when a long-time friend participated on the Suas Volunteer Programme. She has worked with Suas in a variety of roles since this time: summer intern (2004), volunteer on the Suas Volunteer Programme (2006), fundraising officer for the Suas Alumni Network (2007), short-term staff on the Overseas Programme (2008/9) and, most recently, development coordinator for this year's Volunteer Programme.
Joanne's academic background is languages, politics and administration. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2005 with a degree in European Studies. She later completed a Masters in Public Administration in the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
Prior to working with Suas, she worked as a teaching assistant in the Sorbonne in Paris and as a project executive with Middlequarter Consultancy, working on projects for the One Foundation and the Children's Rights Alliance in Ireland (Middlequarter advises non-profit organisations, private and philanthropic funders on strategic development, advocacy, and governance issues). She also worked as a relief social care worker with St. John of God Hospitaller Services on and off since 2003.
John is an ICT professional with over 30 years experience in the telecommunications sector in Ireland and Africa. John is a graduate of UCD with an honour degree in Computer Science and completed an MSc in IT and Education in Trinity College in 2007.
John has held senior roles in a number of organisations including Head of Corporate Customer Service in eircom, General Manager Business in Botswana Telecom and Director of Marketing at e-net.
His lifelong commitment to Scouting and young people contributed to programme development and innovation at local and national level. John has an interest in research in the use of technology to support learning and is pursuing a PhD on a part-time basis at TCD on the use of technology to mediate values based learning.
John joined Suas in January 2007 as programme manager for The Bridge to College programme which targets young people from designated disadvantaged second-level schools to provide them with an innovative learning experience using technology.
An Applied Science graduate from DIT, Kevin started volunteering as a mentor with the B2C in October 2008. He has a strong interest in education and divided his time between working as a primary school substitute teacher and helping out on the B2C.
He has a background in computer science and software engineering having worked in the field for over 5 years. Kevin joined Suas in July 2009 as Programme Coordinator for the Bridge To College programme.
Born in Dublin, Bryan graduated from Trinity College in 2005 with a Masters in the area of Computers & Education.
Involved with Suas since its inception, Bryan has led the first stage of the Overseas Partner Support Programme. He has also been involved with the development of the Volunteer Programme, the initiation of our first Suas Society and the piloting of our Cruthu Mentoring Programme in partnership with the Access Programme and Dept of Computer Science in Trinity College, which has since become The Bridge to College programme.
Bryan has lectured in the areas of Managment, Strategy and IT and Education, as well as consulting to UNICEF on the development of their Performance Management System.
A graduate of Mater Dei Institute of Education Susan holds a Bachelor degree in English, Religion and Education. Susan has taught English and Religion in Ireland at primary and secondary level. In 2005 Susan took part in the Suas volunteer programme and taught in a primary school in Kenya for three months.
On returning to Ireland Susan joined the Suas team. She worked on the Volunteer Programme for two years. She then supported the initiation of the Bridge to College Programme with John Lawlor. In 2008 Susan was seconded by Suas to the Digicel Foundation in Haiti for 19 months. There she worked with the Foundation team to design and implement programmes in school management, staff training, teaching and learning and school environment improvement.
Susan has returned to the Suas office and is currently working on the Partner Support programme with Bryan Patten.
Suzanne is a UCD graduate with a Bachelor Degree in Social Science. After graduating, she worked for two years as a Youth Coordinator with the Bohermore Development Project in Galway city. She also worked part-time as an Information Officer and Advocate with the Citizen's Information Centre and Refugee Advice Service.
Returning to UCD in 2006 to complete a Masters in Development Studies, Suzanne took the opportunity to carry out research in Ethiopia. She completed her thesis on conflict and violence among pastoral communities in the Awash Valley and then joined Suas in September 2007. Suzanne currently manages the Volunteer Programme.
Together with Shay and Dave, Eoin is on the Programme Support team to provide core services to the whole team. Eoin is responsible for Information and Communication Technologies as well as Communications (e.g website/press), intern and volunteer recruitment and facilities/equipment.
In 2001, he volunteered with the VOLU group in Ghana, working on construction projects and living in small villages for a few weeks at a time. This experience of living with Africans challenged many of his assumptions about the reasons for poverty in the world - and was one of the factors in looking for work with Suas. Other interests brought him travelling to Australia, the US and around Europe and he returned to Ireland in 2002.
After that, he started working with the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology and established the bioinformatics lab. Whilst working there at DCU, he completed a Science Communications Masters and later wrote a marketing plan for the Suas Global Issues courses.
He helped establish the DCU Suas society and later left DCU to work full-time for Suas in late 2006.
Dave is the Fundraising Manager at Suas. Previously, he was the Suas Events and Campaigns Manager, coordinating projects such as the Extraordinary Lives Series and the national St. Patrick's Day face-painting event. Prior to working with Suas, Dave worked with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources as an ICT Specialist working on a number of ICT projects for Development related initiatives.
Previous to this, Dave took part in the Suas Volunteer Programme in 2004, working with Development Action Society in Kolkata. Dave is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin with an honors degree in Business and Economics.
Karen Dando - Office Administrator
Karen started her working life as a nurse , then took a break to raise 3 children. Karen returned to study a Bachelor of Arts at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. Then moving to Sydney, Karen began a career with a large financial institution where she managed an office and was the PA to a Senior Financial Planner.
Arriving in Ireland in June 2008, Karen has enjoyed travelling around Ireland and Europe. Karen joined Suas in August 2009 and volunteers on the Program Support Team.
Shay was born and raised in Dublin. He is a graduate of UCD, having completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the Quinn School of Business, Belfield and a Masters of Accounting at the Smurfit Business School, Carysfort.
Shay is also a qualified chartered accountant, having completed his training contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin in October 2007.
Shay then took time out to travel extensively throughout Latin America in 2008, and upon his return home, took up the position of Financial Controller with Suas.
Eanna McHugh, Chairperson, Company Director and former Senior Partner with Deloitte & Touche
Sadhbh Coyle, Educational Psychologist with experience overseas, working with the Department of Education
Brian Davis, Volunteer Programme Alumnus, Social Worker in Child Protection
Michael King, Founder of Suas, Senior Research Officer for International Development at the Institute of International Integration Studies, TCD.
Philip Regan, Independent Consultant in HR & Organisational Development
Brendan Tuohy, Chairman of the UN Global eSchools and Communities Initiative and former Secretary General, Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Laura Booth, Legal Adviser, Hibernian Insurance
Mike Williams, Head of International Department in Trocaire
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