AONTAS Executive
The AONTAS Executive Committee comprises ten organisational members, four Officers and two individual members. The Executive Committee constitutes the Board of Directors of the Organisation. The Officer Board is made up of the President of AONTAS, the Vice-President, the Honorary Secretary, and the Honorary Treasurer.
Any paid-up member of AONTAS can be nominated for election to the Executive Committee, and hence to the Officer Board. Elections take place at the Annual General Meetings of AONTAS.
The Executive Committee meets six times each year, and is responsible for:
- The overall maintenance and well-being of the Organisation
- Human resources, financial policy, and accountability
- Taking a lead role in the development of the Strategic Plan
- Supporting the staff team in implementing the Strategic Plan
- Representing the views and issues of members
- Contributing knowledge and experience on local issues
- Initiating working groups to deal with issues, as appropriate
- Meeting six times a year
The members of the AONTAS Executive are:
Ms Marian Duffy President - Co. Carlow VEC
Marian's work has always been in education having worked at primary, second-level and in Adult Education over the course of her career. The last eighteen years of her career have been spent in Adult & Community Education with Co. Carlow VEC.
As Adult Education Officer, her role is to oversee the Adult Education Service which consists of Adult Literacy Service, Community Education Facilitation Service, Back to Education Initiative, Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme, Youthreach, Education & Training Centre for Travelling Community, Childcare Centre, Adult Guidance & Information Service as well as an Evening Programme for Adults in VEC schools.
Cllr Maria Gorman Hon Treasurer - Kerry Education Services
Maria is a member of Listowel Town Council and has been on the Board of the VEC for a number of years. She is a member of the Governing Body of the Institute of Technology, Tralee, Co. Kerry. She sits on the board of Combat Poverty as advisory board to the Government on social issues.
Ms Ruth Smith Hon Secretary - Tipperary Women's Network
Ruth is currently Community Development Co-ordinator at Knockanrawley Resource Centre. Her main contact with groups (both women and mens) involves setting them up, facilitating personal development and communications. Currently she is involved in Active Citizenship and Community Development Modules at the centre. She is also Secretary of the Tipperary Women's Network.
Ms Loretta Needham Tuam Community Development Resource Centre
Loretta is the Co-ordinator of the Tuam Community Development Resource Centre.She was instrumental in securing funding for the building of a new childcare facility which opened in 2007. She recently set up a BTEI project in Tuam in conjunction with the VEC. She successfully secured funding for Equality for Women Project 'Women in Leadership and Social Change'.Loretta is active in a number of organisations around the county and in 2008 she is focusing her attention on 'Tuam, A Town of Many Nations' , a research project into the needs of new communities in Tuam.
Mr Lorne Patterson Longford Women's Link
Lorne Patterson has worked at Longford Women's Link, a women's resource and community education centre in Co Longford, for seven years. Initially, this was as a project co-ordinator; more recently as Policy & Advocacy Officer. His specific responsibilities have included training needs analysis; organisation, delivery and evaluation of training programmes for local women interested in self-employment; and development of FETAC-accredited modules. Lorne continues to be involved in the development and evaluation of Women's Community Education Quality Assurance Framework (WCE QAF), and has also been primarily responsible within the centre for the FETAC QA process. In addition to serving on the AONTAS Executive Committee for ta second year, Lorne also represents the Women's Link on the AONTAS-facilitated Women's Community Education Quality Assurance Framework (WCE QAF) Steering Committee, and in the AONTAS-facilitated Community Education Network.
Ms Mary Sweeney Co. Laois VEC
Mary Sweeney is Chair of Laois VEC and Chair of the Board of Management of Portlaoise College. She works with the Library Services in Co. Laois.
Mr John Ryan City of Limerick VEC
John is a former President of AONTAS, and represents the City Of Limerick VEC . He is vice Chair with City of Limerick VEC and a lecturer with the Limerick Institute of Technology. He is involved with a number of local development initiatives including the City Development Board, and was formerly a member of the PAUL Partnership.
Ms Eithne Nic Dhonnchadh Adult Education Officers Association
Eithne represents the Adult Education Officers Association on the AONTAS Executive. She is an Adult Education Officer for Co. Galway VEC and has experience of both the formal and non-formal adult education sector. She has developed education programmes in partnership with other training organisations such as BIM, Údarás na Gaeltachta and other community organisations.
Ms Elva O'Callaghan National Collective of Community Based Womens’s Networks
Elva is the National Co-ordinator of the National Collective of Community Based Women's Networks. The organisation has a policy and information focus on women's community education and supports its 24 member women's networks nationwide. Elva is an experienced community worker through studies and practice informed by community development principles.
Linda Greene Clondalkin Womens Network
Linda has been involved in Adult Education for close to six years now and she runs a series of Photography courses at Donahies Community School in Donaghmede and also at the Loretto Centre in Crumlin. She also works with Ronanstown CDP in Clondalkin conducting a, 'community development through photography course' for adult learners. She is a member of the UCD Women's Studies Outreach Team and has lectured and worked with mature students returning to education in Ringsend, Clondalkin, Longford, Offaly and Crumlin. Linda works as a Community Development Worker with the Clondalkin Women's' Network. She is deeply committed to the possibilities and opportunities that are entrenched in Adult Education and a continued access to learning.
Ms Una Buckley Individual Member
Una is a member of the Steering Group for the AONTAS Learner Networks. She recently completed a certificate in Adult and Community Education in Tallaght. Úna brings her experience of being an adult learner to the AONTAS Executive.
Deborah Brock Dodder Valley Partnership
Deborah is currently the Education Coordinator for Dodder Valley Partnership. Her role is to coordinate all actions regarding education for the Partnership- in particular to strengthen the role the Partnership plays in Adult and Community Education. She supports local inter agency and community based initiatives to promote equality of access and participation in education for students of all ages. She is also involved in various aspects of adult and community education, such as, networking, grants, information and advice, ESOL, Adult Literacy and access to third level. She has been involved in adult and community education for nearly eight years.
Liz Waters An Cosán
Liz has been involved in An Cosán for the past 14 years, first as a part time tutor, then Manager of the Community Education Centre at An Cosán in 1999 and CEO since 2001.An Cosán is an amazing organisation totally committed to the eradication of poverty through education!
She has always worked in the community and voluntary sector, in residential childcare, community education, psychotherapy and then the Shanty. When she discovered the Shanty in 1995 she felt she had come home, all the values she most aspired to in her work were held there. She is passionate about her work and feels really privileged to work in the community of Tallaght West. Despite the daily struggle with the injustice of poverty it is a vibrant active and socially committed community. An Cosán is engaged in working with this community to identify community educational needs and to develop innovative courses to respond to these needs.
Ms Jillian Harrison Individual Member
Jillian has been delivering ICT courses for the past 3 years in the geographically isolated Beara peninsula. The courses have ranged from FETAC Level 3 to the ECDL programme. Jillian has a certificate in Training and Education from NUI Galway which she gained through distance learning, and has firsthand experience of the difficulties that trainers and learners face in providing or accessing training in rural areas.
