Dr. Tony Crooks, Chairperson of Archways
Tony Crooks holds Masters degrees from Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Toronto and a PhD from TCD. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Applied Social Studies at NUI Maynooth. Previously he was a teacher and Research Senior Lecturer in TCD and Deputy Director of the City of Dublin VECs Curriculum Development Unit. In 1991, he was seconded to the Department of An Taoiseach as a member of the National Co-ordinating Team for the Area Based Response to Long Term Unemployment. From 1993 until his retirement in 2008 he was CEO of Area Development Management (now Pobal), a company established by the Irish Government in agreement with the European Commission to manage programmes on behalf of the Irish Government. In recent years he has been a member of the National Education Welfare Board, the National Childcare Co-ordinating Committee, the statutory Educational Disadvantage Committee and the National Employment Services Advisory Committee. He is currently Chairperson of Archways, Start Strong and the Institute for Managers of Community and Voluntary Organisations. He is also a board member of Headstrong, Barnardos and the Ulster Scots Agency. He has published several books including “The Challenge of Change” 1984) and “The Changing Curriculum” (1987).
Steve Aos, Director, Washington State Institute for Public Policy
Steve Aos is the Director of the Washington state institute for public policy, the nonpartisan research arm of the Washington state legislature. He has worked in Washington state’s capital for 34 years using cost-benefit analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. His current work focuses on identifying sound legislative investments in policies to control crime, improve k-12 education, reduce child abuse, reduce substance abuse, and improve other human capital outcomes. He has been at the forefront of national discussions on how to make cost benefit analysis used and useful in applied policy settings.
Cheryl Hopkins, Service Director, Strategy & Commissioning, Children Young People & Families, Birmingham City Council
Cheryl Hopkins has worked in Local Government for over 25 years commencing her career as a Psychiatric Social Worker.
Cheryl took up post in Birmingham City Council in September 2004. Since 2006 when Birmingham Children’s Trust was formed, Cheryl has been working with partners to develop the Brighter Futures Strategy and Transformation Programme. The City Council has set up 9 ambitious Transformation programmes and agreed the business case for the children’s programme in July 2008 making a major investment of £41.7m over 15 years in prevention and early intervention. The main plank of the programme is 4 evidence based and 4 “experimental pilot projects using best evidence and randomised control trials. Cheryl has developed a methodology that brings together a common language approach, evidence on what works, service design, programme management and cost benefit analysis. This unique approach has attracted National and International interest. More recently Cheryl led on the children’s theme in Birmingham’s Total Place pilot, and is now applying the knowledge gained from evidence based early intervention programmes to the Community Based Budget pilot in the City
Karen A. Blase, Senior Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina and Co-Director, of the National Implementation Research Network
Karen Blase has been a service provider, educator, researcher, program evaluator and published author in the human service field for over 35 years. She received her doctorate in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas with a focus on school-based interventions, teacher training, and community-based services for high needs youth. She is a Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Co-Director, along with Dr. Dean Fixsen, of the National Implementation Research Network. She and Dr. Fixsen also are Co-Directors of a federally funded OSEP TA Center for State Implementation and Scaling of Evidence-Based Practices (SISEP). Karen has a wealth of practical experience in human services having worked in juvenile justice, in child welfare, in education settings, and in developing community-wide intervention and prevention services. As part of a research team, Dr. Blase was involved in completing a major review and synthesis of the implementation literature. This extensive review of implementation strategies and proposed frameworks is providing guidance for the adoption and use of evidence-based programs and practices in education and child welfare.
Mary Doyle – Director General, Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs
Mary Doyle took up the post as Director General of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in May 2010. Previously she had worked as Assistant Secretary in the Economic and Social Policy Division of the Department of the Taoiseach. In that post, she acted as Secretary to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure, the Cabinet Committee on Health and the Cabinet Committee on Social and has a particular interest in cross Agency policy development and implementation. She has served as Deputy Chair of the National Economic and Social Council and as a member of the National Statistics Board.
Educated at the University of Limerick and Trinity College/IMI, she is married with two adult children.
Fergus Finlay, Chief Executive, Barnardos
Fergus Finlay has been Chief Executive of Barnardos, Ireland’s leading children’s charity, since June 2005.
In 1983 he was asked to become adviser to Dick Spring, then Leader of the Irish Labour Party. Following a general election that year, he was appointed as Deputy Press Secretary to the Coalition Government of 1983-1987. After a spell working for the Labour Party in opposition (1987 – 1992) he was appointed as Foreign Policy Adviser to the Coalition Governments led by Albert Reynolds and John Bruton from 1993-1997. He was a key member of the Government team representing Ireland in EU Structural Fund negotiations in 1995. From 1992 to 1996 Fergus Finlay was a member of the Irish Cabinet sub-committee on Northern Ireland. He was centrally involved in the negotiations which led to the Downing Street Declaration and the Joint Framework Documents, and he was a member of the Government delegation to the Stormont talks in 1995-96.
Fergus Finlay has founded a number of organisations that campaign for the rights of people with disabilities, and has recently completed a four-year term as Chairperson of Special Olympics Ireland. He is presently Chair of Volunteering Ireland. He contributes a weekly column on political, social and economic issues to the Irish Examiner, and a syndicated monthly column on issues related to children and childhood to around thirty Irish regional newspapers. For nearly two years he has also contributed a weekly radio column to Ireland’s most-listened to drivetime show on RTE Radio 1.
Mary Sutton, Country Director, The Atlantic Philanthropies, ROI
Mary Sutton trained as an Economist at University College Dublin and subsequently at McMaster University in Canada. She worked in international development initially as a researcher with the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace in Dublin; then with the Overseas Development Institute in London; before joining Trócaire, where she spent twenty years in a variety of management roles including Deputy Director.
In 2002, she moved to the Department of Foreign Affairs as Principal Development Specialist with the Advisory Board of Irish Aid, which was tasked with advising the Minister on the strategic direction of Ireland’s programme of Official Development Assistance.
In 2008, she joined The Atlantic Philanthropies as Programme Executive on the Ageing programme. In January 2011, she became Country Director for the Republic of Ireland.
Paul Murray, Programme Executive, The Atlantic Philanthropies, NI
Paul Murray is the Programme Executive for The Atlantic Philanthropies’ Children and Youth Programme in Northern Ireland overseeing both the Prevention & Early Intervention and Children & Youth Rights strands. He previously worked on Atlantic’s Equality, Rights and Justice portfolio. Prior to joining Atlantic he worked in the health service (finance), local government (planning) and the voluntary sector (children/youth, homelessness, community relations and volunteering).
Sinéad Hanafin, Head of Research, Department of Health and Children, ROI
Sinéad Hanafin works as Head of Research at the Department of Health and Children and has led the implementation of the National Children’s Research Programme. She has completed M Sc at Trinity College Dublin and a PhD at King’s College London. She is also a nurse, midwife and public health nurse and worked as a lecturer in a number of universities in Ireland. She has published both national and internationally in the area of public health nursing, health promotion, child well-being and evidence-based practice. Publications relating to the national children’s research programme are available at www.omc.gov.ie or at www.childrensdatabase.ie
Nuala Doherty, CEO, The Centre for Effective Services
Nuala previously held the role of Director of Educational Welfare Services in the National Education Welfare Board (NEWB) and was responsible for the Board’s overall national strategy for addressing school attendance and for the delivery of the Education Welfare Service throughout the country. Prior to joining the NEWB, Nuala held the position of Director of Services for Children and Families in the Health Services Executive North East Region. In this role she was responsible for the development and implementation of strategy, policy and practice for all services for children and families in the North-East region.
Mary Black, Assistant Director of Public Health, Health & Social Wellbeing Improvement with the Public Health Agency 
Mary brings a range of experience from commissioning and managing health improvement services, leading and developing programmes across different themes and issues, multi-sectoral working and community development. Her professional career has been characterised by a commitment to reducing health inequalities. Mary was the leader of Belfast Health Action Zone for almost ten years, a broad partnership dedicated to tackling inequalities in health and social exclusion. She has extensive experience in the community and voluntary sector, is a founding member and former chair of the Community Development and Health Network and former chair of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland where she was a Trustee for seventeen years. She is an honorary member of the Faculty of Public Health and in 2008 was awarded a CBE for services to healthcare and the community of Northern Ireland.
