Who We Are – Development Perspectives

Development Perspectives is an independent Global Citizenship Education non-governmental organisation (NGO) and registered charity (CHY18555). Development Perspectives is based in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland but works with partners all over both Ireland and the world.

To live in an equitable, just and sustainable world.
Our Vision

Staff

Bobby McCormack

CEO

Bobby Mc Cormack is the co-founder and CEO of Development Perspectives. Bobby worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Humanities in Dundalk Institute of Technology from 2006 – 2019, has an MA in Development Studies and is a qualified mediator. Bobby is the chairperson of the Irish Development Education Association(IDEA) and is a former board member of Dóchas. In 2017, Bobby was the recipient of the Dóchas, “Global Citizen of the Year”.

Margaret Downey

SDG Advocate Coordinator

Margaret is co-founder of NGO Development Perspectives and has been actively involved since 2006. Her extensive travel for work and pleasure has enriched her understanding of the connection between local and global issues.
Currently serving as the coordinator of the SDG Advocate Training. Margaret’s professional background in Preventative Healthcare and Development Studies, coupled with her interest in Ecology and passion for the Rights of Nature, make her a driving force for Sustainable Development. She is a qualified Yoga Teacher, Massage Therapist and a chess enthusiast who loves adventuring in the great outdoors.

Deborah Conlon

Public Engagement Officer

Deborah Conlon manages Development Perspectives and Saolta’s Public Engagement. Deborah has BA in Design from DIT and a post-graduate certificate from DKIT in Digital Marketing and Digital Media Management. She’s passionate about encouraging conversation on social justice issues and learning from others. Outside of her work in Development Perspectives she is chairperson of the Dundalk BIDs. She loves being creative, hot chocolate, reading and board games.

Nick Doran

Saolta Programme Manager

Nick Doran is Saolta’s Programme Manager. His background is in Media and Critical Linguistics which he has taught at youth groups and universities. He’s passionate about equality and sustainability, has published numerous pieces on unequal power distribution in society, and is predisposed to spontaneous debate! Nick kayaks, is an adventure fanatic, a board games aficionado, and kimchi lover!

Paul Crewe

EU and Special Projects Officer

Paul has been involved with Development Perspectives since 2013 and currently works as the EU and Special Projects Officer. Paul holds BA (Honours) in Community Sports Leadership. Paul has been heavily involved in coordinating projects in the area of Migration and Integration. Paul also coordinates EU-funded projects which explore global citizenship education. He has over 5 years experience facilitating within the Adult and Community sector. Paul is particularly interested in the topic of income inequality and how it links to many other issues. He has a passion for sport (every sport), travel and retro gaming.

Annamaria Balazs

Financial Officer

Annamaria Balazs has joined the team in 2019 as a Financial Officer. She is a qualified accountant from Hungary and currently converting her qualification into Irish ACCA. Annamaria is looking after the company financial operations, finance reports, budgets and accounting records. Annamaria also holds a BA (Hons) degree in PR, Marketing and Media management and BA (Hons) IT, Librarian and Broker Information.
Annamaria has lived in Ireland since 2006 and moved to Drogheda area in 2013, she loves the beaches near by and the beautiful countryside scenery. She is big into meditation and pranic healing, loves reading history books and traveling around the world.

Alice Robinson

Saolta Trainer

Alice works as a trainer for Saolta. She holds a BA in Youth Work and an MA in International Development and has extensive experience working in the youth and community sector in Ireland. She enjoys using participatory arts based approaches as a tool to critically explore and highlight local and global equality issues. She is a musician with a keen interest in permaculture design and loves climbing mountains and being in nature.

Quynh Thuy Do

Saolta Programme Officer

Quynh works as a Saolta’s Programme Officer. She acquired a BA degree in Business English in Viet Nam and an MA degree in International Development at Maynooth University. Her great interests in youth empowerment, youth development, and civic engagement for social changes have been reflected in her diverse interaction with young people and local communities in Viet Nam, ASEAN and other regions. Besides, Quynh also accumulated several years of working experience in Human Resources Management and Recruitment Consultancy. She is a foodie and loves travelling, wandering around, and exchanging cultures.

Tulip

Erasmus+ Project Worker

Soe Nandar Htun (aka) Tulip- Graduate with English and History in Myanmar. Currently enrolled in TV and Film Production Course in DIFE. Recently finished Creative Media, digital video and photography course at DIFE. Previous work is broadcast journalist and working for youth program called “Youth Voice” and believe that young people deserve to know what’s happening around the world and informing young people from a young age help them to become an active citizen. Passionate to create video content, design, photography and love travelling.

Martin Dillon

Saolta Trainer

Martin graduated from Technological University Dublin—Blanchardstown with a BSc in Community Development and Youth Work and is currently completing an MSc in Sustainable Development at TU Dublin-Bolton Street. He is a passionate advocate for Education for Sustainable Development. He contributed to TU Dublin’s research project on Flexible Learning Pathways and the launch of the book “Leaves from the Cotton Tree” with the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership. A committed lifelong learner and mature student. He enjoys cooking and sports, especially rowing and spending time in nature, and has coached soccer in the local community in Ireland, the US and Australia.

Alejandro Valderrama

Saolta Programme Officer

Alejandro is an Anthropologist – Post Graduate ‘Climate Entrepreneurship’ (Trinity College Dublin) – MA in International Peacebuilding, Security and Development Practice. For the last 20 years, he has worked as an independent consultant, practitioner and researcher specialised in education, peace, development, and Human Rights through participatory action research, arts, and collaborative practices. He has a great passion for coffee, chocolate, and human rights. This is why he co-founded Ethical Origin in Ireland, which works directly with diverse communities affected by violence, conflict, and inequality in Colombia through its products. Among his other passions are playing music, film, gardening, and walking in the countryside where he lives with his family.

Eolain Downey

Erasmus+ Project Worker

I am an enthusiastic and well- rounded individual with a passionate motivation for creative sustainable solutions. I’m also an avid lover of nature, sports, games and travel. Having completed a Masters in International politics while living on, and renovating a 1960’s barge, I learned the value of both theoretical and practical challenges. The world of the technical, the analysis, and the discussion exists in a different space and framework than the world of the tangible, the action, and the reaction. For me this was fleshed out through my interest in environmentalism; learning about climate change from a global point of view while attempting to implement a sustainable lifestyle and focus on individual carbon footprint really depicted the distinct chasm between the two. I believe this is a theme we can all find in our daily lives through many examples, but identifying this space and building bridges to connect the theoretical to the practical is a harder challenge. Thus, leading me to Development Perspectives and adult education, through which I aim to gain a deeper insight into the realm of global affairs and the realm of active citizenship; and the inextricable link between both. I am highly enthusiastic about the work DP does, and look forward to connecting with others who wish to have a positive impact on human rights the global sustainability.

Gareth Conlon

SDG Challenge Schools Coordinator

Gareth Conlon works with Development Perspectives as the coordinator of the SDG Challenge Schools project. Gareth has worked in global citizenship education for over 15 years; in different organisations including Síolta Chroí, Comhlámh, Development Perspective and ECO-UNESCO. He holds an MA in International Development and a BA in Community Sports Leadership. Gareth is very interested in global citizenship education and how it connects with other things such as decolonial education, permaculture; and spirituality . He live in Carrickmacross, Monaghan with his wife and 2 children, 5 chickens, 2 alpacas and a dog.

Board of Management

Michael Kenny

Chair

I am an Adult and Community Educator with a particular interest in engaged participation. My Co. Meath upbringing is rural within a West of Ireland migrant family. My higher education is an Agricultural Science degree (BAgrSc 1980), Rural Development masters (MAgrSc 1990), a Higher Diploma in Higher Education (HDHE1998), and a level-10 Post-Graduate Diploma in Educational Management (Bristol University. 2021). My experience is Further Education (FE) teacher education, community work in Ireland and Africa, and extensive engagement with formal, non-formal, and voluntary rural and urban organisations. I am the principal investigator of Erasmus+ European programmes, a member of the SAOLTA steering project committee, active in Tidy-Towns, a voluntary secretary to the Irish Rural Link board, a regional council twinning officer with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, and a recent past member of the board of Concern Worldwide in Ireland and Concern UK.

Stephanie Kirwan

Company Secretary, Governance and Risk Committee

Stephanie is the Senior Education and Training Manager in Meath Partnership responsible for the management and coordination of their EU funded Adult Education programmes and their QQI training centre. Stephanie has over 10 years’ experience working in the Development Education sector in Ireland and holds an MA in International Development, a BA in Public Health and Health Promotion and various other certificates in areas of Programme Design and Validation for FET.

Jen Murphy

Governance and Risk Committee

Jen Murphy is an Anthropologist, Educator and Innovator. She has worked in the INGO sector in Ireland for 15 years, 13 of which she spent in Trócaire, most recently as Development Education Manager and Innovation Team Lead. Jen’s passion for Development Education and global justice is rooted in her bones. She is also committed to the holistic arts as a Feminine Embodiment Coach and Kundalini Yoga & Meditation Teacher. Her current passion project focuses on Irish Mythology and indigenous ancestral wisdom, and how this might be weaved into feminine embodiment practices as an exploration of personal power for women.

Aideen O’Dochartaigh

Dr O’Dochartaigh is Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Dublin City University Business School, Dublin, Ireland, specialising in sustainability accounting and responsible business. Her research includes ongoing interdisciplinary work on supply chain sustainability accounting, carbon budgeting and sustainability networks. She completed her PhD on sustainability accounting at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. She is a chartered accountant with extensive experience in industry and practice. Aideen is also an experienced environmental campaigner who is an active member of several grassroots campaigns including Not Here Not Anywhere and the Dublin Ecofeminists.

Emma McEvoy

Governance and Risk Committee

Dr Emma McEvoy is an Assistant Professor in Law at Dublin City University, School of Law and Government. Emma specialises in socio-economic law and, in particular, focuses on assessing how EU and private law facilitates small business operations, social inclusion and sustainable economic growth in the Internal Market. She is a recognised expert on public procurement law and socially responsible contracting practices. Her research has been published in reputed journals, which is well received and highly cited. Emma is engaged in policy oriented and engaged partnership research with the aim of promoting the use of law to advance social change in Ireland. Previously she contributed to the Irish Office of Government Procurement’s annual surveys of public procurement practice and co-authored the Cambers of Ireland’s report ‘A Strategic Procurement Policy for Ireland’. She continually presents her research at national public procurement events in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Since she began her academic career as a research assistant at Dublin City University (DCU) in 2012, she has continuously received funding to pursue socio-legal research assessing the social and environmental impact of European legislation. Notably, in 2019, she was appointed as a national expert on an 18-month European research project on ‘Promoting Social Considerations into Public Procurement Procedures for Social Economy Enterprises’ in a consortium with five European partners. As part of this project, she hosted a national conference on sustainable public procurement in partnership with the European Commission and the Irish Social Enterprise Network. Separately, her Ph.D. research was funded by Maynooth University and the Irish Research Council. She was previously employed as an Assistant Lecturer in Law at Maynooth University, National University of Ireland. Prior to her move to DCU, she was employed Postdoctoral Researcher in EU Law on the H2020 funded project “Supporting Independence and enhanced quality of life for Europe’s ageing population (SHAPES)” led by Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL) in Ireland and supervised by Prof. Delia Ferri. Emma is a co-author of a forthcoming textbook summarising the lessons learnt from the SHAPES project.

Emmet Sheerin

Emmet has been working for over a decade in the international development sector with a number of INGOs. He has extensive experience leading public campaigns on various global justice issues, and has a particular interest in the areas of Business and Human Rights, as well as Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Emmet is also an award winning independent documentary filmmaker. He has an MA in Public Advocacy and Activism – NUIG, an MA in Cultural Policy and Arts Management (UCD) and a BA in Media Studies – Maynooth University.

Cathal Kearney

Finance and Audit Committee

Cathal is a Mayo man who now lives in Louth. He worked in the multinational business sector before working in the education sector. He has worked in higher education management for more than twenty years and also in consultancy roles for almost ten years. As a proud Mayo man, he is fanatical about his GAA roots and is an eternal optimist. He has given many years of service to local sporting organisations, credit unions and church bodies. He is a passionate gardener and has a keen interest in horse racing and cycling.

How We Work