National Office Staff

Paul Rowe

Chief Executive

Paul has been involved with Educate Together schools for the past 21 years, as a parent, activist, board member and national representative. He has a background in community activism and came to Educate Together from a career as a systems analyst, software developer and manager in the security printing industry. He is passionately interested in building organisations that release the full human potential of their members and sees Educate Together as an example of best practice in this area. He has been closely involved in the current efforts to establish a national network of Educate Together primary schools and to apply the principles of the Educate Together Charter to secondary education.

He was elected Chairperson of Educate Together on its transformation into a limited company in 1998, was re-elected in 1999 and 2000 and held this post until May 2001.In June 2002, he was appointed CEO of Educate Together. He is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Education and Training Management.

As CEO of Educate Together, Paul works closely with the Board of Directors to ensure that the views and needs of the organisation are accurately represented to Government and to the public through the media.

Deirdre O’Donoghue

Head of Leadership and Governance

Deirdre currently holds the position of Head of Leadership and Governance Development. She has been involved with Educate Together since 1988, when she was appointed to the National Executive of the organisation. In 1994, she became Educate Together’s first employee, initially as National Co-ordinator. Her work involves supporting the school network,  including a confidential service to principals and chairpersons of Boards of Management. The LGD team is responsible for ensuring good practice in the area of leadership and governance, through training, advice, resources, facilitations, ethos self-evaluation tool for schools and volunteering.

Deirdre has worked in a number of diverse areas: accounting, media, mediation, health, law, retail and wholesale. She holds a degree in Social Sciences, a Diploma in Mediation, and is a qualified TEFL teacher. She is also a member of the INTO's Mediation Panel. 

Emer Nowlan

Head of Education & Network Development

Emer manages the Education and Network Development teams and has overall responsibility for teacher education and new schools. Originally a second-level teacher, Emer has wide experience in different areas of education, management and business in Ireland and abroad. She has a lifelong interest in the relationship between equality and education, and continues to explore this through post-graduate study and research, as well as through her work and life experience.

John Holohan

Head of Communications

John manages Educate Together’s brand and market profile for all its key audiences. He is the first point of contact for media queries and oversees all National Office external communications. Advocacy, publishing, market awareness, web development and research also come under his remit.

A specialist with 15+ years management experience in corporate communications and public affairs. Prior to joining Educate Together John, worked for Concern, the Institute of Advertising and Skillnets. In 2007 he was Telethon Director for the final People in Need campaign. John is a regular contributor to national, regional and B2B media. He has two sons, both of whom attend an Educate Together National School.

Louise Byrne

Office Manager

In her role as Office Manager, Louise oversees all HR, IT, Accounting and Administrative functions of the national office.

Louise is in post as Office Manager of Educate Together's national office since February, 2008. With a background in offshore banking, sales and work with other start up businesses as Office Manager. Louise brings this experience to her work in managing Educate Together's HR function, Administration and Finances. In addition to managing Office Administration staff, she also manages volunteers and interns working in the National Office. Louise is from Dublin and is a psychology graduate of Dublin Business School.

Mary O’Donovan

Head of Fundraising/Development

Mary is the Head of Development at Educate Together. She is an experienced professional fundraiser, working in Ireland and the UK for almost 20 years. Mary has a young family and is passionate about education.

Email Mary

Masina Johnston

Development Officer

Masina is the Development Officer and has been with Educate Together since 2007. She has a Masters in International and Community Development and a Bachelors Degree in Design in Marketing.  Masina has been campaigning for a new school in South Dublin since 2009 for her son Sam.

The development team's job is to find funding for the work of Educate Together. Each year we need to privately fundraise 85% of the running costs. We do this by talking to people about major investments, holding events like the Educate Together National Fundraising Day and asking for donations via appeals. Both Mary and Masina can be contacted about all aspects of this work.

Email Masina

Luke O’Shaughnessy

Communications Officer

Luke has held the Communications Officer role at Educate Together since April 2011. Before that, he worked as PA to Paul, the Chief Executive. As Communications Officer, he assists in the implementation of the organisation's communications to schools, and to the wider Educate Together community. He manages all of Educate Together's online activities - from the website to its social media presence. Educate Together's online community has seen huge growth in the past number of years, with schools, parents, students and staff all interacting online in new and innovative ways.

A graduate of UCD, Luke holds a BA International in History and Political Science. He has studied international relations at the University of California, and has completed an MA in Public Affairs and Political Communications at DIT. 

Jessica Simpson

CEO Diary Secretary

Jessica has been working with Educate Together since August 2011. Along with managing the diary of the CEO, Jessica also provides administration support for the National Office. Jessica is a recent graduate of St. Patrick's College, Maynooth where she completed a Masters in Theology. She also holds a B.A. in Theology and Spanish with a minor in Anthropology. Prior to joining Educate Together, Jessica tutored Systematic Theology and Biblical Studies at third level and also worked as a language tutor providing additional learning support to second level students.

Jarlath Costello

Administration Assistant

Jarlath joined Educate Together in December of 2012. His career had mainly been in the hotel industry in various front of house roles however prior to starting in his new position he worked as an administrative assistant / information officer with Citizens Information in Dublin city centre. 

A graduate of NUI Galway, he also studied for an MSc in Multimedia in DCU. Originally from north Galway, he has lived in Dublin for several years.

Sarah Williams

Volunteer Officer

Sarah is our Volunteer Officer and joined the National Office in July 2010. Sarah has had a varied career at operational and management level in the Corporate, Education and NGO Sectors. Driven by her commitment to volunteerism, Sarah has brought her 4.5 years of experience working with Volunteering Ireland to the team in Educate Together. Her role is to support voluntary engagement at both the national office level and across the network of schools. A passionate volunteer herself, she has volunteered with festivals, community radio, a programme addressing child begging and at Board level in three other organisations. A thirty-something year old resident of Dublin, Sarah is Canadian-Irish and her passion is music! A weekend stroll on Donabate beach with her dogs wraps up the week nicely!

Emma Grainger

Ethos Development Officer

Emma is the newest member of the Leadership and Governance Development team, having joined Educate Together in November 2011. A major aspect of the Ethos Development Officer role is supporting schools in examining their ethos through a self-evaluation process. This process forms the basis for much of Emma’s ongoing work as evaluation findings and the process itself often lead to additional support and training being provided to groups within the school community. Emma is also a point of contact for ethos related queries.

Emma’s background is in the non-formal education sector, having worked as a trainer and facilitator for many years before moving into research and evaluation work. Emma’s future learning plan includes finishing an MA in Child, Family and Community Studies to complement her B(Sc) Honors Degree in Education and Training.

Louise Daly

School Support Officer

Louise has held the position of School Support Officer at Educate Together for over 4 years. She is responsible for providing and developing training programmes for Boards of Management, both online and face-to-face.  She provides leadership support (confidential advice) to Chairpersons and Principals in the Educate Together network. She also provides support and guidance to school management in the following areas: HR (including recruitment, redeployment and contracts),  Enrolment, Child Protection, Garda Vetting and Patronage (leases, recruitment of school staff). 

Louise previously held the roles of Administration Manager and Team Assistant at Educate Together. She holds a M.A in History and a B.A. in History, Politics and Social Studies from UL. 

Fionnuala Ward

Primary Education Officer

Fionnuala co-ordinates courses on Educate Together and the Learn Together curriculum in the Colleges of Education. She edits online and face-to-courses on the Learn Together and is involved in supporting the curriculum in the schools through inservice and the development of resources.

Fionnuala is currently on career break from Griffith Barracks Multi-Denominational School, where she was Deputy Principal. 

Catherine O’Brien

Authorised Signatory for Garda Vetting (Voluntary)

Catherine is the liaision person between the Chairpersons of the Boards of Management and the Garda Central Vetting Unit.   She is responsible for the processing of all Garda Vetting Forms for all non-teaching staff and volunteers in the Educate Together network.

Catherine previously held the position of Chairperson of Rathfarnham Educate Together National School and was Chairperson of Educate Together at a time when there where only eight schools in the network.   She is married and her two boys were among the first pupils to attend Rathfarnham ETNS.

Ann Ryan

Second-Level Education Officer

Ann joined Educate Together in 2009 as Second-level Education Officer. She is responsible for planning towards the opening of the first Educate Together Second-level schools. This includes piloting specific curricular projects, co-ordinating volunteer working groups and communicating our second-level plans to wider audiences.

Ann has several years’ second-level teaching experience in schools in Ireland, the UK and Australia. She also supervises student teachers at NUI Maynooth, and previously worked as an Education Officer at the Irish Film Institute. She holds a Masters Degree in Drama from UCD and her daughter is a pupil in an Educate Together school.

Ruth Doggett

Second-level Programme Manager

Ruth Doggett is the Second-level Programme Manager and is responsible for co-ordinating the organisation's and network resources to ensure the best possible start for our new second-level schools due to open in September 2014.  Ruth is a qualified second-level teacher and brings to Educate Together her extensive experience of teaching and management in formal and non formal education at home and abroad, with organisations such as Save the Children, Focus Ireland and Comhlamh.

Ruth holds a Masters degree in Education, Gender and International Development from the Institute of Education in London and is driven by a commitment to education for social and global justice. A mother to three young children, Ruth is all too familiar with the need to secure more educational choice for our children and young people.

Amy Mulvihill

Regional Development Officer for South Leinster (Team Leader)

Amy leads the team of Regional Development Officers. Her role involves the establishment and management of new primary and second-level schools in the South Leinster region. 

Having spent five years as the Chairperson of the Start-up group and Board of Management of an Educate Together national school, Amy brought her volunteer experience to the national office when she began working as a New Schools Officer in 2007. A graduate of NUI Maynooth, she has been directly involved in the establishment of numerous Educate Together national schools throughout Ireland, and has extensive experience in school establishment and management. 

Gerry Mc Kevitt

Regional Development Officer for North Leinster (Dublin City North, Fingal, Louth, Meath, Monaghan)

Gerry first became involved in Educate Together in the late 1990s, as a parent member of the start-up which resulted in the opening of Swords ETNS. He then became involved in the national organisation as a volunteer, and later was the first New Schools Officer to be appointed to the National Office team in 2007. Gerry brings his extensive and valuable experience of establishing and managing numerous Educate Together primary schools to the role of Regional Development Officer.

Niall Wall

Regional Development Officer for Ireland South (Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Tipperary, Cork, Limerick and Kerry)

Niall is a Business Graduate and spent most of his working life in Industry but a lifetimes passion for education saw him join Educate Together four years ago and his drive, aligned to a sharp business acumen, has been a boon to the organisation in many ways. 

Jarlath Munnelly

Regional Development Officer for Ireland West

Jarlath Munnelly is Educate Together's Regional Development Officer for Ireland West, including the counties of Connacht, Cavan, Clare, Donegal, Longford & Westmeath. A teaching graduate from the University of Limerick, prior to working for Educate Together Jarlath taught in Limerick & Mayo.