Rockford Manor

Presentation School
“Inspiring Minds”
Careers Conference

March 8th, 2018

(International Women’s Day)

“A Christian environment where teaching and learning

nurture the personal development of every student”
Welcome to Rockford Manor School’s “Inspiring Minds” Careers Night. It is
the first time in many years that this event has taken place and we are delighted
that so many people have agreed to take part.

It is often difficult for students to decide what they would like to do after
school. Young people today are more likely to change careers a number of
times throughout their working lives than ever before. With this in mind, we
believe it is very important to expose students to a wide variety of career
options as early as possible in Secondary school.

The many professionals representing a diverse range of careers this evening

provide an excellent opportunity for students to learn about different careers
and the pathways they may take to pursue them.

I would particularly like to thank all of the professionals who have taken the
time to join us this evening. Students are encouraged to take advantage of
this fantastic opportunity to ask questions, explore their options and reflect
on the many possibilities open to them.

Finally, best wishes for an entertaining, informative and inspiring evening

and many thanks to everyone involved in the organisation of this event.

Liz Caffrey
 Biography of Participants

The future of work – “the key skills students need to

develop in the future”.
Peter Cosgrove holds a BComm and a MBS from UCD.
He is a director with CPL, the largest recruitment and
outsourcing consultancy in Ireland and founder of the
Future of Work Institute. He is a regular contributor to the
national media on areas of skills, talent, diversity, and the
future of work. Peter is on the steering committee of the
30% club which promotes gender diversity and on the
Peter Cosgrove
board of the mental health charity Aware. He is also the
current chairman of Blackrock Athletic Club.

Dr. Julie Broderick is a physiotherapist and lecturer in

Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. She worked for a
number of years as a physiotherapist before moving to
the university setting. Her research and clinical
interests are in the areas of cardio-respiratory, oncology
and mental health. She is supervising a number of
projects which study the effect of exercise in people
with chronic (long-term diseases) and how technology
Dr. Julie Broderick can help to encourage people with chronic disease to be
more physically active.
Biography of Participants

Mr Edward Dervan: MB BCh BAO, MSc, MD, MRCophth,

FRCSI (Ophth), Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Mater
Misericordiae University Hospital, Bons Secours Hospital,
Dublin and Mater Private Hospital, Dublin. His subspecialty
interests are glaucoma and cataract surgery. He qualified as a
doctor from University College Dublin in 1998. He
completed his ophthalmic surgical training in Ireland and
was awarded fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in
Ireland (Ophthalmology) in 2013. He also completed an
Mr Edward Dervan
advanced surgical fellowship in Perth,
Australia specialising in anterior segment disease, focusing primarily on glaucoma
and complex cataract surgery. He previously worked as a Consultant
Ophthalmologist in Perth before accepting a position as Consultant
Ophthalmologist specialising in glaucoma at the Mater Misericordiae University
Hospital in 2015. His research interests include understanding the basic science of
glaucoma, improving the clinical outcomes and the provision of services to patients
with glaucoma. He was awarded a research medical doctorate from University
College Dublin for his research on pseudoexfoliation glaucoma.

Conor Studied Science at NUI Galway and graduated in

2014 with a degree in Zoology. Since then he has been
working in the Aquaculture (Fish Farming) industry and
is currently working as hatchery manager for Keywater
Fisheries in Co. Sligo where they breed and grow Perch
for the Swiss market. Conor is currently undertaking a
Masters degree in Civil Engineering through NUI Galway
where he is studying the efficiencies of fish farms. In
September this year he will also start a Masters in
Conor Behan
Business and Biotechnology in UCD and he hopes to
move his career into the Biotechnology industry.
 Biography of Participants

Laura Mc Loughlin is the owner of a multi award winning

skin and beauty salon located in Blackrock, which will be
10 years old this December. With 14 years in the beauty
industry, Laura has changed her beauty background into a
more business background employing 12 staff members at
present and currently recruiting for more. Whilst battling
her illness, Multiple Sclerosis, the last 5 years, she doesn’t
think entrepreneur life should stop when it throws a curve
ball.
Laura Mc Loughlin

Jane holds a PhD in biology, in which she studied how

breast cancer cells respond to drug treatments. After
completing this degree at the Royal College of
Surgeons in Ireland, she carried out further cancer
research in a lab in Vancouver, Canada. Jane then
returned to Ireland to work in science communication
and education of people young and old, at Blackrock
Castle Observatory in Cork. She now works with
school teachers to enhance their professional
Jane O’Hara
development in technology at Trinity College Dublin.

Grace runs the CodePlus programme in Trinity College

Dublin which is an ongoing research project seeking to
explore the reasons for female under representation in
Computer Science at University level. CodePlus works
with girls schools to teach students and teachers coding,
computational thinking and to provide opportunities for
girls to explore careers in CS. Grace holds a B.Ed having
worked as a primary school teacher before studying
Computer Science and Education at Trinity College
Grace Lawlor
Dublin (M.Sc) and is currently studying for a Ph.D in the
School of Computer Science and Statistics.
Biography of Participants

Alison Gandola holds a BSc in Midwifery from

University College Dublin. She is Registered Midwife
working in the Labour Ward in the National Maternity
Hospital, Holles Street. After completing her Leaving
Certificate in Rockford Manor Alison worked in retail,
as a Youth Worker, Childcare assistant and as a Special
Needs Assistant. Inspired by working with and caring
for people Alison studied Nursing Studies in Dun
Laoghaire Further Education Institute where her results
Alison Gandola
ensued a place for her in UCD, where she graduated
with first class honors in 2017.

Lisa took her first flying lesson at the age of 13, and took
inspiration from this to set about planning a career in
aviation. She graduated from DCU with an honours
degree in Applied Physics and gained employment as a
flight dispatcher in Dublin Airport. With lengthy costs
involved to fund flying lessons, Lisa set up a cupcake
business, where she baked and sold over 10,000 cupcakes
to fund her private pilot’s license. Having completed the
first part of her training, she was selected as 1 of 12 out of
Lisa Cusack 3000 candidates as a cadet pilot, by Aer Lingus. She is
now a qualified pilot, flying the Airbus 320 daily across
Europe. The start of the summer sees her moving on to
the much larger Airbus 330 and flying to America. Lisa’s
next ambition is to achieve her ultimate dream of
becoming a Captain for Aer Lingus.
 Biography of Participants

Phoebe Collison is a Trinity College scholarship graduate

with a B.A. in Business, Economic and Social Studies and
M.Sc. in International Management. She also holds a
Diploma in International Business Development from the
Irish Management Institute and is a published author from
her research into the role of Chinese foreign direct
investment in Ireland. She has held a number of
Commercial, Product and User Experience roles within
the mobile technology industry in both the UK and
Phoebe Collison
Ireland and is currently working as a Digital Insights
Analyst at Travelport Digital, an app development
company for travel brands, based in Dublin

Mark holds an MSc in Strategic Procurement and is the

Procurement Manager with Bord Bia - The Irish Food
Board. Mark is a procurement, supply chain and
management professional with more than 30 years
experience. This experience was gained working for
national and international, private and public
organisations in manufacturing, telecommunications
and the health and food sectors. Mark was also a Judge
for the National Procurement Awards in 2012 and
Mark Kedney 2013. Marks role helps organisations to increase value,
reduce costs, perform process analysis and implement
improvements, manage projects, prepare, analyse and
award tenders, and negotiate contracts.
Biography of Participants

Karla Zambra graduated from DIT with a first class

honours degree in Media Arts with French. She
specialised in radio in her final year and her radio
documentary “A Little Grey Matter” won Newstalk’s
Emerging Voices competition. Karla started her career at
City Channel where she was part of the IFTA nominated
news team and also produced and presented a weekly
movie review show. Since then she has worked on a wide
variety of programmes for RTÉ and TV3. She is currently
Karla Zambra
an assistant producer on Ireland’s Got Talent.

Moya Doyle is a Senior Occupational Therapist (OT)

working for the HSE in Primary Care in Dublin South
City. She worked for 22 years in Canada and has
extensive experience working with clients with
neurological conditions and traumatic brain injury. Since
returning to Ireland in 2014 she joined the primary care
OT service and her area of clinical interest is in Dementia.
Moya completed a Dementia Champion course with DCU
in 2016 and is a Dementia Awareness Facilitator through
Moya Doyle
DemPath (St. James’s Hospital). Together with her
colleague, Katie Barry, Senior OT, she developed a
Community OT Clinical Care Pathway for clients with
Dementia which is being shared nationally.
 Biography of Participants

Nichola holds a BA hons degree in Training & Education

coupled with a dip in nutritional coaching. After
completing this degree within NUI Galway, she became
the Head Of Training and Education for Irelands largest
pharmacy group. Here she introduced the Training
department and developed their curriculum for 1000 staff
members. Through her career within the pharmacy sector
and her passion for health and nutrition she gained a dip
in Nutritional Coaching here she designed and developed
Nicola Flood the Change your health direction programme for Lloyds
Pharmacy. After 17 years within the Training
Education field she decided to turn her passion into her
career and is now the owner of The Queen Of Health.

Helen Tuffy studied intellectual disability nursing in St

Joseph’s Hospital Clonsilla where she qualified in 1996.
She started work as a staff nurse in Carmona services
Glenageary (St John of God). After a years’ experience
under her belt she moved to New York to work as a
medical counsellor & health care specialist for 2 years for
the largest learning disability agency in NY state.
Children’s nursing followed with a postgraduate diploma
Helen Tuffy from UCD in 2003 and a nursing career in Temple St
Children’s University Hospital since. She completed her
BsC in Nursing leadership and management in 2004. With
posts in surgical nursing and education, Helen is now the
Cleft Clinical Services Coordinator at the hospital.
 Ciara qualified with a Masters in Dramatherapy
from NUI Maynooth. She is now employed by the
School Completion Programme in Finglas to work
with young people who are at risk of leaving
school early. Ciara, a qualified mindfulness
facilitator teaches teachers a mindfulness for teens
programme in the schools that she works in. Ciara
has worked for the Gaiety School of Acting on
Ciara Cassoni their Outreach Programmes where she has
provided workshops on communication skills and
confidence building and on their “Breathe”
programme, a positive mental health workshop for
secondary school students and their teachers and
parents. Ciara also teaches for the Academy of
Dramatic Arts in Meath and teaches Mindfulness
privately. Ciara has also had her own plays
performed in Cork, Meath and at The New
Theatre in Dublin.
 Biography of Participants

Niamh was awarded with an honours degree (2.1) in a

Bachelor of Arts -Journalism, where she studied an
array of subjects including online, print and broadcast
media, as well as writing a thesis examining how the
public interpret images of female athletes output by the
media. After completing this degree at Dublin Institute
of technology, she worked in many areas in the field
and was hired by DIT and Campus.ie as editor running
a newspaper for over 13,000 students across Dublin
Niamh Haskins and a website with over 100,000 views per day.
Niamh gained incredible experience on a six-week
internship with RTE Radio (News at one) and now
works as a freelance graphic designer and writer with
both VIP Magazine and the Gazette Group, along with
running Campus.ie.

Francisco holds a Bachelor Degree in Business

Administration. He started his career in the Marketing
department of France Telecom in Spain, before the
www existed. Since then his career has been linked to
the IT Industry in Spain with different management
positions. Two years ago, he moved to Dublin with his
family to lead a sales team in LinkedIn that helps
companies to sell more efficiently by using better the
Francisco De Sebastian
digital channels.
Biography of Participants

Maria McLaughlin has been working as Manager of

programmes in international development with Plan
International since March 2017. She has been working in
technical advice, research and programme management in
long term development work in Africa and Asia for almost
15 years. She specialises in youth and women’s economic
empowerment and enterprise development. Before moving to
West Africa in 2006, Maria managed youth projects in
Maria Mc Loughlin Ireland and London, and was a strategy advisor to local
government and public services in London. Maria has a
BA(hons) in Peace and Conflict Studies from University of
Ulster, and a Masters in Development and Anthropology
from London School of Economics.

Des is the Chief Financial Officer at a financial services

group in Dublin. Des is responsible for the day to day
running of the finance department, which includes
financial reporting, planning and record-keeping,
managing the financial risks and the IT function of the
Group. Des studied at NUI Galway where he completed
a BA in Legal Science and Economics and continued his
studies in DCU where he completed a professional
diploma in accountancy. Des joined the accountancy and
Des Mclean advisory firm Deloitte in 2007 where he qualified as a
chartered accountant and has since held a number of
positions ranging from finance to operational risk.
 Biography of Participants

David Caffrey began his film & tv career with various

production roles on b-movies with Roger Corman. Short
films, CONNIVERS, BANTAMS and BOLT caught the eye
of the industry, resulting in a move to the feature film arena
with DIVORCING JACK for Scala Productions then onto
the 18th Century Mini-series ARISTOCRATS for
BBC/WGBH. ON THE NOSE, a comedy feature for
Subotica/Universal and GRAND THEFT PARSONS for
David Caffrey Swipe Films/Lionsgate followed. Since then work has
alternated between commercials and television drama; the
latter including series one of LINE OF DUTY for
BBC/World productions, 5 Seasons of LOVE/HATE for
RTE/Octagon and LUCKY MAN for SKY/Carnival. More
recently he completed the full first season of PRIME
SUSPECT 1973 for ITV/NOHO and the latest series of
PEAKY BLINDERS for BBC/Tiger Aspect/CM Production
 Biography of Participants

Fiona studied Physics, Biology, Home economics, and

French in secondary school. She then went on to study
science in Trinity where the core subjects for 1st and 2nd
year were Biology, Chemistry, Geology and Maths. In
third year Fiona decided to specialise in Immunology.
This is the study of the immune system and examines
ways in which diseases can overcome the immune system
and ways in which our body tries to defend against
disease at a cellular level. During her time in Trinity
Fiona O’Sullivan Fiona completed two summer internships in laboratories
in other universities, one in UCD and one in UCC.
After graduating in 2014 Fiona decided to continue in
research and decided to do a Ph.D. in Epidemiology.
This is the study of population health and how certain
factors can affect health outcomes in the population.
This involved examining associations between certain
factors and diseases using statistics. Fiona’s project
was based on vitamin D and UVB and the risk and
survival of oesophageal and gastric cancer. This project
involved examining vitamin D levels in a large
population of Irish adults and using data from
European Space Agency (ESA) satellites to measure
UVB levels over Ireland. These measures were then
used to determine if the general population has a lower
risk of developing oesophageal and gastric cancer if
they had higher vitamin D concentrations or if they had
been exposed to higher UVB doses.
Biography of Participants

Grace completed a one-year course in Hairdressing and

Beauty therapy in Blackrock College of Further Education
with State exams in Hairdressing and in Beauty Therapy.
Grace continued her apprenticeship with Peter Mark which
followed on into management, during her time in Peter Mark
she was a member of the Irish Hairdressing team and
competed in national and international competitions. Grace
Grace Lawlor was also an in-salon trainer from the time she qualified with
the company. Grace has an ITEC diploma in Holistic
massage therapy, Anatomy and physiology and Indian head
massage. Grace has been in Sallynoggin College of Further
Education since 2002 and has taught Hairdressing QQI level
5, Junior and Senior Trade Hairdressing, Communications,
Team Leadership level 6, Health Promotion Level 6. Grace
is a past student of Rockford Manor.

Edward qualified from UCD in 1997 in Veterinary

Medicine. He holds a Masters in European Food and
Regulatory Affairs and obtained the General Practitioner
Certificate in Small Animal Surgery in 2009. His interests
are mainly in the area of soft tissue surgery and is
particularly skilled in the field of orthopaedic surgery and
fracture repair. Edward lives in Meath with his family.

Edward Gillic
 Biography of Participants

Adrian Eames hails from Sligo and has vast experience

working in radio as a presenter, commentator and
producer. Now with RTE, he has previously worked for
Mid-West Radio, North West Radio (now Ocean FM)
and FM 104. Joining RTE in 1998, he has presented all
of the flagship sports programmes on RTE Radio,
including Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport, Sport at 7,
Drivetime Sport and Game On. He works both in radio
and television. Adrian has been Head of the RTE Radio
Adrian Eames
Team for three Olympic and Paralympic Games (Beijing,
London and Rio De Janeiro). Having commentated on the
World Cup in South Africa (2010) and Rio (2014) for
RTE Television, he will take on that role for the third time
this summer, when he travels to the World Cup in Russia
as television commentator for RTE. Adrian has won many
awards for his work, including the ESB Media Award for
Best Sports Programme, PPI Gold Radio Award for
RTE’s radio coverage of the Beijing Olympics, Best
Producer/Presenter of the Paralympic Games and has
twice won the FAI Communication Award for
Feature/Broadcast of the Year.
Biography of Participant

Natasha has always had a huge interest in Computer

Science since her early years. She holds a Bachelor of
Science in Business Computing. She studied many
different programming languages including Java,
JavaScript and Ruby. Today she is an iOS Developer
switching between Objective-C and Swift depending on
what projects she is working on. Natasha is currently
contracting in a company called CarTrawler (recently
voted the 16th best place to work in in Ireland) working
Natasha Cole on an SDK for car rental during booking. She previously
worked on the easyJet application in a company called
Travelport Digital since 2014 and has had many other
projects throughout her career.
 Biography of Participants

In 1999 Larry Founded ShinAwiL Productions Ltd. Larry

has Executive Produced the Irish versions of series’, The
Apprentice that won 2 IFTA’s, Dragons’ Den, Master
Chef Ireland, The Voice of Ireland and most recently the
hugely successful Dancing with The Stars. Other recent
productions include Home of the Year, What are you
Eating? Now the ShinAwiL focus is on International
Drama. Larry has sat on many boards including: Screen
Producers Ireland, Screen Training Ireland, Board of the
Larry Bass
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, currently sits on the
Irish Film Board and Entertainment Masterclass. He has
also sat on a jury for the International Emmys, Rose d’Or,
BANFF and Real Screen Television Awards. Larry has
guest lectured at DIT Dublin, IADT Dublin, MipTV and
MIPCOM, SPAA Australia and Entertainment
Masterclass. In his spare time Larry is Chairman of
National League Soccer club Cabinteely FC.

John Fogarty (38) has been the Gaelic Games

Correspondent of the Irish Examiner since 2010. Prior
to that, he was a sports reporter and chief sports sub-
editor with the Irish Mail on Sunday/Ireland on Sunday
where he worked for 12 years. John studied English
and Sociology in NUI Maynooth, editing the college
newspaper in his final year there. He was awarded the
McNamee National GAA Journalism award in 2006.
He lives in Firhouse, Dublin.
John Fogarty
Biography of Participants

Fabian is Lecturer in Transfusion Science in Dublin

Institute of Technology and Member of the Transfusion
Transplantation Advisory Board of the Academy of
Clinical Science and Laboratory Medicine(ACSLM). He
studied in DIT receiving his BSc from Trinity College
Dublin in 1992 and his MSc, with distinction, from TCD
in 2000 . Fabian worked as Medical Scientist for 17 years
in several locations in Dublin, including the Irish Blood
Trans Service and the Mater hospital before becoming a
Fabian McGrath
Senior Medical Scientist in 1998 in Tallaght Hospital. In
2001, he moved to the Netherlands where he worked in
research in the department of immunopathology at
Sanquin Blood Centre in Amsterdam. While there, he
published several scientific papers on the immune system
protein Complement C1q. Since 2007, Fabian has been
lecturing to undergraduate and post graduate students in
DIT and is the Chair of the MSc in Clinical Laboratory
Science.

Teodora Stoyanova is the Relationship Manager at

LinkedIn and has been working within the company for
3 years. As a Relationship Manager she works with
Spanish companies helping them to optimize their
recruitment and employer branding strategy. Before
LinkedIn, she worked at Google for one year as a
Business development specialist.

Teodora Stoyanova
 Biography of Participants

Fiona O Connor is an Early Years Teacher. Initially she

went to college and studied Dance and Performance for
one year but then changed career paths and began a
degree in Early Childhood Education. She holds a BA. in
Early Childhood Education and is also a fully qualified
Forest School Leader. Fiona’s experience is mainly with
young children from ages 3-6 and she currently works in a
primary school where she teaches ages 3-4 in the morning
and then teaches ages 4-6 outside in the forest in the
Fiona O Connor
afternoon. Fiona has a passion for traveling and
volunteering. She has travelled to Malawi in Africa twice
to help with improving and sustaining Early Years and
Adult Education.

Ciara studied Computing in IT Tallaght and then

Computer Applications in DCU. She worked in Amazon
during college as a Systems Engineer Intern for 6 months.
She joined Workday as a Graduate Software Engineer in
2016 as part of their Technology Rotation Program.
Workday is an American cloud enterprise software
company with its EU headquarters in Dublin. Ciara is
now finished the graduate program and working as part of
Ciara Mc Auley the Statistics Warehouse team which deals with
processing and storing petabytes of data.
Biography of Participants

Lisa has a Distinction Bachelor of Arts degree in

leisure management and soon to have a Bachelor of
Science (Hons) degree in Leisure Management through
Dublin Institute of Technology. She currently works
for DLR Leisure and holds various Internationally
recognised fitness qualifications, from swim teaching
to gym instruction and various group exercise
qualifications. Lisa has experienced all elements of life
after secondary school, failed attempt at 3rd level
Lisa Donnelly
education, working full time, PLC courses and now
back to third level while maintaining a full-time job.