TWN Board

Lesley Reilly (Chairperson)

Elected as Chair of TWN in 2006, Lesley, along with her colleagues, has developed Key Associates NI into a small, yet highly successful training organisation specialising in Train the Trainer Programmes, ILM Qualifications, Coaching as well as in a range of other specialised seminars relating to Accelerated Learning and Confidence Building.

A willingness to help people from all walks of life to develop their potential led Lesley and her colleagues to develop KeyMix, a series of workshops for aspiring young DJs that has been influential in helping many of those attending realise their dreams.

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Tory Kerley (Vice-Chairperson)

Tory Kerley is a free-lance Skills Consultant living and working in Northern Ireland. Having worked for five years as a National Manager for Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for the Retail Sector, Tory has developed expert knowledge of the UK Skills and Lifelong Learning Agenda with specific expertise in Northern Ireland. An experienced project manager with clear understanding of, and strong relationships with the many stakeholder bodies involved, she is ideally placed to deliver skills and learning based projects or analysis and advice for both public and private sector organisations.

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Margaret Baumann (Secretary)

Originally from Scotland, Margaret lived and worked in Switzerland and Canada for some years before settling in Northern Ireland. In over thirty years in Further Education she had varied responsibilities, being at one time or another responsible for General Education, Catering, Hairdressing, Music, Performing Arts, Art and Design, Recreation and Leisure and Adult Education, including Basic Skills and other courses suitable for returners who had been out of education and training for a long time. Seeing the pride and pleasure gained from progress made once the initial step had been taken is always gratifying.

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Heather Louden (Treasurer)

Heather is a qualified accountant and qualified when there were very few women in the profession. She has worked in a variety of finance roles in the private sector in an accountancy practice and in a variety of manufacturing companies. Heather moved to the public sector in 1993 when she joined Belfast City Council. During her time there she gained considerable experience in delivering front line services to the public, and a range of administrative support services e.g. finance, human resources, information technology and quality.

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Alison Blayney

As Director of Kilcooley Women's Centre in Bangor, Co Down, Alison provides strategic leadership for the centre's programmes, which provide education (with childcare provision), health and well-being, personal development for women in Kilcooley estate and the wider North Down and Ards areas. Kilcooley Women's Centre is an accredited learning centre for a wide range of awarding bodies including AQA, CCEA, OCR, City and Guilds, British Computer Society and Open College Network.

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Billy Gamble

Billy Gamble was born in Belfast and educated at Kelvin Secondary and Orangefiled Boy's school. He joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service in October 1971 and completed a BSc Economics at Queen's University Belfast through evening study. He took early retirement from Cicil Service in December 2007, after 36 years.

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Ciara Mallon

Ciara Mallon joined AIB in 1990 and began her career working in corporate and retail banking. She then moved to the First Trust Bank branch network, where she managed the student branches in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and University Road . Ciara then moved to Ormeau Road, where she was the Retail Officer for 2 years, and is currently the Retail Officer in Andersonstown Branch.

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Gareth Porter

Gareth graduated from Queen's University with a BA Degree in Ancient History and Political Science. He also has a Post Graduate SSci Diploma in Psychological Trauma from University of Ulster. For over 25 years Gareth has worked in the voluntary and community sector and is a founding member of the Trauma Support Group for Conflict Victims in the Upper Bann area (H.U.R.T).

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Mary Hogg

Mary Hogg is currently Centre Development Manager of Cookstown & District Women's Group, which represents one of the largest rural women's groups in Northern Ireland.

Mary has a great enthusiasm for building women's capacity both personally and professionally and enjoys working at grass root levels. She is fully aware of the issues regarding funding for the more isolated women's groups in the rural communities and in the past year has helped them by outreaching courses to them.

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Patricia Lewsley

Patricia Lewsley took up post as Commissioner for Children and Young People on 8th January 2007. A former MLA and district councillor, Ms Lewsley had a long track record working for children and young people before becoming Commissioner.

Patricia chaired the All-Party Assembly Group on Children and Young People and brought and led efforts through the Assembly to put Area Child Protection Committees on a statutory basis.

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Sonya Cassidy

As a Director at Weber Shandwick, Sonya provides strategic direction and leadership on a daily basis. She has particular expertise in the area of marketing communications, corporate and business-to-business PR, coordinating and developing innovative and creative solutions for a range of consumer and corporate clients. Sonya has an excellent working knowledge of print and broadcast media on an all Ireland basis.

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