The Team

Gavin Haughey has been a senior administrator/ researcher within the External Funding and International Affairs (EFIAT) Unit at Southern Regional College (SRC) for the past ten years. Through his role he has gained extensive experience of research, administration and coordination on externally funded projects under the Lifelong Learning programme and then onto Erasmus+ programmes. Gavin’s initial role at SRC was Research Officer for supporting a major project commissioned by the Southern Health & Social Care Trust that examined the health inequalities of Craigavon Neighbourhood Renewal Areas (NRAs). His role then progressed onto the current role as Senior Administrator of EFIAT. He also assists with the submission of a series of funding applications under the Erasmus+ programme. Prior to Gavin’s employment at SRC, he has worked in the private sector for a number of years and has gained experience in both SME business and hospitality sectors.

Andrew Porterfield has been working in the field of English language teaching for over 20 years and has taught extensively in private language schools, colleges, schools, prisons and online in Korea, Taiwan and the UK.  He currently oversees the successful delivery of SRC's ESOL programmes across all six campuses.  In addition to this, he has also coordinated and developed learning materials for several EU funded projects with focuses on language learning, cultural diversity, well-being and social inclusion.  Currently he is working on and creating content for two Erasmus+ projects.  He also writes and edits learning materials for several global education publishers.

Dorothy McCracken is lecturer in Computing with 24 years' experience in delivering Level 2 - Level 5 Computing Qualifications.   Her main area of interest is in Cyber Security, having collaborated with OCN NI in writing the content and specification for the Level 2 and Level 4 Cyber Security qualifications.  Dorothy has also participated in an Erasmus funded EU project on raising awareness in Cyber Security with other European Partners.  Dorothy also works in an external capacity with examination boards for the moderation and verification of qualifications in the UK and is also involved in endorsing new materials to be published for OCR qualifications.

Dr. Colletta Dalikeni is lecturer and researcher on the Social Care Programme at Dundalk Institute of Technology.   Her research and teaching interests have a bias towards culturally competent social work practice with various ethnic minority categories such as immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees.  Some of her current work is focussed on creating safe spaces and conducive conditions for addressing race-based issues in both social work practice and education through asking difficult questions about Racism. Her other current preoccupations involves collaborating on Erasmus Plus funded EU projects that are also aimed at social inclusion and integration at national and EU levels.

Gloria Torre has worked as a mining engineer in various mines in Spain, but two years ago she discovered her true vocation as a science teacher, leaving behind a project in South Africa to replace it by helping and supporting students who have not finished Secondary Education. to find their enthusiasm for teaching again and find their profession of the future. Currently she has just finished a master's degree in prevention and psychological intervention in behavior problems at school. 

Pablo Álvarez has been part of Educational sector since he finished his studies. Teaching and supporting students are his passion to the point of starting a business in the sector. Before entering to Decroly´s team in 2017, for 3 years he was the manager of a tutoring and private classes company. He, apart from working as a teacher within the business and marketing department, currently coordinates Decroly’s Quality Department to improve the organization effectiveness and efficiency. He is also part of the international department collaborating and managing Europass documents. Bridges is his first step within EU founded projects. 

Gonzalo Gonzalez has a degree in Economics with extensive work experience in both national and multinational companies. Gonzalo is currently a teacher in a vocational training centre, and is involved in European Projects and Erasmus Programs, collaborating with centres in other European countries that help to enrich and favour learning processes. He will participate in the next meetings with European partners by traveling to their headquarters in their countries of origin.

Mirian Alonso has a degree in Modern Languages and Literature, specializing in French and German. Since she finished her studies, she has been totally linked to the Education sector, since she has completed a Master in Teacher Training in French language and since then she has worked with different educational levels to train, help and support them in one of the most important stages of their lives.  In addition, throughout her working life she has worked in other sectors such as the world of translation.  Finally, Mirian is currently part of the teaching staff at Decroly, in the language department.

Sean McCormick has over 30 years’ experience in learning and development mostly spent in technology education. His current role in Open College Network Northern Ireland, since 2019, is Innovation and Qualifications Manager and prior to that he had been a Business Development Officer since 2008. The role consists of working with partner organisations to develop projects and business and, in particular, develop new or update existing qualifications. As such, he has a broad understanding of the adult education system. 

Prior to his current role with OCN NI, he was a Cisco Systems Education Manager for Australia and New Zealand from 2004 to 2008.  And from 2000 to 2004, he ran an IT education consultancy working with Cisco Systems and other IT multinationals including Microsoft, 3Com and IBM as well as government including Multimedia Victoria. Previous to this he was Executive Director of an industry training advisory body for the IT, communication, electrotechnology and printing industries and has also been a software developer. He holds a degree is in electronics engineering but more recently gained a post-graduate degree in multimedia development. 

Dmitrijs Zverevs, ex-head of the board and trainer. With his professional background in youth work and community building, he has excellent experience in provision of quality trainings for youth and youth workers, project management and cross-sectoral cooperation.  His “daytime” job is related to coordination and strategic planning of municipal youth work in Education, Culture and Sports Department of Riga City Council.

He has experience in implementation of various local, regional and international projects which provided participants an opportunity to take part in joint educational activities, largely peer-learning and adventure education-related, in order to learn about participation, recycling and upcycling, as well as to improve their teamwork, self-expression, argumentation, media literacy, strategic planning  skills.

For the last 3 years Dmitrijs has been particularly focusing on development of support structures for young people at risk, as well as international youth work within the Union of the Baltic Cities framework.

Jevgenijs Rojs, project manager, has great experience in multiyear and multicultural project management, promotes entrepreneurial thinking and business start-ups possibilities among youngsters and disadvantaged people, emphasizes significance of person’s creative potential and its usage in generating items with high added value. 

Ilona Roja, member of the board. She has great experience in training teachers, social workers, disabled people. She developed numerous creative non-formal education courses that are used in RIC to encourage people to find their desired place in society, be its full-fledged and active members and to discover the ways of getting there through self-development. She has great experience in training teachers, social workers, elderly and disabled people.

Olga Pekarska, teacher, during the last couple of years held arts-related courses for local authorities’ social workers from different regions of Latvia,  private and state school teachers, camp leaders, families. Activities she organises demonstrate high level of inclusiveness and are easy to participate in also for those who have been excluded from education or labor market for a long time for example the long-term unemployed and retired. 

Ester Rokka has worked as a Finnish as a Second Language teacher, immigrant educator and pre-literacy tutor for 20 years. She has worked in different projects, created and developed teaching material for professional Finnish language materials and e-learning content.

Sini Tullinen, teacher, online educator. Sini has worked for several years Finnish as a second language teacher and has a lot of experience working with immigrants from various backgrounds and ages. Sini has also been part of creating different kinds of material and developing pre-entry courses for immigrants to entry vocational school. As she majored in foreign languages (French and Spanish), she is also familiar with that sort of pedagogy and has experience of teaching French and Spanish to Finnish adult learners.

Elisa Hassinen, international development coordinator, is responsible for internationalisation development and international project management at Salpaus. Elisa has worked for 20 years in international education and in international projects, especially in Leonardo da Vinci, LLL and Erasmus projects. In her previous employment she has worked as project manager of an ESF project supporting international students’ integration and employment skills.