Board of Trustees - Profiles

Ray Snowdon

Business Development Consultant, PDS Group
Ray's industrial experience was gained primarily in the private sector - working as an IT professional within both SMEs and multi-nationals (Unilever and BICC) where he specialised in the implementation of manufacturing systems and he also had a spell in the public sector working for the Freeman Group of Hospitals.

He joined academia at Northumbria University in the early 90s, latterly becoming Director of Academic Programmes for the School of Informatics and then Manager of the New Technology Institute for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. In May 2004, Ray joined the Sector Skills Council for IT, e-skills uk, as Regional Development Manager for the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber before joining Proskills UK in March 2006. During his time at Proskills UK he was involved in leading activities across the Nations and Regions Team before taking up the role of Project Director for the National Skills Academy for Materials, Production & Supply. He then returned to e-skills UK and was involved in the development of the National Skills Academy for IT and the e-skills Professional Programme. Following a short period working as an independent consultant Ray joined leading IT and Telecoms apprenticeship consultancy PDS Group as Business Development Consultant.

Ray is the Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Alan Bell

Director, Europa Consumer Solutions
Alan has over 30 years experience of working in the education sector as a teacher, trainer, operational and strategic manager as well as holding a number of directorships.

Alan's career in education started when he moved from a Personnel Management role to become an Advisor with the Food Drink and Tobacco Industry Training Board. This was a role which involved helping companies to improve their efficiency and effectiveness via the education and training route which was evaluated against a levy and grant process. He also taught in Adult, Further and Higher Education and has undertaken the role of external moderator.

Alan is joint Director of Europa Consumer Solutions supporting countries who wish to join Europe or have joined and are required to have consumer laws in line with European laws.

Alan has been involved with the OCN for a number of years and prior to his role on the OCNNER Board was a TROCN Board member and former Chair of the Finance and Business Development Committee. Alan is a member of the Finance Committee.

Hilary Bennison

Assistant Director, Student Services, Open University in the North
Hilary has worked for the Open University of the North for 20 years, joining the organisation as a student adviser and subsequently managing the region's widening participation activity and leading the External Relations team. In 2008 she progressed into the role of Assistant Director (Planning and Resources), and as a result of a recent restructuring exercise is now in charge of the North Region.

Hilary started her working life as a Careers Adviser for Newcastle Education Department and after 5 years of working in schools in the East end of the city, moved into adult guidance. This specialism led to spells of running Restart workshops for the long-term unemployed and working as Project Manager on a scheme to help the unemployed in rural areas of Northumberland.

Her recent work experience with the Open University has involved managing the OU's contribution to local Aimhigher projects in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham, and developing progression routes into Higher Education through community education and FE providers.

Dave Duell

Retired
Dave has been involved in education for over 30 years, both in secondary schools and the Further Education sector, and he has held a number of roles in his career. He has been Head of Science in a large secondary school, and has held Curriculum Manager, Head of Department and cross-college management positions in Further Education colleges. He took early retirement in January 2011 from his role as Assistant Principal with responsibility for a large Higher Education and Access provision at the City of Sunderland College.

Dave has a passion for creating opportunities to widen participation into Higher Education in the region, and he has steered the development and growth of college-based Higher Education and Access to Higher Education programmes in Sunderland over the last decade. He therefore has an in-depth knowledge of issues associated with managing funding, curriculum development, validation and the quality assurance of such programmes. He was involved in the development of Access provision in the early 1990s and has had a close involvement with the Open College Network ever since.

He is Vice Chair of the Access Committee and is Chair of the Access Quality Enhancement Committee. Dave also sits on the Finance Committee.

Dave now works as a volunteer to promote the educational work of a national charity and accepts consultancy work associated with the FE/HE sector.

Kathy Dunn

Retired
Kathy has been a keen supporter of the Open College Network since she became the Access Co-ordinator at Teesside University and Chaired the Working Party which established the Teesside Region OCN (TROCN) in 1994. Subsequently Kathy became the first Chair of TROCN and chaired both the original Access to HE and Quality Committees.

Although now retired from Teesside University, Kathy continues to support the Open College Network as a Trustee, and is also a Governor at Redcar and Cleveland College.

Kathy Chairs the Personnel Monitoring and Advisory Group.

Minna Ireland

Freelance Management and Training Consultant
Minna is a freelance Management and Training Consultant who works mainly with the voluntary/community sector and social enterprises. She has many years experience as Honorary Treasurer of several national and regional charities. Currently she Chairs the North East Empowerment Partnership.

She has been a Trustee of OCN North East Region since its formation.

Her commitment to quality in the accreditation process may be seen in that, formerly a volunteer Moderator for TROCN, Minna is now both an active External Verifier and also holds three Chief Verifier roles for OCR - in Management & Leadership, Business Enterprise and Business Support.

Minna is a published author of both management and local history, and is Clerk to the Parish Council of Elwick.

Minna Chairs the Finance Committee.

Mary Lindsay

Entrepreneur
Mary has fulfilled a variety of roles during the last 17 years working within the Further Education sector. During this time, working at Gateshead College, she acted as Lecturer, Head of Department of Business IT and then Assistant Principal for Adult Skills and Higher Education before leaving to start her own business. She has a wealth of experience in managing and leading teams of staff and monitoring the achievement of quality standards, performance and business targets. Mary also has significant levels of experience in development and delivery of education and curriculum planning across age groups 16-19, Adult and Higher Education.

Mary is currently at the fledgling stage of establishing her new business. Through the identification and creation of opportunities she is now accessing market developments and building a business in the supply of Sugarcraft and creation of specialist cakes.

Kevin Loughlin

Specialist Services Leader, Finchale Training College
With many years experience of training and personal development, Kevin now specialises in helping disabled adults achieve their full potential.

This involves engaging with the most vulnerable groups in society, particularly those with specific learning difficulties and others who have difficulty learning due to what is often a range of hidden impairments, including mental and emotional well-being.

Kevin's work experience includes leadership roles, promoting equality and raising standards and quality of training and teaching. He is particularly passionate about ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to "access learning" and experience the benefits learning can have in enhancing a person's all round well-being.

Kevin is especially proud of the major contribution he has made towards the recognition of neuro-developmental communication disorders being very much connected and co-occurring across a spectrum, now more commonly referred to as neurodiversity.

Sandra A Morton

Vice Principal Curriculum and Quality, Middlesbrough College
Sandra has worked in Further Education for 25 years following a successful earlier career working for multi-national private companies in finance and business roles. Her first role in FE was as a lecturer. Since then she has held a number of posts, including Curriculum Leader, Head of Department and a number of cross college roles at middle and senior management level, including College Nominee for two Ofsted inspections.

During her career in FE Sandra has taken two opportunities to step out of the sector for specific project work, but always staying close to emerging national agenda. Sandra undertook a two year secondment to support a National Research Project on the Implementation of a Credit Framework. This led to the reconstruction of a National Award into credit based units, something not done previously, and was one of the early research projects which informed the development of the Qualification and Credit Framework. Sandra also spent three years leading and managing the delivery of an Area Wide 14-19 Post-Inspection Action Plan, as a pre-cursor to the 14-19 Pathfinder Projects in 2002. This provided an opportunity to work closely with the Secondary Education sector as well as FE and with key funding and other stakeholder partners within a Strategic Partnership Board.

Sandra continues to be highly motivated in her role in Further Education and is proud to be the senior manager for curriculum and quality at Middlesbrough College. She believes passionately in the opportunities that further education provides for young people and for adults and that for many people their engagement with the sector can be life-changing. Equally she believes that the sector has a major role to play in the recovery of our economy.

Bernie Wallis

Assistant Dean, School of Health & Social Care, Teesside University
Bernie is a registered nurse and after spending 16 years as a ward sister in the North East of England, joined Higher Education in 1992, teaching and leading nursing programmes and practice development as a Principal Lecturer. During this time she maintained an element of clincial practice and research within her various academic roles and published in books and journals.

Bernie has experience of strategic working within the Health Service as well as in Higher Education, and joined the Senior Management Team of the School as an Assistant Dean in 2004. In her role as Assistant Dean, she is responsible for Workforce Development ensuring the range of educational provision offered in the School meet the needs of the Health and Social Care workforce. Bernie is also responsibile for monitoring the quality of Teesside University Awards delivered in conjunction with the School of Health and Social Care by UK external partner organisations. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Bernie Chairs the Standards and Regulation Committee.

Pat Whaley

Self Employed Consultant
Until the end of March 2011 Pat was the NIACE Programme Director for Higher Education and the Regional Programme Director for the North East.

Pat has worked in a number of universities, as a historian and in the field of adult, continuing and community education, having been Director for Lifelong Learning and Community Studies at the University of Durham. She has been an external examiner, advisor and moderator for a variety of Programmes, including OCN, undergraduate and post graduate HE. Her career has been characterised by cross sectoral, collaborative and developmental ways of working, and leadership and membership of a number of key local, regional and national committees and working parties.

She Chairs the cross-sectoral Regional Adult Learning Forum, co-Chairs the regional LSC Equality and Diversity Steering Group, and sits on a number of regional Boards, Committees, Working Parties and Networks. She is Honorary Vice Chair of the Workers' Educational Association North East Region. Pat has also been involved with Adult Learners' Week, which promotes and celebrates learners and learning, since 1994.

Pat has researched and published quite extensively on issues of access, curriculum development, widening participation and women's education, and, as a historian, on women's history and community history. Some of her research has been televised.

Andy Wright

Assistant Principal Curriculum, Dumfries and Galloway College
Andy has been involved in Further Education for 22 years in a variety of roles from Lecturer, Curriculum Manager, College Equal Opportunities Coordinator, through to Curriculum Manager at Furness College in Cumbria.

He moved to Dumfries and Galloway College in 2002 as Head of Department for Arts and Technology and was promoted in 2005 to Assistant Principal, and more recently also now has Deputy responsibilities.

Other roles Andy has been involved in are Chair for the More Choices, More Chances Strategy Group, and Specialist Advisor and Presenter for Scottish Qualifications Authority. Andy also represents the Scottish Government on the SQA Advisory Council.

Andy is passionate about creating learning opportunities for individuals and communities and sees his work with the OCN as supporting these aspirations for all concerned.

Andy has introduced OCN frameworks into his own College and has seen real benefits of true access programmes. He Chairs the Access to HE Committee and is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Edward Young

Programme Manager, Workforce, NHS North East
Ed has been involved in workforce development in the private and public sector since 1982. Following an 11 year spell with City Hospitals Sunderland he has worked at regional level within the NHS since autumn 2002. Currently he works within NHS North East People, the workforce arm of the strategic health authority.

His role has involved working with organisations at regional and national level to widen access to learning. This includes being an active member of the Regional Adult Learners Forum and working with a wide range of learning providers to develop access to learning pathways that improve life chances and health and well being.

His current areas of work involve supporting NHS organisations to develop their capacity and capability to deliver:

• The NHS Constitution and Staff Pledges
• Capacity to support the public health agenda
• Improved appraisal and personal development planning
• E-Learning
• Supporting Library and Knowledge Services