Staff
Management Team
Eddie McConnell
Chief Executive
Eddie joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland as its new Chief Executive in August 2019. He has held several senior leadership roles across Scotland’s third sector and public sector and he is the current Chair of the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability. A member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Disabled Children and Young People, he was closely involved in shaping the Scottish Government’s Keys to life strategy for people with a learning disability. Eddie is married to Carolyn and they have five children, the youngest has Down’s syndrome. He lives in Cumbernauld where he enjoys lots of great walking with the family dog and, when he gets a chance, he is known to pound the streets as he tries to re-awaken distant memories of his past marathon running days.
Rory Gaffney
Head of Operations
Rory joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in May 2017. He has a background in social housing and has worked for over 20 years in the Scottish voluntary sector. He has operated in various leadership roles and has extensive experience of leading and managing multi-disciplinary teams to deliver effective and efficient services across the charitable sector.
Jo Hughes
Family Support Service Manager
Jo lives in East Ayrshire with her husband and 2 boys. Before joining Down’s Syndrome Scotland Jo worked as Learning and Development Manager in the corporate bank sector. Jo joined DS Scotland in 2011 as Family Support Officer for the South. She now manages the service across Scotland.
Family Support Service
Shona Robertson
Senior Family Support Service Officer (Highlands, Islands & Moray)
Shona Robertson
Senior Family Support Service Officer (Highlands, Islands & Moray)
shona@dsscotland.org.uk
01463 237489
Previously Shona worked as the Team Leader in a day service which supported adults with both learning and physical disabilities, she organised the daily activities with her team and worked closely with parents/carers as well as professionals to ensure the care provided was person centred and people were reaching their full potential and participating in activities that they enjoyed.
Morag Shields
Family Support Service Officer (South East of Scotland)
Morag Shields
Family Support Service Officer (South East of Scotland)
Morag@dsscotland.org.uk
0131 442 8847
Morag qualified as a Childcare and Education Worker in 1998 and has continued to deliver services to children and adults with learning disabilities in a variety of settings.
She covers the South east of Scotland.
Varshali Swadi
Family Support Service Officer (West of Scotland)
Varshali Swadi
Family Support Service Officer (West of Scotland)
Varshali@dsscotland.org.uk
07590 047 471
Varshali lives in Bearsden with her husband and two children. She has a post graduate degree in Early Years and worked as a teacher for several years in her home country India before moving to the UK in 2002. Since then she has worked for the Meriden Women’s Resource Centre and The National Deaf Children’s Society. Varshali joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in 2017 and covers the West of Scotland.
Sharon Murphy
Family Support Service Officer (South West of Scotland)
Sharon Murphy
Family Support Service Officer (South West of Scotland)
Sharon@dsscotland.org.uk
07825 214109
Sharon has worked in health and social care for over 26 years within third sector and local authorities, continuously witnessing changes and challenges within this field. She has worked within various areas such as learning and physical disability, young homeless, older people services and working with veterans of the armed forces. She is passionate about tackling real issues by having an open mind and has increasing ability to deal with fast moving complex situations, whilst inspiring confidence and independence in others around her. In 2016, she completed her Honours Degree in Integrated Health and Social Care, whilst continuing to work full time. In addition she completed her Welfare Diploma in 2017 alongside Mental Health First Aid. Sharon lives in North Ayrshire with her partner Stephen and 2 daughters, Brogan and Amber.
Fundraising & Communications
Louise Watt
Senior Trusts & Fundraising Officer
After studying Law, Louise spent several years working with Financial Services Companies in Edinburgh, heading up Communications and Product Marketing functions. She took a few years break from employment to spend time with her three children. During this time she took on various volunteer roles including Chair of a small charity providing Early Years care. Louise joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in November 2012 to administer our Creative Breaks Fund. She continues to manage our Short Breaks Funds and has a dual role in researching and compiling funding applications to Charitable Trusts and Foundations.
Mairi Printie
Trusts & Fundraising Administrator
Mairi joined us in January 2017 taking the role of Administrator & Receptionist. In January 2018,
Mairi became our Trusts and Fundraising administrator. Before starting at DSS she worked for 11 years in hospitality. Prior to that she had 6 years’ experience as an assistant PA working for a company dealing with coal miners claims.
Julie Ionta
Senior Fundraising Officer
Julie joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in 2015 and has worked in Community Fundraising for ten years. She works with supporters helping them to raise much needed funds and awareness of Down’s syndrome. She helps people in their fundraising efforts as they take part in marathons and 10k’s; as they hold coffee mornings or charity nights; or if they are volunteering their time to support Down’s Syndrome Scotland.
Lesley Moffat
Regional Community Fundraiser
Lesley lives in Fife. She has a Chemistry degree from St Andrews University. Whilst bringing up her two children she has done various jobs. Lesley has been involved with Down’s Syndrome Scotland since birth of my daughter in 2008. She became a committee member with the Fife and Tayside branch of Down’s Syndrome Scotland in 2012. She has also worked as an ABC co-worker in Perth 2015 and moved to the fundraising team in 2016.
Sharon Craighead
Regional Community Fundraiser
Sharon joined Downs Syndrome Scotland in January 2019. Previous to this she worked as a Paediatric Occupational Therapist both in the NHS and private sector. She will be primarily working in the West of Scotland helping people who wish to fundraise for Downs Syndrome Scotland, she will help both practically and provide support and encouragement along the way.
Claire Penny
Regional Community Fundraiser
Claire joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in 2019. Before joining Down’s Syndrome Scotland Claire worked as a paediatric nurse for several years. Claire lives in Aberdeenshire with her Husband and 3 children.
Leigh Henderson
Regional Community Fundraiser
Leigh lives in Aberdeenshire and is a mum to Molly who is 5 and Rory who is 2. Leigh has worked as a hair stylist her whole working life, however since having Rory who was born with Downs syndrome, she has developed a real passion for raising awareness though social media and raising funds for Down's Syndrome Scotland.
Kate Gordon
Regional Community Fundraiser
Kate joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in June 2019. Prior to this she spent 17 years working in Financial services. Kate lives in Midlothian with her husband and 2 children, the eldest of whom has Down’s Syndrome. Kate will be providing fundraising support in Edinburgh, the Lothians, and the Borders.
Claire Serplus
PR, Marketing & Communications Officer
Claire joined DS Scotland in July 2015. She studied English and broadcast journalism at University. Claire is responsible for the maintenance of this website, the social media pages and all outgoing communications for DS Scotland.
ABC Team
Natasha Sinclair
Speech and Language Therapist
Natasha has been working with individuals with learning disabilities for the past 9 years and has a background in care assistance and auxiliary nursing. She graduated from Strathclyde University with a BSc Honours in Speech and Language Pathology in 2011. Natasha spent 6 years working as a Speech and Language Therapist specialising in Adults with Learning Disabilities with NHS Tayside and completed a 6 month secondment with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. After experiencing working for Down's Syndrome Scotland as an ABC Co-worker for Edinburgh in 2011/2012, Natasha was delighted to return to take the role of the company's Speech and Language Therapist in May 2018. When Natasha is not working she is most likely to be found on her yoga mat or in an amateur theatre show!
Joanna Coulter
ABC Coordinator
In 2000-2004 Joanna studied at University College London and qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist. She then worked for 7 years as a paediatric SLT for the NHS in Hartlepool and Greater Glasgow and Clyde. In 2011 she left to set up her own business teaching Baby massage and yoga. In 2013 she started working as a Family Support Service Officer within DSS. Joanna has also spent time working on the Friends Connect Project and Commissioners Programme. After taking some time off to start a family, Joanna is now working as an ABC Co-ordinator.
Katy Lironi
ABC Co-worker Glasgow
Katy is the ABC co-worker in Glasgow.
With a Masters in Adult and Continuing Education, Katy has worked previously as an ESOL tutor, literacy tutor, communications lecturer and has run creative and song writing community learning workshops. She also ran sing and sign groups for pre-school children.
Katy combines her work with being a mum to 5 children.
Moira Clark
ABC Co-worker Edinburgh
Moira lives in Midlothian with her husband and 3 children. She joined Down Syndrome Scotland as an ABC Co-worker in September 2018 and was a primary school teacher for 17 years with the City Of Edinburgh Council. In 2013, she left teaching to look after her young family and husband when he suffered a stroke in 2015. She has varied experience in teaching children with English as an Additional language, Additional Support needs and communication difficulties.
Alison Hone
ABC Co-worker Orkney
Alison lives in the Orkney Islands, is married to Jim and has 3 children, Josh, Jack and Evie, who has Down’s syndrome. Alison has an NVQ Teaching Assistant qualification and has previously worked in this field. She has worked with Down’s Syndrome Scotland as an ABC Co-worker since 2015.
Dawn McIntosh
ABC Co-worker Perth, Angus & Aberdeen
Dawn started working in the childcare sector in private day nurseries in 2007/2008 until 2016, completing her SVQs and PDA in childhood development and practice. She has 2 children of her own who keep her on her toes and started working with Down’s syndrome Scotland as the ABC co-worker for Aberdeen in January 2015, taking on Perth and Angus in 2016 until present.
Other Staff
Brenda Hepburn
Life Stories Project Manager
Brenda has been working with adults with learning disabilities for 20 years. She started working in an administration role with a third sector organisation later she completed an HND in Librarianship and Information Science (distance learning) in 1998 and was an Information Officer for 5 years, developing accessible information for people with learning disabilities. Brenda became a Development Worker for the same organisation (2001-2006) and gained a Diploma in Health and Social Welfare through the Open University. She joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in July 2006 as a Training Officer working on The Training Project for adults with Down’s syndrome moving onto The Making Your Way through Life project in 2009. She managed the Friends Connect Project from 2014 to August 2017. She is now manager for the Life Stories Project.
Vivien Jayne
Policy Officer
Vivien originally trained as a learning disability and then as a general nurse and worked for several years mainly with children and families before moving into research and evaluation. Over the past twenty years she has worked on a variety of projects within the health, social care, third and academic sectors. The common thread through all Vivien’s experience has been a focus on improving outcomes for people who access services and support. Along the way she completed an MSc in Child Health and a PhD entitled: ‘Experiences and perceptions of mothers of young people with and without additional support needs and autistic spectrum disorder in relation to behaviour, maternal stress, access to services and family quality of life’. Vivien joined DSS as Policy Officer in 2018.
Jill Somerville
PA to the CEO & Office Manager
Jill has come from a financial background having worked for Lloyds Banking Group for 24 years. This involved working in the Mortgage sector for 17 years with the later 7 years working in the Private Banking sector as an Executive Assistant supporting various Heads of Banking.
Jill joined DS Scotland in February 2015 where she supports Eddieand the Management Team and acts as Office Manager.
Virginia Nieto Carmona
Office Administrator (Currently on Maternity Leave)
Virginia Nieto Carmona
Office Administrator (Currently on Maternity Leave)
reception@dsscotland.org.uk
0131 442 8840
Virginia comes to us via Spain and Brighton. She graduated in Education for Primary Schools where she specialised in music. She has also studied for an ICT for children with special needs course. During her work she has worked as an intern with children who have emotional or behavioural difficulties as well as delivering 1:1 and group support sessions for children with Down’s Syndrome.
Sharon Quinney
Office Administrator (Maternity Cover)
Sharon joined us in July 2019 and is here covering the position of Administrator while Virginia is on maternity leave. On finishing school, Sharon studied at Queen Margaret University and gained a joint degree in Events and Tourism Management. On completion of this she worked for a few years at two of Edinburgh’s main tourist attractions within retail and operational roles. Before coming to DSS, Sharon was working front of house for four years as a Receptionist at a Hotel in Edinburgh.
Kevin Cummings
Acting Finance Officer
Kevin joined DS Scotland in August 2010 after working mainly in the private sector sales & customer service roles for the previous 20 years. Joining initially as the Administrator Kevin now focusses on the areas of database & finance.
