Staff

With a background in Community Development, Pandora has worked for 32 years in the public or voluntary sector in areas as diverse as mental health, childcare, housing, transport, older people and physical disability. Pandora has been the Chief Executive of Down’s Syndrome Scotland since January 2008. In 2012, she completed the Institute of Leadership & Management Certificate in Leadership. Over the years, she has sat on the management committees and Boards of a number of charities and is currently Vice Chair of the Scottish Commission for Learning Disability.

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.

Kerry joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in September 2015, after working for a hospital foundation in Dublin for 10 years. Before that she worked for both the British Red Cross and Age Concern Scotland.

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 finance sector. Jo joined DS Scotland in 2011 as Family Support Officer for the South. She now manages the service and covers the West of Scotland area.

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.

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.

Amy has been working with family carers for the last ten years - an Information Worker for a carers centre and then Carers Scotland where she set up a small advocacy service for carers in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area and delivered training to carers and professionals. She moved to PAMIS (Promoting a More Inclusive Society) in 2015 where she ran the Family Support Service for the Grampian area for 3 years, working with families of profoundly disabled people and leading on accessibility projects around the area. Amy is also a Non-Executive Director of NHS Grampian and a voting member of the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership and has a particular interest in equity of access to health services and person-centred approaches to care. In her spare time, Amy enjoys walking and volunteering for a local disability project.

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.

Carolyn has thirty-two years teaching experience, both in mainstream and special education. She initially qualified as an early years teacher and later did an M Ed in Additional Support for Learning (Visual Impairment). She has taught in various schools around the world including ten years at The Royal Blind School in Edinburgh. Carolyn joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in May 2017. She is working on developing the Learning Hub.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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 has been an ABC co-worker with DS Scotland for three years. She has also recently become a family support service office, supporting families in the West of Scotland. 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 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 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 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.

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.

Rachel holds a PHD in Political Studies from the University of Aberdeen. She worked at the Scottish Parliament before joining Down’s Syndrome Scotland in July 2013. Rachel leads on the development of policy and parliamentary activities in order to influence policy making and practice on issues relevant to people with Down’s syndrome and their families.

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 Pandora and the Management Team and acts as Office Manager.

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.

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.