Staff
Management Team
Pandora Summerfield
Chief Executive
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 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.
Ed Cubitt
Finance Manager
Ed began his finance career in 1973 where he trained with the Ben Line until moving on in 1992 to take up the position of Warehouse Accountant with John Menzies. In 1998, Ed joined the Scottish Arts Council where he was Head of Finance until 2010 when he took early retirement. After a short retirement, he accepted a temporary contract at East Lothian Council then moved to become Finance Manager with DS Scotland in July 2014.
Kerry Lindsay
Fundraising Manager
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.
Family Support Service
Jo Hughes
Family Support 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 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 Dalrymple
Family Support Service Officer (South East of Scotland)
Morag Dalrymple
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.
Shona Robertson
Family Support Service Officer (Highlands, Islands & Moray)
Shona Robertson
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.
Claire Russell
Family Support Service Officer (North East of Scotland)
Claire Russell
Family Support Service Officer (North East of Scotland)
clairer@dsscotland.org.uk
01224 315 641
Claire lives in Aberdeen with her partner and two children. Claire completed an HNC in Social Care in 1999 and became involved in supporting adults with physical and learning disabilities in a variety of settings. This work continued throughout her studies at University where in 2003 she qualified as a Social Worker. Since qualifying, Claire has gained experience in working with Children and Families in Dundee and Aberdeen.
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.
Other Staff
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 Pandora and the Management Team and acts as Office Manager.
Virginia Nieto Carmona
Office Administrator/ ABC Co-worker Edinburgh
Virginia Nieto Carmona
Office Administrator/ ABC Co-worker Edinburgh
virginia@dsscotland.org.uk
07464 820606
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 Cummings
Database & Finance Administrator
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.
Claire Bothwell
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.
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
Community Fundraiser
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
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.
Rachel Le Noan
Policy Officer
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.
Brenda Hepburn
Commissioners 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 Commissioners project.
Angela Turner
Commissioners Project Worker
Angela joined Down’s Syndrome Scotland in early 2017. She has a background in research and received her PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 2010 for work on the history of learning disability. Since then she has worked on a number of health related projects for the Bailey Thomas Foundation and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. From 2011-2015, she was part of the UK wide research team working on a large Welcome Trust funded collaborative project exploring the history of disability and industrialisation. Angela has worked with young people with learning disabilities for over 15 years as a disability gymnastics coach in Glasgow. Angela currently works part time as a lecturer in the history department at the University of Strathclyde and has been appointed as the Commissioners Project Worker for the World Down Syndrome Congress in 2018.
Carolyn Thornton
Learning Hub Project Worker & ABC Co-worker Edinburgh
Carolyn Thornton
Learning Hub Project Worker & ABC Co-worker Edinburgh
Carolyn@dsscotland.org.uk
0131 442 8840
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 and as an ABC co-worker.
Katy Lironi
ABC Co-worker Glasgow
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.
