Board Members

Members of the Board are appointed by The Public Appointments Unit for a 4-year term.

Code of Practice for Board Members

 

Members of the Board and the Senior Management Team detail any other interests/positions they hold.

Register of Interests for Board Members/Senior Management Team 

 

The Chair and Members of the Board are as follows …

• Mrs Gemma Loughran, Chair

  Mrs Loughran is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Guardian Ad Litem Agency.  She was a barrister before being appointed as a county court judge in 2004, a position from which she has now retired.  She is one of the two authors of The Law of Children in Northern Ireland.  Mrs Loughran was formerly a principal lecturer in St Mary’s College of Education.   She has served on the Board of Governors of a primary school and two post-primary schools.

• Ms Dawn Shaw, Chief Executive

  Ms Shaw is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Guardian Ad Litem Agency.  She has over 30 years’ experience working within children’s services and has worked for number of Local Authorities in England and Health and Social Care Trusts in NI as well as the Voluntary sector.  She has worked in residential care, schools psychological services, adoption, fostering, and early years. She was responsible for establishing Action for Children in NI which provides a range of services including supported lodgings, supported accommodation, young carers, sure start, family support and fostering service, and was responsible for the UK wide mental health programmes including the Blues programme.

  Dawn has over 20 years senior management experience in both the statutory and voluntary sectors. She was a founder member of the Children and Young People’s Strategic partnership and the Safeguarding Board for NI.

  She was the NI National Director for Action for Children and was the Deputy Executive Director of Social work with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust before commencing her post as Chief Executive with NIGALA on the 1^st April 2021.

• Mrs Veronica Callaghan, Non-Executive Director

  Ms Callaghan has been a social worker  since 1980 having worked  for many years in  both the voluntary and statutory sectors in Northern Ireland. With  extensive experience  of family support, child protection and looked after children services  she has held  positions at both operational and strategic levels in a range of organisations.  She joined the Northern Ireland Social Care Council in 1994  followed by a  period of secondment to the DHSSPS with responsibilities linked to professional  registration and regulation, workforce development and planning. In 2007 Ms Callaghan took up post as Assistant Director for Social Care Governance and Workforce within the Northern Health and Social Care Trust . Prior to her retirement late  2019 she was Interim  Executive Director of Social Work and  Director of Women ,Children and Families Division within the Northern Trust.

   

• Mr Lee Wilson, Non-Executive Director

  Mr Wilson has over 20 years’ experience as a Finance Manager in a local Health Trust.  He holds an MA in Administration and Law and a Post Graduate Diploma in Social and Community Development.  Mr Wilson is currently a Board Member for both the Northern Ireland Social Care Council and the Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency, where he is Chair of the Governance and Risk Committee. He was previously a Board Member of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland.

• Mr David Douglas, Non-Executive Director

  Mr Douglas qualified as a social worker in 1986 and worked within statutory children’s services in Northern Ireland. He has held senior management roles in early years; family support; child protection; children’s residential; fostering and adoption; and children’s public/private law court work services.

  In 2011, Mr Douglas was appointed as Assistant Director for Family Support and Safeguarding Children, including Public Health Nursing Services, in the Southern Health & Social Care Trust, and held this post until June 2021. Prior to his retirement he was chairperson of a number of groups: the Southern Area Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse Partnership; the SBNI Children’s Domestic Violence and Abuse sub-group; the Health & Social Care Regional Emergency Social Work Service Operational Group; the Southern Area Multi-Agency Infant Mental Health Strategic Group; and the Southern Trust Family Nurse Partnership Advisory Board.