Lead the Way

Katrina Crilly is Principal & Founder -The Real Me Academy Educating children aged 4–18 to build confidence, emotional resilience & lifelong thinking habits through a digital-first, research-backed platform. She hold a Master’s in Collaborative Leadership and has contributed to severaleducational advisory committees, working closely with the Department of Education and the Education and Training Inspectorate in Northern Ireland. Her passion has always been to look beyond curriculum targets—to see the wholechild. She has developed the first curriculum-integrated subject embedding personal growth as part of what children learn every day in response to what she feels are inadequate wellbeing programmes. https://therealmeacademy.com/https://therealmeacademy.com/contact-us/https://uk.linkedin.com/in/katrina-crilly-34270560

Dr. Clara is a Chartered Psychologist with the Psychology Society of Ireland, (PSI) and the British Psychology Society, (BPS)Dr. Clara has over 25 years of experience of working in disability and special education settings. Past experiences include work in residential settings for adults with IntellectualDisability, Special schools and alternative education provision settings for ‘at risk’ youths. Additionally, Dr. Clara was an NCSE advisor, (Behavior and Well-being) for over 5 years. Her personal experiences navigating her way through neurodivergence, physical disability, chronic illness and additional educational needs, deepened her understanding of how complex and frustrating this new world can seem to parents. Her services include parent support consults, Teen coaching for confidence, anxiety, neurodivergence, Post diagnosis support for Autistic teens and adults, ADHD Parent Coaching, Supporting Neurodiverse families, Promoting Well-being and Mental Fitness and Coaching for Health & Well-being. Link to the book she has contributed to: https://www.otb.ie/shop/speech-language-therapists/books-manuals-slt/it-takes-all-kinds-of-minds/Link to her website: https://claraobyrne.ie/

Coran Swayne is an administrative Deputy Principal in East Cork Community Special School and a lecturer in Educational Leadership and Coaching in Education at University College Cork. He is currently completing a PhD on coaching cultures in primary schools, exploring how leadership, teachers, and policy shape this work across Ireland, England, and Michigan. His article, “Cultivating Coaching Cultures in Schools: Insights from School Leaders” has been recently published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (IJMCE) Link to article: 'Cultivating coaching cultures in schools: insights from school leaders'Coran Swayne and Joseph MoynihanSchool of Education, University College Cork, Cork, Irelandhttps://www.emerald.com/ijmce/article-pdf/doi/10.1108/IJMCE-01-2025-0008/10764836/ijmce-01-2025-0008en.pdfLink to Summer course Coran offers:https://summercpd.ie/courses/coaching-conversations/

Joseph A. Moynihan, PhD is currently Director of both the Educational Leadership and the new Coaching in Education Post Graduate programmes, UCC. He is a lecturer in Education in the School of Education at University College Cork, Ireland. He is a lecturer in Initial Teacher Education on the Professional Master of Education (PME) programme and delivers modules on the Masters in Education (M.Ed.) modular programme where he has developed a series of new Educational Leadership modules to meet the significant demand for study in this area at UCC. Joseph supervises research students at Masters and PhD level. He brings us through his own leadership journey and his passion for moving forward is inspirational. Below is a link to his new course of which is is Director. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-moynihan-phd-77015750/?originalSubdomain=iehttps://www.ucc.ie/en/ace-pdce/

MESO is an AI-powered educational platform currently being developed with Trinity College Dublin and Enterprise Ireland. The mission of its co-founders Chris Byrne and Brighid Hennessy is to transform education by creating tools that empower teachers and educational institutions while maintaining rigorous standards and curriculum alignment. It combines AI with curriculum requirements and planning templates to help teachers plan efficiently both long and short term. It also enables the creation of assessments based on the content you’ve been covering over a period of time. Website ( platform still under construction)https://mesolab.ai/Contact the founders:Chris Byrnehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-byrne-7799041a2/[email protected] Hennessyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brigh%C3%ADd-hennessy-124a6728b/[email protected]