Lead the Way | Education Leadership Skills

Maeve Mahon is CEO of CEIST; (Catholic Education Irish Schools Trust) and was appointed in December 2024. She is a native of Co Meath and has worked in the Diocese of Kildare& Leighlin supporting Catholic primary education for the past thirty years. As Diocesan Secretary for Primary Education, she has effectively worked alongside the Patron, school principals, chairpersons, board members and parents to develop structures that support and scaffold Catholic schoolcommunities. We talk about her leadership and her first year in the role .

We talk about her leadership journey and her first year inthis new role.

We talk about her leadership journey and her first year inthis new role.

Ann's website:

https://leadthewaycoaching.my.canva.site/

Dr. Lisa Riegel earned dual bachelor's degrees in English and Secondary Education from Kent State University. She holds a master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Otterbein University and a Ph.D. in Education Policy and Leadership from The Ohio State University. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals and she has authored five books, including her two latest books, NeuroWell, and Aspirations to Operations, focused on brain science and how we can leverage it to help people become happier, healthier, and more successful

Books:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lisa+riegel&crid=30TTDXLJRNQMO&sprefix=lisa+riegel%2Caps%2C158&ref=nb_sb_noss_2

Website: http://www.lisariegel.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisariegel/

https://www.epinstitute.net/

Dr Sajita Setia is a New Zealand based physician and published researcher in digital wellbeing who has led award-winning medical and health education globally. She is an evidence-based educator She helps families and schools raise resilient, balanced young people in a world of constant screens. She's a digital wellbeing and youth online safety expert who turns complex research into simple, practical tools for parents, preteens, and teens. Her background in medicine medical affairs, and health education allows her to bridge science with real life.

Australia has just introduced a social media ban for under 16s and New Zealand, a nationwide school smartphone ban in 2024. Families everywhere are grappling with digital overload, rising youth depression, anxiety, and thechallenges of online safety. Dr Sajita brings evidence-based, practical insights that speak directly to today’s most urgent parenting concerns. https://sajitasetia.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sajita-setia/

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyp9d3ddqyo

James Callaghan is an experienced CBT therapist, EMDRconsultant, and mental health nurse with over a decade working in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). He is the founder of Capital Psychotherapy, offering therapy for children, adolescents, and adults, andrecently launched Minds in Schools, a training initiative supporting parents and teachers with practical CBT strategies.

This year, James published his first book, LeoRoars: A Brave Lion’s Guide to Overcoming Panic Attacks, endorsed by Dr. Judith Beck of the Beck Institute, USA. The book is the first in his planned CBT series designed to help children directly while also giving parents practical skills to support them. James is here to talk about anxiety and panicattacks, emetophobia; fear of vomiting, school refusal and how to have difficult conversations about potential diagnoses with parents.  

https://mindsinschools.ie/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-callaghan-094960131/?originalSubdomain=ie

Ann's website: https://leadthewaycoaching.my.canva.site/

Having spent many years as a primary school teacher, FionaForman is passionate about placing well-being at the heart of school life. For the past few years, promoting this has been her focus- through her books, media contributions, and training sessions. She holds an M. Sc. in Applied Positive Psychology, the science of well-being, from the University of East London.

Her programmes include Weaving Well-Being, a positive mental health programme for primary school children which is now in use in the majority of Irish Primary Schools, and also Wired for Well-Being, her programme for second-level students.

Her Junior programme, Welcome to Well-Being, has beenrecently released in Ireland and abroad.

https://www.instagram.com/

fionaformanwellbeing/

https://fionaformanwellbeing.com/books-and-programs/

[email protected]

Ann's website

⁠https://leadthewaycoaching.my.canva.site/⁠

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.pdf

Link 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.

Ann's website

⁠https://leadthewaycoaching.my.canva.site/⁠

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-moynihan-phd-77015750/?originalSubdomain=ie

https://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 Byrne

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-byrne-7799041a2/?originalSubdomain=ie

[email protected]

Brighid Hennessy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigh%C3%ADd-hennessy-124a6728b/

[email protected]