Fellows 2023-2024

Lisa Beers is Head of the Social Value Unit at the Strategic Investment Board Northern Ireland, where she has worked for the last seven years in various roles related to social value.

She leads the team responsible for advising the public sector on including social value on public sector contracts. This has included the development of training and guidance on scoring social value in Northern Ireland.

Prior to working with SIB, Lisa worked in the third sector, managing programmes supporting young people who were disadvantaged into employment and self-employment.

Cheryl Brownlee is an MLA for East Antrim since September 2023.

Cheryl possesses several years of experience working in various roles in local government before entering the Assembly, including deputy mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, and is a member of Libraries NI board.

She has also been recognised at the NILGA awards for ‘Best Initiative by a Councillor’ for her work in mental health. Alongside serving her constituents in East Antrim, Cheryl currently serves as an on-call firefighter.

After graduating with a First Class Honours in French and Politics from Queen’s University Belfast, Jason Bunting was elected for two terms as Vice President for Education in Queen’s Students’ Union, representing all students on their academic interests.

In 2021, Jason joined the central team of the Social Democratic and Labour Party as a press and policy advisor, before his appointment as parliamentary advisor to Sinéad McLaughlin MLA in 2022.

He is an alumnus of the Washington Ireland Program and a former campaigns assistant with Amnesty International NI.

Sarah Bunting is a Democratic Unionist Party Councillor for Balmoral DEA in south Belfast and the Party’s group leader at Belfast City Hall.

Sarah is the first female to hold the role for Democratic Unionist Party in Belfast. She also works as a constituency casework officer for David Brooks MLA & Edwin Poots MLA.

Sarah is a passionate advocate for the community & voluntary sector and became involved in politics through volunteering with her local community group, where she continues to volunteer today.

As comptroller and auditor general for Northern Ireland, Dorinnia Carville is the head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) and an officer of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Dorinnia is responsible for the financial audit of central government departments and their arm’s length bodies, as well as reporting on value for money studies and promoting good practice.

She has a degree in Law with Politics from Queen’s University Belfast and is qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG London and has worked in local government as deputy chief executive and director of corporate services at Newry Mourne and Down District Council.

Born in Belfast of first generation Chinese, Eileen Chan-Hu is passionate about adding diversity, inclusion, creativity, and colour to our society.

With over twenty-five years’ experience in the field of race, covering English language teaching, community development, and community safety initiatives, Eileen is the founder and executive director of CRAICNI, whose mission is to Cultivate Respect, Appreciate Inclusion in Communities in Northern Ireland, through training and education regionally, across the island of Ireland, across Europe, and globally.

She was a member of the Centenary Forum and an Equality Commissioner (2018 – 2020) and is currently on the All-Island Women’s Forum, Vice Chair of Migrant and Minority Ethnic Council NI, Trustee of New Europeans UK and a Patron of Horatio’s Garden.

Anne Clarke is a member of the senior leadership team at NIE Networks and a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland. Anne began her accountancy career as a trainee chartered accountant in Energia Group in 2007, gaining experience in a range of finance roles within the electricity generation and retail businesses.

In 2017, she moved to NIE Networks and is now the finance business partner for the Network Assets directorate which provides strategic direction for NIE Networks’ ongoing capital investment in the electricity network.

Beverley Copeland is a director at Ulster Carpets, one of Northern Ireland’s leading businesses. Beverley is responsible for the company’s sustainability strategy alongside people & talent development, quality, safety and environmental.

Her passion for Northern Irish manufacturing is also illustrated through her previous roles in organisation development, business improvement and human resources.

Beverley is a chartered member of the CIPD and holds a degree in Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast.

Outside of work, she is a sports leader and recognises that sport plays an important role in bringing people together from all aspects of life instilling values of fairness, discipline, perseverance, and respect.

Gareth Edwards graduated with a degree in Law from Queen’s University Belfast and has nearly twenty years’ experience working in financial services in Dublin and Belfast, specialising in regulatory and compliance issues relating to the investment fund and banking industries.

Now living in Belfast, Gareth is father to an active seven-year-old son.

He is passionate about enabling the growth of the Northern Ireland economy to create quality local opportunities for its talented young people and to stem the ‘brain drain’ of graduates who move away from Northern Ireland for university study and never return here to live and work.