Class of 2024

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.

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. Jason is currently a MPP Candidate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

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

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.

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.