What is Saolta?
Empowerment for a better world through Adult and Community Education (ACE).
Saolta’s strategic goal aims to increase the accessibility, quality and effectiveness of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) within the Adult and Community Education sector in Ireland.
We are a Global Citizenship Education strategic partnership programme for the Adult and Community Education (ACE) sector in Ireland between Irish Aid and a consortium of organisations. Saolta explores a variety of global issues with stakeholders in the ACE sector and encourages informed action across Irish society. Issues such as poverty, inequality and climate change feature strongly as areas of exploration.
Development Perspectives is the lead partner in the consortium, which also includes AONTAS, Concern Worldwide, Irish Rural Link, and the Adult and Community Education Dept of Maynooth University. In 2024, Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) will officially join as a Saolta partner.
Meet the team
Nick Doran
Saolta Programme Manager
Nick Doran is Saolta’s Programme Manager. His background is in Media and Critical Linguistics which he has taught at youth groups and universities. He’s passionate about equality and sustainability, has published numerous pieces on unequal power distribution in society, and is predisposed to spontaneous debate! Nick kayaks, is an adventure fanatic, a board games aficionado, and kimchi lover!
Annamaria Balazs
Finance Officer
Annamaria Balazs joined the team in 2019 as a Financial Officer. She is a qualified accountant from Hungary and currently converting her qualification into Irish ACCA. Annamaria is looking after the company’s financial operations, finance reports, budgets and accounting records. Annamaria also holds a BA (Hons) degree in PR, Marketing and Media management and BA (Hons) IT, Librarian and Broker Information.
Annamaria has lived in Ireland since 2006 and moved to the Drogheda area in 2013, she loves the beaches nearby and the beautiful countryside scenery. She is big into meditation and pranic healing, loves reading history books and traveling around the world.
Alice Robinson
Trainer
Alice works as a trainer for Saolta. She holds a BA in Youth Work and an MA in International Development and has extensive experience working in the youth and community sector in Ireland. She enjoys using participatory arts based approaches as a tool to critically explore and highlight local and global equality issues. She is a musician with a keen interest in permaculture design and loves climbing mountains and being in nature.
Martin Dillon
Trainer
Martin graduated from Technological University Dublin—Blanchardstown with a BSc in Community Development and Youth Work and is currently completing an MSc in Sustainable Development at TU Dublin-Bolton Street. He is a passionate advocate for Education for Sustainable Development. He contributed to TU Dublin’s research project on Flexible Learning Pathways and the launch of the book “Leaves from the Cotton Tree” with the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership. A committed lifelong learner and mature student. He enjoys cooking and sports, especially rowing and spending time in nature, and has coached soccer in the local community in Ireland, the US and Australia.
Alejandro Valderrama
Programme Officer
Alejandro is an Anthropologist – Post Graduate ‘Climate Entrepreneurship’ (Trinity College Dublin) – MA in International Peacebuilding, Security and Development Practice. For the last 20 years, he has worked as an independent consultant, practitioner and researcher specialised in education, peace, development, and Human Rights through participatory action research, arts, and collaborative practices. He has a great passion for coffee, chocolate, and human rights. This is why he co-founded Ethical Origin in Ireland, which works directly with diverse communities affected by violence, conflict, and inequality in Colombia through its products. Among his other passions are playing music, film, gardening, and walking in the countryside where he lives with his family.
Maggie Campbell
Programme Officer
Maggie Campbell is a Saolta Programme Officer with a background in journalism, political communication, and education. She earned her MSc in Educational Leadership from Queen’s University Belfast in 2022. Maggie previously worked as a mentor at a technical college in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, where she supported students of all ages in re-engaging with education. Originally from the United States, she is passionate about access and inclusion in all educational spaces, and about helping students overcome the barriers that prevent them from achieving their goals. Outside of work, Maggie enjoys cross-stitching, reading, baking, and being a cat mom to her two black cats.
Eolain Downey
Programme Officer
I am an enthusiastic and well- rounded individual with a passionate motivation for creative sustainable solutions. I’m also an avid lover of nature, sports, games and travel. Having completed a Masters in International politics while living on, and renovating a 1960’s barge, I learned the value of both theoretical and practical challenges. The world of the technical, the analysis, and the discussion exists in a different space and framework than the world of the tangible, the action, and the reaction. For me this was fleshed out through my interest in environmentalism; learning about climate change from a global point of view while attempting to implement a sustainable lifestyle and focus on individual carbon footprint really depicted the distinct chasm between the two. I believe this is a theme we can all find in our daily lives through many examples, but identifying this space and building bridges to connect the theoretical to the practical is a harder challenge. Thus, leading me to Development Perspectives and adult education, through which I aim to gain a deeper insight into the realm of global affairs and the realm of active citizenship; and the inextricable link between both. I am highly enthusiastic about the work DP does, and look forward to connecting with others who wish to have a positive impact on human rights the global sustainability.
Public Engagement Officer
Deborah Conlon manages Saolta’s Public Engagement. Deborah has a BA in Design from DIT and a post-graduate certificate from DKIT in Digital Marketing and Digital Media Management. She’s passionate about encouraging conversation on social justice issues and learning from others. Outside of her work in Saolta, she also works with Development Perspectives and is chairperson of the Dundalk BIDs. She loves being creative, hot chocolate, reading and board games.
Deborah Conlon
