Our staff

As a trained social worker who spent many years in children and families services, Marian brings an interdisciplinary approach to her health and wellbeing work for CELCIS. She is especially keen to encourage thinking which recognises the whole child and the interconnectedness of health with a child's other needs. In her partnership work with practitioners and managers, she works towards a collective understanding of how early trauma can affect children, and their ability to learn, grow and thrive through a process of repair and recovery.

 

 

 

Dianne works with partner organisations as part of CELCIS's Neglect Programme. She plays a facilitation role in much of her work and always seeks to offer help and support to help reduce neglect. Dianne sees this partnership work as a journey where everyone, from senior officials to families themselves, can build on their knowledge, practice and skills to get better. She started karate classes with her own children, but kept going when they gave up. For Dianne, its simply the best stress-buster around, combining fitness and fun.

 

With a PhD in applied anthropology and a Masters in Social Work, along with a background in child protection social work and youth justice, Melissa brings her passion for the science and practice of implementation and systems improvement from the USA to Scotland in 2015. She continues to be inspired by Scotland's progressive vision for addressing the unmet needs of children and families and is excited to be building a team of implementation specialists at CELCIS to support local areas to address neglect and enhance wellbeing and to fully and effectively implement GIRFEC.

 

Sarah is a former Academic Skills Lecturer and Academic Advisor who discovered a passion for online education. She oversees and promotes our online learning options on offer, options which include our unique distance learning 'MSc in Child and Youth Care Studies', our 'Caring for Vulnerable Children' MOOC, and our many learning opportunities for the sector. Sarah moved to Scotland from Australia in 2014 and loves the cool weather and beautiful scenery.

 

 

Michelle is one half of the CELCIS events team. Her main role is to coordinate and manage our events, seminar and conference programme. Michelle helps us deliver informative, relevant and creative events for anything from 40-400 delegates, covering a wide range of specialist themes for all of those people working in the looked after children's sector. Michelle has an extensive shoe collection, loves a good book, a good chat and good times with her family.

 

Sharon joined the CELCIS redress team as a Research Associate to work on the consultation with victims and survivors of historic child abuse in Scotland. Previously, she worked on various university and NHS funded research projects, and on research connected with the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to help chart the development of care services in Scotland between 1900 and 2014. Sharon is also a graduate member of the British Psychological Society with an interest in the psychology of coaching. In her spare time, Sharon can often be found on the side-lines watching her son and husband playing rugby or supporting her national side at Murrayfield or on TV!

 

Cat is a Project Coordinator working across different areas of work in CELCIS. She supports programme governance as well as helps to coordinate projects such as the PACE Collaborative, and the CYC-Net 2021 Conference. In her free time Cat enjoys making all sorts at her pottery club.

 

With a background in applied social research, higher education strategic planning and performance monitoring, and social work information system implementation, Micky is our resident Data Analyst. Never shy of a mental or physical challenge, he enjoys grappling with data-related issues faced by CELCIS and partner organisations as we seek to evidence improvement. A committed all-weather cyclist, Micky also loves to island hop by sea kayak and endurance running.

 

 

Mihaela came to work in Scotland via her homeland of Romania, and Vienna, and she brings a decade's experience working on policy and research projects with Save the Children and the Agency for Fundamental Rights. At CELCIS she will support the Neglect Programme by developing effective data and empirical evidence systems to measure progress. She's been blown away by the friendliness of Glaswegians, and cant wait to explore more of Scotland, but she won't be inviting new friends for dinner - she literally can't boil an egg.

 

 

Miriana has studied political science, international relations and European affairs (in Italy, Germany and the UK). Based in Brussels for the past 16 years, and worked in policy, project and resource management for organisations at European and global level. Miriana has professional experience which includes 10 years of work on care and support for vulnerable groups, including developing and influencing the European policy framework and funding for child rights and reform of child protection systems.

 

 

George provides admin support for the Improving Care Experiences hub at CELCIS and brings several years of experience in similar roles with the Scottish Government, Perth and Kinross Council and Community Safety Glasgow. He has previously worked in video production and is currently studying a Masters in Film Curation. In his spare time he enjoys reading books, going to the cinema and listening to music.

 

Moyra worked for many years as a social worker, residential practitioner and manager, and in therapeutic work with traumatised children and their families. Her research interests include using creative approaches to hear the voices of disabled and looked after children. Since 2005, Moyra has worked along with survivors of institutional abuse and other stakeholders to develop and implement An Action Plan on Justice for Victims of Historical Abuse of Children in Care. In 2018 she gained a PhD on exploring the narratives of survivors of historical institutional abuse. More recently she has worked as a music therapist, and is the CELCIS songbird. Moyra enjoys tap dancing, music, gardening and backpacking.

 

Katie has a great head for numbers. She keeps CELCIS right on the money with important financial, HR and contractual stuff. One of her most critical roles is to keep the staff up to speed with the dreaded Financial Management System. After bringing up five children, Katie has finally found some time for herself and uses it mainly for yoga and running. She's already completed the Berlin Half Marathon and is hatching plans to add swimming to her impressive activity repertoire.