WOMEN IN MEDIA 2024 SPEAKER BIOS
WOMEN IN MEDIA 2024 WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE GREAT HALL AT QUB ON THURSDAY OCTOBER 24 9AM - 3PM https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-media-2024-partnership-summit-tickets
BIOS FOR THE EVENT TEAM, PANEL CHAIRS AND PANELLISTS
SUSAN MCKAY is a Derry girl though now living in Dublin where she works as Ireland’s Press Ombudsperson, the first woman to be appointed to that role.
She is an author and journalist, who has won many awards for her work including an Amnesty justice award, several national media awards and an Arts Council NI Major Individual award.
Her books include “Northern Protestants – On Shifting Ground”, “Northern Protestants – An Unsettled People”, “Bear in Mind These Dead” and “Sophia’s Story.”
She was a founder member of the Belfast Rape Crisis Centre and also worked as CEO of the National Women’s Council of Ireland.
JILLY BEATTIE has been a working journalist for more than 32 years, starting her career in Birmingham where she flourished in the busy local and regional news teams of Midland Independent Newspapers.
She was headhunted by Fleet Street Editor Bridget Rowe and moved to London where she took up a reporter's post with the Mirror Group Newspapers in its newly opened offices in Canary Wharf.
She returned to Northern Ireland to help open the Daily Mirror newspaper business in 1998 and in 2015 she pivoted online with the addition of Belfast Live.
Jilly has broken a string of major news stories in her career, most notably the Jeffrey Donaldson arrest and charge story after a year of diligent, sensitive work behind the scenes.
Her interview with Jimmy McCafferty exposed the Celtic FC sex abuse case, her four-hour interview leading to the former football kitman and coach confessing to a 50-year history of criminal sexual offences. She delivered McCafferty to the PSNI with a full confession and an overnight bag, bringing his reign of abuse to an end. He died in prison in November 2022.
This year while completing her work on Jeffrey Donaldson, Jilly was also investigating bigamist fake doctor Alisa Knight and her 22 aliases. Ms Knight is now under investigation by the PSNI and Police Scotland.
Jilly is renowned for her passion for digging for the truth, standing strong by the underdog and facing down bullies with fearlessness and facts. She is a compassionate journalist and a proud disrupter.
Jilly lives at the beach in Co Down with her husband and their many dogs.
JOANNE DORRIAN is a missing persons advocate - which began when her sister Lisa Dorrian went missing in 2005 in Northern Ireland.
Lisa was quickly presumed murdered and a police investigation was launched. To date no one has been charged and despite over 400 searches for Lisa, her body has not been found.
Joanne features in ‘Murder in the Badlands’ currently available on Netflix, iPlayer and Amazon Prime.
Joanne is a passionate campaigner for missing people with expertise in ‘no body’ murders and is currently one of two families developing a world’s first ‘no body’ murder legislation for Northern Ireland called ‘Charlotte’s Law.’
Joanne has led a high-profile media campaign on behalf of her family for almost 20 years, focused on finding Lisa and bringing her murderers to justice.
Joanne is the chairperson of K9 Search and Rescue Northern Ireland and champions the fantastic work the charity does in bringing missing people home to their loved ones.
Joanne is currently completing an undergraduate degree in Psychological Trauma which includes ambiguous loss, a topic close to her own life and heart.
WIMB’S NIAMH CAMPBELL - (click here for bio) will chair the ‘Women in Sport’ panel.
KATIE MORROW - From an early age, Katie has represented both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She
began playing wheelchair basketball at the age of 13, and a year later, she was a member of the Northern Ireland u19 squad. She participated in her first Great Britain U25 competition in China for the World Championships in 2015, where she and her team won gold.
Soon after, at the age of 16, she was chosen to compete in her first Paralympic Games for Great Britain in Rio 2016, where they finished in fourth place. She made the decision to return to the sport in 2021 after taking a few years off. Having worked hard and been determined for two years, Katie was chosen to compete in the U25 World Championships in Thailand in 2023.
Out of all the participating nations, the Great Britain team placed second, but Katie was appointed to the All Star 5 squad. Most recently though she competed at her second Paralympic Games in Paris, where the Great Britain team finished in fifth place.
DENISE WATSON has worked in TV and Radio in Northern Ireland for 30 years. She spent 17 years at BBC Northern Ireland as a sports presenter & reporter. She presented the Irish League football show "Final Score", nightly "Newsline" reports and reported pitchside from Gaelic Football's "The Championship" show. In 2007 she won "CIPR Sports journalist of the year" for the exclusive story on Armagh GAA star Oisin McConville's gambling addiction.
In 2013 Denise left BBC for UTV where she presented and reported on sport for "UTV Live." The nightly news show. In 2016 Wireless Group invited Denise to co-present the U105 radio Breakfast show each weekday morning from 6-9am with Maurice Jay. The couple are still hosting the flagship show on the station. The station has just received its best ever Rajar figures with 261,000 listeners.
Denise is an ambassador for Women's sport in Northern Ireland and is proud to see the profile raised significantly in the last few years.
For 20 years Denise has been hosting Sports awards and charity events in Ireland for councils and commercial companies. She is a mum to two daughters - Samantha (19) and Elizabeth (16) who are involved in Sport and musical theatre. She enjoys walking her dog Eddie and reading autobiographies in her spare time.
She also started working in April 2022 for U105’s sister-station Talksport as NI International football reporter.
LARA DAHUNSI is among Ireland's top ladies' footballers, and last season, was another one of Antrim’s standout players in the championship that saw them win their first Ulster Intermediate Championship title and reach the All-Ireland semi-finals.
In 2017, Lara was named Ulster's Young Player of the Year at TG4's All-Star awards and accolades haven't stopped coming since.
While Antrim will unfortunately drop back down to junior championship football for next season after losing this intermediate championship relegation play-off to Wicklow in July, Lara has continued to be a standout player for both her county and her club, St Paul's GAC Belfast.
The midfielder has received countless Player of the Match awards and was instrumental in helping the Saffrons get over the line in their All-Ireland junior final replay victory against Fermanagh in August 2022.
A proud Irish-Nigerian woman, Lara has also gone viral a good few times on social media for her sporting skills, passing for Gaelic football and laid back style.
CLAIRE GRAHAM is a senior BBC journalist, reporter and radio presenter. She started her career at the Belfast Telegraph and Citybeat Radio in 2013, before moving to the BBC where she’s worked on numerous programmes for both BBC NI and 5Live in Manchester. Claire also presents The Explanation podcast on the BBC World Service and was the dedicated reporter for the Northern Ireland Women’s Football Euro coverage in France. She has two young daughters and raises awareness of maternal mental health.
CATRIONA STEWART is a journalist, columnist, commentator and broadcaster based in Glasgow specialising in politics, court, crime and social affairs. She has written for regional and national titles, is a regular contributor to BBC Scotland, Times Radio and is a paper reviewer for Sky News.
Catriona is a founding member of Women in Journalism Scotland and currently serves as vice-chair of the organisation.
ANNA BURNSIDE is chair of Women in Journalism Scotland. She has worked in newspapers for 35 years, starting as a reporter at the Gorgie-Dalry Gazette in Edinburgh and ending as chief writer at the Daily Record. In between she has worked at Scotland on Sunday, the Sunday Herald and the Sunday Times. She has been an local paper editor, a sub-editor, a magazine editor, an award-winning feature writer, a restaurant reviewer ... basically she can play any position on the park. She is currently writing a substack, The Hairy Eyeball, and teaching at Strathclyde University.
CLAUDIA SAVAGE is a parliamentary reporter for the Press Association covering the House of Commons.
Over the recent general election she worked with the Westminster lobby team, tasked on Reform’s campaign.
Prior to that she was an Ireland reporter for PA working on politics and general news.
Claudia loves using social media to illustrate stories and get young people engaged with current affairs, making videos on TikTok and Instagram.
She graduated from Queen’s University in 2022 with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics before going to Manchester to do an NCTJ qualification at News Associates.
WIMB’S AMANDA FERGUSON - (click here for bio) will emcee the October 24 event, and chair the Women on Air panel.
ROISIN DUFFY currently works as News Editor with RTÉ in Dublin across Radio Television and Digital.She has extensive experience in television and radio for the BBC and RTÉ, north and south of the border.
She has worked as presenter and a reporter in News and Current Affairs for both organisations and has substantial international experience in documentary making .She is passionate about getting more strong intelligent female voices on the air. She believes the airwaves often inform the national debate and become the first stage in forming public policy. She was instrumental in setting up Women On Air’s new media training programme which has facilitated an increasing number of significant female voices on the national and local airwaves. She is the Chairperson of Women on Air.
ALISON O’CONNOR is a journalist, broadcaster and author. She writes a weekly column for The Sunday Times.
As a current affairs commentator she appears regularly on radio and television. She has worked previously as a political correspondent for The Irish Times and Irish Independent, as well as a columnist for The Irish Examiner and The Business Post.
She is an author and her most recent book "It's a Yes", co written with the directors of the It's a Yes campaign, examined the hugely successful, female-led, Repeal the 8th campaign.
NOELLE O’REILLY is Women on Air’s training coordinator. She is an experienced radio producer, broadcaster and businesswoman.
In RTÉ radio, she produced a wide range of shows from election results programmes to the Pat Kenny Show. She has considerable on air experience as a reporter and as the presenter of current affairs and travel programmes.
With a Masters degree in Women’s history, she has a lifelong commitment to women’s issues and the promotion of women in journalism and politics.
CAOIMHE CLEMENTS is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The Irish Independent, Belfast Telegraph, and The Sunday Life. She earned her MA in Journalism from Ulster University in July 2024.
In addition to her journalism career, Caoimhe hosts the podcast Optimistic Waves, which is dedicated to sharing human-interest stories. Though still in its early stages, the podcast reflects her passion for storytelling.
Caoimhe also holds a BA (Hons) in Photography with Video from Ulster University. A keen photographer, she has participated in group exhibitions across Scotland, England, and Ireland.
FOUR QUB STUDENTS will join the event team. Names and bios to follow.
Artist and designer SARA O’NEILL and fashion editor BAIRBRE POWER will be in discussion on the theme ‘The Serious Business of Fashion. You can read both of their bios here:
BIOS FOR PODIUM SPEAKERS
DR ORNA YOUNG is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of FactCheckNI. She is responsible for developing and executing the organisation’s overall strategy, including managing relationships with grant funders and stakeholders. She directs FactCheckNI’s fact checking and critical thinking training programmes, and collaborates with secondary and tertiary educational institutions and community based organisations.
Orna holds a PhD in Politics from Queen’s University Belfast. She has previously worked in social and community-based research and evaluation, and delivered selected lecturing at local universities. She is a board member of the Northern Ireland Open Government Network and a member of the Ofcom Evaluation Working Group. She has also provided social and political commentary for BBCNI and UTV.
BARBARA MCCANN is a veteran TV reporter. She is a former war correspondent and international news reporter now working as a self-shooting on-screen journalist at UTV.
She began her career in Downtown Radio forty-seven years ago before moving on to work for media organisations including UTV, the BBC, SKY News, TV-AM, Radio Ulster, The Times and the Belfast Telegraph weekly newspapers.
In addition to covering the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Barbara has reported from hotspots around the world including Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, Syria and Washington, Alaska, Brazil, Uganda Bangladesh and India.
Barbara was seriously injured and suffered a broken back in an helicopter crash while filming in Northern Ireland, 29 years ago, has had two hip replacements and more recently battled breast cancer returning to on screen reporting recently at UTV.
THE MUSLIM MOTHERS COLLECTIVE Speak to us, not for us. A diverse network of Muslim women from across Northern Ireland. MMC are unaffiliated with any other organisation. Our children are our inspiration.
SAL HANVEY is nutrition consultant and acupuncturist. Sal has a real passion for finding ingredient substitutes and alternatives for those people with food intolerances, or allergies, or dietary exclusions without compromising on nutritional value or taste.
Sal is a freelance journalist, with a BA (hons) degree in journalism, and writes for various publications on the subjects of nutrition, health and food.
Sal offers ‘Stir Crazy’ cook-a-long classes online and in person to help people to connect, or re-connect to the universal language that we all know and love - to enjoy really good food. The classes are interactive, live and very much nutrition led.
She is a regular respected contributor on both BBC Radio Ulster and U105FM discussing all things food, health, nutrition and wellness.
Sal is a member of the Guild of Food Writers UK and is a member of the National Union of Journalists.
UNA MURPHY is the NUJ Belfast’s training rep. She is a co-founder of VIEWdigital, a digital platform with stories on important social issues. Her media career has included working as a producer/director and journalist in TV, making factual, current affairs and news programmes for BBC, TG4, RTE and UTV and producing and directing documentary films and corporate films as an independent film-maker. She has also worked as a newspaper reporter and radio producer.
LYNETTE FAY is a freelance broadcaster and event host.
VITTORIA CAFOLLA is a writer and producer based in Belfast. With her events management company, Zeppo, she produces the Belfast Media Festival each year, and has worked in a wide variety of ways on other arts projects, such as The Nerve Centre & Oliver Jeffers, Our Place In Space, and Belfast based festivals.
Most recently she completed a Belfast 24 project, Sound Links, with The Ulster Orchestra and Townsend St Enterprise park, as well as a BFI funded, UK wide Film project promoting indigenous languages and identity.
PROFESSOR KAREN MCCLOSKEY is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor (EDI) at Queen’s University Belfast.
She is Director of the Queen’s Gender Initiative, an entity that advances the participation and progression of women in Queen’s, and led the recent Institutional Athena Swan Gold Award programme (Charter for gender equality in academia).
Professor McCloskey is committed to fostering inclusion and belonging. Her portfolio includes establishing and delivering institutional programmes through collaboration and co-creation with colleagues. She is a speaker, consultant, advisor and mentor.
As Professor of Physiology in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s, Professor McCloskey is an educator and research group leader. Her research group focusses on urological cancers with the aim of combatting disease and minimising treatment side-effects on urinary health.
QUB’S GABRIELA MATTHEWS is a senior level international news journalist and highly experienced editor working primarily in TV but also print, radio and photojournalism.
She filmed and edited factual documentaries and hundreds of news stories for Reuters, Associated Press and the United Nations across three continents. She films in classic formats as well as in 360 and VR formats.
Garbiela lived in Senegal and covered West and Central Africa Region for Thomson Reuters for almost 15 years. During this time, she reported from
military coups in Mauritania, covered the war in Ivory Coast, the war in Mali (against al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb), the Ebola pandemic, Barak Obama’s both visits to Africa, the Pope’s visit to Central African Republic and many other coups, wars and conflict in between.
She also covered the vibrant beauty of Africa and its beautiful people, music and unique fascinating culture.
A topic expert on the African continent, with particular interest in the social, political and economic aspects affecting Africa and its relationship with the West in post-colonial francophone Africa, she is a fierce supporter of girls and women’s rights in Africa, having been involved with a number of initiatives for women in Africa, including Girls not Brides, the forced-feeding in Mauritania, Female Genital Mutilation in central Africa, diversity and gender pay parity.
Gaby moved to Northern Ireland in 2020 and currently teach at Queen’s University Belfast.
What a line up… Get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/women-in-media-2024-partnership-summit-tickets
This post may be updated as we receive more information.
