Nasc Board of Directors
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chairperson: Kamal El Taib
Kamal is a native of Sudan, and an Economics graduate of the University of Khartoum. He has worked as a translator and businessperson, and hopes to establish his own translation service in Cork. He has lived in Ireland for three years, during which time he has become a mentor and community leader in his adopted home. He is Quran and Islamic cultures teacher in Blarney Street Mosque, and volunteers as a tutor for people with learning disabilities in Cobh. Kamal is married with four children.
Secretary: David O’Leary
David is a Senior Tax Advisor with Logitech specialising in Value Added Taxes and has several years in Industry. He holds a BBS (Hons) from Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and is currently completing a MBS in Accounting at CIT. His dissertation is on Corporate Governance in Ireland. His research and practical interests include Corporate Governance and Strategic Management.
Dr. Siobhán Mullally
Siobhán Mullally is a graduate of the European University Institute, Florence (PhD), the London School of Economics (LLM) and University College Cork (BCL). She previously held lecturing positions in the UK and Pakistan and has held visiting positions at several universities in the US (Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, Temple), Australia (Sydney), Canada (Osgoode Hall), Pakistan (Peshawar) and India (Bangalore). Siobhán coordinated a British Council program on Women and Human Rights Law with the University of Peshawar from 1993-96, and from 2003-6. She is the currently the Director of an IRCHSS funded three year project: Gender Equality, Multiculturalism and Religious Diversity in Contemporary Ireland.
Siobhán has worked as an adviser and consultant on gender, migration and human rights to UN bodies and to international NGOs in many parts of the world, including most recently in Ethiopia, Timor-Leste, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Kosovo.
Siobhán served as Chairperson of the Irish Refugee Council from 2006-8. She was a founding Co-Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice and Human Rights at UCC (2006-8). She is the Irish representative on the Odysseus European network of experts on Asylum and Migration Law and a member of the Department of Foreign Affairs Standing NGO Committee on Human Rights.
Okeremute Okeregha
Okeremute is a lawyer working with the Legal Aid Board in Cork, specialising in family law and refugee law. She is a graduate of UCC, where she completed a Masters in Law (LLM). Prior to coming to Ireland, Okeremute worked as a human rights advocate in Nigeria with leading human rights NGOs. She has a strong interest in issues relating to gender and migrant women. She previously served on the board of Nasc and was active in the Womens’ Group.
Dr. Margaret O’Keeffe
Margaret’s professional background is in community work. She completed a PhD in Sociology with Dr Linda Connolly (UCC) in 2006. She has also recently completed an LLM on legislative and policy responses to domestic violence in minority ethnic contexts under Prof. Siobhan Mullally (UCC).
She currently lectures full time in community development at CIT and retains a very strong voluntary commitment to equality and justice issues, especially in the area of violence against women and gender equity in public life.
Brendan Hayes
Brendan is working with Ronan Daly Jermyn Solicitors, Cork.
He completed his B.C.L., LL.B and LL.M studies at University College Cork and is currently pursuing a Diploma in Corporate Law and Governance through the Law Society of Ireland.
His professional areas of specialty include defence and commercial litigation; and asset management, specifically the operation of and transfer of assets by NAMA. Through his work, he has also being involved on an ongoing basis with providing advices to the Office of the Ombudsman for Children.
In a voluntary capacity, Brendan is an active member of Cork Lions Club and has served on the Editorial Board of the Law Society of Ireland’s Hibernian Law Journal since 2011.
Brendan will serve as the President of the Junior Chamber Cork in 2013.
Tracy Harper
Tracy trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has performed in over 50 plays since 1982, including work at The Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, The BBC, RTÉ Radio, Paramount Films, The Abbey Theatre – Dublin, and all theatres in Cork.
Alongside her acting career she was P.A. to David Essex (1989-1992) for his charity projects whilst he was Ambassador for V.S.O (Voluntary Service Overseas), and she was a Royal Rota Photographer at Buckingham Palace in 1997.
Tracy came to work at The Cork Opera House in 1999 and fell in love with the place. She moved here from London in 2000 and became a VEC Drama Tutor and Gardener for Macroom County Council. In 2006 she taught drama at Nasc. In 2010, Tracy wrote and directed a play about Rachel Corrie, the peace activist.
These days, when not on stage, she freelances as a legal executive in Human Rights Law and has been the official fundraiser for Amnesty International Cork. She is a member of The Unitarian Church on Princes St, and has organized 5 fundraisers for the building & other human rights causes. She has been honoured with a ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ by The Sudanese Association of Cork and during the summer months, Tracy is a ‘Sous Chef’ on the Eco Bus Cafe. She is co founder of ‘Peace in The Park Cork’ (2008).
Dug Cubie
Originally from Scotland, Dug first moved to Ireland 13 years ago and is currently completing his PhD examining the right to humanitarian assistance following natural and human-made disasters in UCC under the supervision of Professor Siobhán Mullally.
Prior to returning to academia, Dug worked for over 10 years in refugee protection and humanitarian assistance, including as a Protection Officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Nepal and the Republic of Congo as well as working in the UNHCR offices in London and Brussels; as Legal Officer of the Irish Refugee Council; and Senior Programme Co-ordinator for the International Organization for Migration in Ireland.
Dug is co-author of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Law in Ireland: Cases and Materials, and has recently published papers in the Irish Yearbook of International Law and the Journal of International Humanitarian Legal Studies.
