people

Mick Dunne, Our Lady and St Bede RC School

Mick Dunne is Subject Leader for Art and is the Cross Curricular Coordinator for the Arts at Our Lady and St Bede RC School in Stockton-on-Tees, a Specialist Arts College since 2008. Our Lady and St Bede (OLSB) provides training opportunities for arts staff and hosts workshops for teachers and pupils from other schools. The Art Department offers opportunities in specialist Printmaking and provides advice and equipment for use by other schools. As well as art, Mick is music and sport mad with OLSB pupils providing most of the banners seen at the Riverside Stadium, home of the mighty Middlesbrough FC!

Moira Conway

Moira Conway trained and worked as a journalist and features editor in Fleet Street. At Tyne Tees TV and Border Television she worked on various factual and children’s programmes including “The Tube” and “Get Fresh”. After gaining an MA in fine art and qualifying as a photographer she now lectures and practices as a photographer in both television and the press. Her credits include BBC’s children’s programmes “Tracy Beaker” “Byker Grove”, ITV’s “Wire In The Blood” film adaptations of books including “Jane Eyre”, and the novels of Catherine Cookson.

Recently when interviewed she regarded her career highlights as fashion Editor of “Jackie” magazine and bringing up three sons.

Dr Andy Large, Newcastle University

Andy is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at Newcastle University, with over 20 years research experience on how rivers work. After doctoral research on Irish bogs, his work as a river scientist began in earnest in 1989. He moved to Newcastle University in 1994 and since 1997 has focused his research on the rivers of the northeast of England. His research portfolio is wide-ranging and includes investigation of cyclone-generated major floods in the rivers of the Kruger National Park, South Africa, Working for Water-related work on invasive plants (also in South Africa) and Earthwatch-funded research in southeast Iceland into how sub-icecap volcanic activity drives jökulhlaups (glacial floods), which in turn dramatically impact rivers draining glacial outwash plains.

His work in the northeast region has included work on quantifying impacts of quarrying on wetland systems, and developing wetland systems to address issues of acid mine drainage – a legacy of the northeast’s mining history. However the work closest to his heart concerns the dynamic gravel-bed rivers of Northumberland, and in particular the River Coquet which he has ‘haunted’ for a decade-and-a half. Recent NERC funded research has focused on quantifying the impacts of the September 2008 floods on upper reaches of the Coquet catchment. Most recently, Andy co-edited the book Laser Scanning in the Environmental Sciences (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), and is also on the Editorial Board of the international journal River Research and Applications. He is a Governor in his daughter’s school, and likes nothing better than encouraging young people to get involved in wet and muddy activities such as he has been doing throughout his formative and professional life.

Paul Ruane, Tyneside Irish Centre

Paul Ruane is the assistant head teacher of Saint Cuthbert's RC High School in Benwell, West Newcastle, where he teaches physics. As a traditional Irish musician he coordinates the RCE North East Sustainable Migrant Community Cultures programme in partnership with the Tyneside Irish Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

Dolan Conway, Royal Institute of British Architects

Dolan Conway trained at the Architectural Association London. He is Chair of the North East Region of the Royal Institute of British Architects and a member of the RIBA National Council. Currently involved in City and Town Centre Regeneration Projects, he has worked in private practice and Local Authority Architectural Services. Committed to Inclusive Design his work on Quays Regeneration with design led teams developed into membership of Euroscape an International and European group of Architects and Planners working on Sustainable Regeneration of Waterfronts and their Communities, published in the Cool Sea (ISBN 0901273406) Waterfront Communities Project Tool Kit. In 2010 he takes up the Chair in Equal Arts.

Elisa Lopez Capel

Elisa Lopez Capel is a soil scientist with a background in biogeochemistry, specialising in biomass and bioenergy technologies (such as pyrolysis, gasification and anaerobic digestion). She works on a variety of projects towards sustainable use of natural resources for the production of food and renewable energy from land (integration of bioenergy and land use), and a better understanding of carbon sequestration, climate change, and soil organic matter characterisation. She has extensive experience of working with chars (charcoal from fires and biochar from bioenergy production), plant materials and soils under various land managements. Elisa studied Agricultural and Environmental Science, and specialised in pesticide behaviour in soils during her PhD. She developed and validated extraction and analytical methodologies to assess sorption and degradation of pesticides in soil. During her postdoctoral research, she has developed a novel mass spectrometer-thermal balance system for the simultaneous determination of carbon and oxygen stable isotope, gas analysis, mass balance and energy change for volatile minerals and soil carbon materials. Her novel method for characterisation of carbon pools provides fundamental information to model carbon turnover in soils and sediments. The development of the mass spectrometer-thermal balance system created a need for well-characterised samples to test the system which has led to the establishment of national and international collaborations.

Vivienne Dawson

Vivienne Dawson is the coordinator of the 'Grow Your Own Five' project in partnership with Tanfield School and school hub, Tantobie Community and Beamish Open Air Museum. She is an artist with the 'Great Northern Artists' group and manages Landscape & Art & Design Services (LADS). Much of her work involves making gardens with school and community groups. Over the last few years LADS has instigated and developed award winning garden projects, including 'Meadow Well Made' at North Shields, and the maze and environmental improvements at East Cramlington Nature Reserve.

Rich Hurst, North East Strategic Partnership for Sustainable Schools (NESPSS)

Rich is the coordinating officer for the North East Strategic Partnership for Sustainable Schools (NESPSS) which engages public, private and third sector partners engaged in supporting schools in the broad sustainability agenda.It is funded by Department for Children, Schools and Families via Government Office for the North East. He is also a trustee of a number of regional charities involved in sustainability programmes. Outside of work Rich is happily married, a proud father of two and a realistic Middlesbrough FC supporter.

Dr Jaime Amezaga, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy and Sustainability, Sir Joseph Swan Institute for Energy Research

Jaime lecturers and debates environmental policy and sustainability with engineering students. Originally from Spain, he came to the North East 12 years ago after living in The Netherlands for a while. He has two canny children. He coordinates several multinational research projects in natural resources management. He works with Aidan in the development of outreach programmes including Newcastle University's contribution to RCE North East.

Dr David Ridley

David Ridley is a science technician at St Robert of Newminster Catholic School and Sixth Form College in Washington. His previous employment experience includes university administration at Sunderland and Northumbria, and a local government building trades apprenticeship at a time when local government was still building houses.

He graduated from Newcastle University with Combined Honours in History and German. His Durham University PhD focused on aspects of nineteenth-century labour history in the North East coalfield, which he is developing for publication.

He sees the modern commitment of trades unions to Lifelong Learning as a fulfillment of their earliest demands for education and training, and an overlapping interest with the RCE theme of Education for Sustainable Development and the coal energy background of his own academic studies.

Dr Jane Delany, Dove Marine Laboratory

Jane Delany is a Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology with a strong interest in public engagement in science. She oversees an Outreach programme at the Dove Marine Laboratory that is underpinned by the idea that sustainable management of marine resources is achievable only through involvement by all members of society. Our programme aims to contribute to this greater involvement with a three pronged approach: (1) Awareness raising; (2) Education for sustainable development and (3) Exploring models of participation by lay people in science and in environmental management.

Educational achievement in the North East amongst our more deprived communities remains below the national average, and levels of participation in higher education are particularly low (26%). The portfolio of innovative educational initiatives that Jane has championed is serving to address this, by creating an inspirational and inclusive programme for young people to embrace learning.

John Holmes, School of the Built Environment, Northumbria University

John is a Lecturer in the School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University, the main focus of his teaching is in Sustainable Development. He has recently lead the validation of a new MSc in Sustainable Development in the Built Environment which will have the first intake of students in September 2009.

In addition to teaching John has carried out research into the drivers and barriers to sustainable property development over the past ten years and has worked with consultancy teams for NHS Estates and the Kings Fund evaluating the effectiveness Public Private Partnerships schemes in delivering sustainable healthcare facilities. He is also a BREEAM assessor (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) and is working with a number of developers to improve the environmental performance of their buildings. Recent schemes include the Sunderland Aquatics Centre and an £80 million office and arts venue in London.

Mike Brogan, English Martyrs School & VI Form College

Mike Brogan is Head of Art and Design at The English Martyrs School and VI Form College in Hartlepool: an 11-18, with Specialist Arts College status since 2000. He is the director of the specialism, which include the visual arts and music, and the college is also developing the role of drama and dance. Mike is a practising artist in paint and ceramics, having trained as a potter in Staffordshire and worked briefly in the industry.

English Martyrs School with sixteen other schools in the region involving 126 GCSE art students were responsible for the 'Textures and Growth' flagship programme which focussed on the plant-life and lichens that inhabit the areas along the North East coast. We compared rural and industrial locations. This work has so far resulted in two public exhibtions of the students' work, at EMS Art Gallery and at Moorbank Botanical Gardens. We are currently working on a garden project with RCE and with Our Lady and St. Bede School in Stockton and will be involved in a new Summer school venture in July.

Dr Frederick Milton, School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University

Frederick Milton has an expertise in British social and cultural history from 1750 to 1914, and also has a strong interest in environmental history. Additionally, he has over twenty years experience of ornithological research, carrying out bird ringing fieldwork and is particularly interested in farmland bird population dynamics. He conducts farmland bird surveying in Gateshead, and this study is now into its 40th year. Contracted by Northern Kites, the project responsible for reintroducing the red kite to the North East, Frederick produced a socio-economic appraisal of this project: Taking Flight: An Evaluation of the Economic Benefits of Using Red Kites Milvus milvus for Environment-led Regeneration. Key findings of this report demonstrated that nature conservation provides significant economic and social benefits for the region, in this case £1.73 million and supporting 12.5 FTE jobs.
Frederick can be contacted at F.S.Milton @ ncl.ac.uk

Jim Wood, Students into Schools, Colleges, Community programme

Jim Wood has managed the Students into Schools, Colleges, Community programme since it was established in Newcastle University and Northumbria University in 1993. His role in 2009 is Assistant Director (Curriculum) in the Newcastle University Careers Service which is responsible for delivering the suite of Career Development modules that include students undertaking tutoring for academic credit in local schools, colleges and community learning centres. Prior to joining Newcastle University, Jim taught mathematics in secondary schools in Newcastle.

Prof. John Tomaney, Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies

John Tomaney is Professor of Regional Development and Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University ; Professor of Regional Studies at Monash University , Melbourne ; Associate Director of the UK Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC) and is an Academician of the Academy of Social Science (UK). He was educated at the London School of Economics, University of Sussex and University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

He has published over 100 books and articles on questions of local and regional development including Local and Regional Development (Routledge, 2006) co-authored with Andy Pike and Andrés Rodríguez-Pose. He has undertaken numerous research projects in the UK and elsewhere. Among the organisations for which he has conducted research are: UK Research Councils, UK government departments, the European Commission, the OECD and local and regional development agencies and private sector and voluntary organisations. He has given evidence to Royal Commissions and Parliamentary Committees in the UK . In addition, he is a regular commentator in the UK media on matters of local and regional development.

The ‘triple crunch’ and the future of the North East by John Tomaney and Andy Pike.

Colm Doyle, Education Consultant – Colm Doyle Education Networking

Colm Doyle is a self employed Education Consultant working with schools and organisations across the North East of England and also in Northern Ireland. He has over 30 years experience working in schools in the region, his final teaching post being Deputy Headteacher in a successful Technology College in Darlington. For over seven years he was Regional Co-ordinator for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. He is well known and his work respected by educationalists at all levels. Colm uses his experience as a school governor and in training graduates new to the teaching profession through the GTP in Darlington. He is a family man, having grown up “children” and grandchildren, as well as having a daughter at primary school.

Graeme Lloyd, Tanfield School

Graeme Lloyd is Head Teacher at Tanfield School - Specialist College of Science and Engineering, Stanley in County Durham working in partnership with RCE North East and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne on projects focussing on sustainability and the environment.