TASC Staff

Dr Shana Cohen is the Director of TASC.

She has been director since 2017. In addition to her directorship, she works directly on projects involving social inclusion, economic inequality, democracy, and climate justice. For instance, she is drafting a report for Safe Ireland on how social policy can support victims of DSGBV. She has also worked on the social prescribing programme with the Coop in NEIC and policy reports on migration and social solidarity in the EU, as well as the effect of the financial crisis on the top 10% of income earners in Ireland, Sweden, Spain, and the UK. In addition to her work at TASC, Shana is an Affiliate Lecturer in the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge.

She has published on social action and activism, as well as social change in North Africa, her original area of academic research.She has a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB from Princeton University. 

Before coming to TASC, she was Deputy Director of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge. In her role at the Institute, she became engaged with interfaith and intercultural relations in Europe, India, and the Middle East.

Beyond academic research, Shana has extensive experience working with NGOs and community-based organizations in a number of countries, including Morocco, the US, the UK, and India. This work has involved project design, management, and evaluation as well as advocacy. She has consulted for the World Bank, the Grameen Bank Foundation, and other private foundations and trusts.

Expertise

• Economy and society 
• Social policy and inequality 
• Enhancing civil society impact and capacity 
• Evaluation and programme design
• International development 

Forthcoming publications

(2021) “The evolution of civil society in Morocco,” in Handbook on the Maghrib, edited by George Joffe, New York: Routledge. 

(2021) “The local political and social consequences of austerity,” in Handbook on Austerity, Retrenchment and the Welfare State, edited by Bent Greve, London: Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Recent publications

(2019) “Solidarity and Democracy: Lessons from Social Activism Under Austerity in the UK,” Journal of Anthropological Theory: Anthropological Theory Commons, December 9, 2019. 

(2019) “Global Policy and Social Solidarity: Making the link for social change,” special issue of Global Social Policy in memoriam for Bob Deacon, Ed. Alexandra Kaasch.

Current Research

Robert Sweeney is the senior economic policy analyst. His work centres on topics related to inequality. He has completed projects on a variety of topics including income distribution, housing, care, corporate tax, low pay and working conditions.

Research Themes

• Economic inequality
• Housing
• Working Conditions
• Macroeconomic policy

Background

Robert has a PhD in economics from University of Leeds in which he examined the growth of the financial sector in Europe. He also has degrees from Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University. He has published and refereed in international journals in economics and political economy.

Sara has worked extensively in programme management in the community and voluntary sector. She has managed educational projects in Africa and Asia and worked with refugees, migrants and at-risk young people in Ireland. She has a MA in International Politics and Human Rights from London City University, and a PhD in Sociology from Trinity College Dublin where she researched trust and cohesion in post-conflict communities using qualitative and quantitative methods. As well as her work with TASC, Sara coordinates the Sociology and Social Policy Module for Trinity Access Programmes

Sara leads social inclusion research at TASC. Current projects centre on the social and structural effects of inequality, social exclusion, and poverty. This includes work on financial resilience and domestic violence, as well as developing work on cross border cooperation and the intersection between social inclusion and climate action. Research findings contribute to policy debate and the evaluation and development of programmes and interventions.

Research Themes

• Social effects of poverty and inequality
• Financial resilience
• Digital literacy
• Domestic violence
• Conflict and reconciliation

Róisín is working on TASC’s climate justice stream. This area of research focuses on community-led climate action that seeks to address inequality. Current projects focus on cross-border community climate action, the intersection between climate change and health in disadvantaged communities, and phase II of The People’s Transition. 

Background

Róisín has recently completed an MSc in Climate Change: Policy, Media and Society at Dublin City University. Passionate about community-led solutions to the climate crisis, Róisín’s research analysed social capital in community sport and its potential to act as a unifier collective action. In collaboration with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Róisín used qualitative research methods to examine phase 1 of the GAA’s Green Clubs Programme which saw more than 40 clubs—in urban and rural areas—across the island of Ireland work in partnership with a local authority or organisation to engage in community-led environmental initiatives across the areas of Energy, Water, Waste, Biodiversity and Transport.

Róisín holds a BA in Global Business and Spanish from Dublin City University and Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid and has extensive experience in the not for profit sector working as a Fundraising Coordinator with Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and more recently as a Direct Marketing Executive at Concern Worldwide. Alongside her work at TASC, Róisín also volunteers with local grassroots climate action groups.

Kieran is a senior researcher in climate justice with TASC. Kieran is working on Phase II of the People’s Transition. This project focuses on community-led climate action that seeks to address inequality. Over the next 3 years, TASC will engage with 30 communities across the island of Ireland to support the development of bottom-up climate solutions.

Background

Kieran holds a BA in Geography and Politics and International Relations from UCD and an MSc in Environmental Policy from UCD. Kieran’s Masters thesis focused on the attainment of a just transition for coal dependent jurisdictions. Kieran spoke about this research in an interview with ABC news in Australia in 2019 and featured on a podcast called the Anthill prior to the COP26 negotiations in Glasgow in 2021.

Kieran is currently completing a PhD with UCD, Teagasc and BiOrbic, the national bioeconomy research centre. The title of Kieran’s thesis is ‘A farmer centred approach to understanding the Irish bioeconomy in the context of just transition’. The aim of Kieran’s study is to identify measures which can facilitate the involvement of economically vulnerable agricultural sectors in the bioeconomy. In this study, Kieran has used social network analysis alongside a range of interviewing methods to map Ireland’s growing bioeconomy and identify the views and experiences of farmers relating to the bioeconomy. Kieran’s study also considers the role of power in the bioeconomy and the need to ensure that the bioeconomy does not replicate the power imbalances present within parts of Ireland’s agricultural sector.

Research Themes

• Just Transition
• Environmental Policy
• Bioeconomy
• Agriculture

Recent publications

Harrahill, K. and Douglas, O., 2019. Framework development for “just transition” in coal producing jurisdictions. Energy Policy, 134. doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.110990.

Current Research

Adeelia Goffe is the senior researcher for health. Her work centres on topics related to health and social care access pathways and associated outcomes for marginalised groups. She is currently working on social prescribing in vulnerable/marginalised communities and migrant health needs.

Research Themes

• Health inequalities
• Social determinants of health
• Social inclusion
• Marginalised/vulnerable groups
• Infectious disease epidemiology

Background

Adeelia has a PhD in Biology from the Georg August University of Göttingen (Germany). She also has degrees from Roehampton University (UK) and Cornell University (USA). She has published and refereed in international journals in behavioural ecology and virology. Prior to joining the TASC team, she worked on a number of research projects for the HSE and has lectured at Trinity College.

Deirdre has joined the Climate Justice Team of TASC as part of an Irish Research Council Employment-Based PhD Award. She is examining the role of place-based communities in enacting a Just Transition to decarbonisation in Ireland. This research will explore, through a series of case studies, how community-level initiatives on Just Transition can achieve sustainable development. Prior to this, Deirdre worked in international development, in advocacy for sustainable development and in monitoring and evaluation of development projects. 

A warm welcome to Conor Henry, who joined the team in February and will be working as the project coordinator and trainer with the Financial Resilience Training programme. Conor has worked with a number of regional and national organisations, including Galway Rape Crisis Centre, Jigsaw, Limerick Youth Services, Pieta House, and Kildare Youth Services, designing and delivering a range of programmes for schools and communities on topics such as consent and sexual violence, mental health, nonviolent resistance, LGBT+ awareness as well as a range of community development initiatives.

Louisa MacKenzie joined us from the fundraising team at Dublin Simon Community. Louisa started her career in fashion and supply chain working with Primark and Mars Ireland but always had a passion for the non-profit sector. 

While working at Mars, she partnered with Business in the Community Ireland to establish a charity partnership between Mars and the ISPCA. During this time, she realised she could turn her passion for helping others into a career.

Louisa managed Dublin Simon’s food sponsorship programme 'Food for Simon', working closely with many key industry players to address food waste as part of their CSR strategies. Other roles with Dublin Simon involved partnerships with SSE Airtricity, Kepak and Lidl Ireland.

John comes to TASC with a background in senior office administration.

He has previously worked in large academic, health and government organisations in both Australia and Ireland.

With specialist experience in corporate event management for local government and the charity sector he is a key staff member for TASC fundraising activities.

System administrator for Salesforce CRM for TASC. 

Sally is a member of the administration team of Tasc. She previously worked within the insurance industry in Ireland and the UK and progressed her career into the financial services region of the public sector.This is where she developed a passion for working in a non-profit organisation.

Christopher worked for twenty years to strengthen democratic institutions, processes and culture in the global South, and before that for the Leader of a British political party and a non-governmental campaigning organisation.

He was Senior Professional Officer at Electoral Reform International Services, a London-based not-for-profit democracy NGO, from 2008 to 2014;  Head of Democracy in the Political Affairs Division and Advisor to the Secretary-General, Commonwealth Secretariat, from 1994 to 2006; staff member in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, London, when Neil Kinnock was Leader of the British Labour Party, from 1983 to 1992; and Trade Union and Local Groups Officer at the London headquarters of the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1976 to 1982 and for part of that time Deputy Secretary.

Christopher has a BA and an MA from the University of Durham, both in politics. He retired in 2014, has lived in Dublin since 2015 and assisting TASC on a voluntary basis.

Olena is a skilled graphic and web designer with a passion for creating visually stunning and user-friendly designs. She came to Ireland from Ukraine, where she obtained her Master's degree in International Economics from Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics. Olena's expertise in designing creative and effective marketing materials has been honed through her work as a copywriter and designer at BetterMe project, and International Exhibition Center in Ukraine. Olena's ability to bring ideas to life through her design skills has been further strengthened by her time as a marketing and event assistant at TASC.