Core Staff
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Richard Carson
Richard became an ACET care volunteer at the age of 21, subsequently led the Education and Training projects and has been CEO since 2012. He has qualifications in a wide-range of areas including Pharmacology, Education, Management of Community and Voluntary Organisations, Health Promotion, Ecumenics and Theology, Ministry & Mission. These include a prize-winning Master’s dissertation for Trinity College Dublin on HIV Prevention. Richard has received numerous community awards and nominations for his work with Migrant-Led Churches as well as with the LGBT community and is a member of a number of local and national bodies. He lives in Dublin with his wife and 3 young boys.
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Lynn Caldwell
Lynn has been administrator for the Dublin Film Festival and Creative Arts Europe and currently runs the ACET office. She has training in data protection, child safety, volunteer management, and social media. She holds a BA from the University of Victoria and is a published poet. Lynn is Canadian and lives in Dublin with her husband and two children.
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Hansi Chisnall
Hansi was a youth volunteer for ACET in 2007 before joining the staff as Family & Youth Support Coordinator in 2013. Her professional background includes experience in youth & children’s work, crisis counselling, project work and advocacy with organisations including Youth for Christ Ireland, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Bodywhys, Release Prison Partnership, Alternatives to Violence Project, Irish Foster Care Association and Fostering First Ireland. Hansi has degrees in both Psychology and Integrative Counselling & Psychotherapy, with additional qualifications in early childhood education, life & parent coaching, key working & care planning, drugs counselling, CBT and restorative practice. She is a MIACP Accredited Psychotherapist also working in private group practice in Bray, Co Wicklow, and is currently completing a MSc in Pluralistic Psychotherapy. Originally from Colorado, USA, she lives in Dublin with her husband.
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Olivia Corbett
Part of the ACET team since 2011, Olivia’s role encompasses a client-centred approach and empowering individuals through care planning and key working. A graduate in Social Policy and Sociology from Trinity College Dublin, her studies focused on areas of social injustice, inequality and public and social policy. Olivia’s background is comprised of a variety of community-based work with organisations including the Canal Communities Intercultural Centre, AkiDwA, Ruhama, Suas Educational Development and Foróige. She is a trained counsellor and psychotherapist, working toward accreditation with the Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists.
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Terrie Colman-Black
Terrie Colman-Black is one of the founder members of ACET: she approached ACET during its inception in the UK proposing the service for Dublin. Terrie is driven by passion and a firm belief in empowering those around her. Her role in ACET developed over the years, especially in care. She has run the quilt group since 1993 and provides supervision to care staff. Her other passions include the arts, especially music. She is married and has two daughters.
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Chipo Harper
Chipo has a Masters in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has experience of delivering mobile HIV testing and working with families and those living with HIV in Zimbabwe. Chipo lives with her family in Ballinteer and is a mentor at her local GAA club.
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Aishling McCormack
Aishling McCormack is the coordinator of the Positive Youth Project, a new project that supports young people growing up with HIV. She recognised the gap when addressing the needs of this population in Ireland. Aishling has years of experience working and volunteering with the UK charity Chiva, taking on many roles to support young people living with HIV in the UK. This is an area that Aishling is passionate about: she wants to integrate a holistic model to support young people with HIV in Ireland and create a space for them to connect, be educated, empowered and creative when exploring their experience of HIV. She holds a degree in Social Care from MTU Cork and is pursuing a master’s in Global Health at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Aishling joined ACET in 2022 as an adult support worker in a maternity cover post.
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Yvon Luky
Luky has over twenty years of experience working with minority ethnic communities in Ireland and is the founder of the Minority Health and Wellbeing Initiative. He has a keen interest in mobilising and empowering ethnic minorities to address health issues disproportionately affecting their communities. After graduating as a Medical Doctor in his native DR Congo, he had an active involvement in the fight against HIV/AIDS, working with communities. His Master’s Degree in Public Health from UCD is instrumental to his engagement with ethnic minority communities on issues affecting health. He also holds a
degree in Digital Technology from DIT (now TU Dublin). He is the Minister-in-Charge of La Grace Christian Assembly and has been central in the development of the ‘Platform of French Speaking Churches in Ireland’. -
Vivienne Morrow-Murtagh
Vivienne is a counsellor, psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor with over 20 years of experience working on health issues among vulnerable populations. She is accredited with the Irish Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists and is also a trained Imago therapist and a certified trauma therapist. She founded ACET’s Education & Training work and currently provides counselling and supervision support to clients and staff.
Partnerships
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Wendy Phillips
Wendy lived in Uganda and Zimbabwe in the late 90s, so got to witness up close the devastation the HIV pandemic caused in sub-Saharan Africa It became very personal when a dear friend, Matilda, died. The Matilda Project was founded in her honour in 2001. Although her science education and print management experience weren’t much of a preparation for development work, an in-house consultant helps.
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Bernie McDonnell
Bernie brings her vast experience in drug and alcohol training, particularly as Director for Community Awareness of Drugs for many years, to this important post. Building the capacity of drug education responses in the area, including for parents, teachers and youth leaders are among Bernie’s wide ranging roles.
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Nataliya Marchenko – Ukraine
Working in partnership with Cairde, Nataliya is addressing the long-term health outcomes for Ukrainian refugees resident in the Dublin North City area. Having joined ACET from Google, Nataliya brings a long history of volunteering for and with the Ukrainian community in Dublin.
Board
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Prof. Samuel McConkey
Prof. Samuel McConkey (chair) leads the clinical infectious disease services at Beaumont hospital and at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda, and is the clinical lead for the sexual health services in Monaghan, Dundalk and Drogheda. He is head of the department of Tropical Medicine and International Health at RCSI.
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Dr Ebun Joseph
Dr Ebun Joseph is an intercultural consultant and lectures on race, migration, social policy and equality. She is the module coordinator at University College Dublin of the first Black Studies course in Ireland and is a career development consultant at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Ebun has a Masters from Maynooth University in Adult Guidance and a Professional Diploma in Counselling. She also founded the African Scholars Association Ireland AfSAI, and the Unforgettable Women’s Network.
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Tony MacCarthaigh
Tony MacCarthaigh led the Rialto Community Drug Team for many years and was chair of the local community Drugs Task Force. He is now retired but is still active within his community.
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Karen Thompson
Karen Thompson (company secretary) grew up in Northern Ireland and has been living in Dublin for 25 years, apart from spending 18 months living in Bolivia with her husband where they were served with the mission agency Latin Link. She now mainly spends her time looking after their three boys and working part time as a solicitor.
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Rev. Philip McKinley
Rev Philip McKinley is a Church of Ireland cleric, based in Dunboyne and Rathmolyon Group of Parishes in Co Meath and in St Brigid’s Cathedral, Co Kildare. He is also Chair of the intercultural Discovery Gospel Choir in St George and St Thomas Church, Cathal Brugha Street Dublin 1.
Philip previously worked for ACET Ireland between 2012-15 as a Family Support Worker and Migrant Project Researcher. He has a keen interest in intercultural and interfaith dialogue.
