Sarah is the Chief Executive Officer for Women’s Aid Federation NI (WAFNI). She has worked with Women’s Aid since January 1993, initially as Finance Manager.  She took over the role of managing the Regional Training in 2008 when she had overall responsibility for managing the finances of WAFNI, coordinating the regional financial picture across all Women’s Aid groups and managing the development and delivery of internal training.

In her current role Sarah works closely with the CEOs of all 8 Women’s Aid groups across NI to promote collaboration and progressive development. She is responsible for taking forward the Women’s Aid Strategy – Unlocking Potential – Building on Success (2022-2025).

A major element of her role is to develop and nurture external partnerships and relationships and she works closely with Dept. of Health, Dept. of Justice, Dept. of Communities and the Department of Education officials in funding and progressing Women’s Aid work forward. Sarah manages the team at WAFNI and along with the Board of Directors and local group CEOs sets the strategic direction for the organisation.   This work also involves working across England, Scotland and Wales with the other Women’s Aid Federations to. Sarah has championed preventative education across Northern Ireland and has always led on the highly successful “Developing Social Guardians to Deliver Helping Hands”, a two-day ILM Awarded training programme for teachers. Sarah represents Women’s Aid Federation NI on various multi-agency working groups across Northern Ireland.