• Jennifer Gargan - Director
• Karla Charles - Advocacy & Policy Officer
• Fiona Murray - Children's Rights & Participation Officer
• Larissa Comiskey - Children's Rights & Participation Officer
• Brenda Kneafsey, Aftercare Network Support Co-ordinator
• Fiona Daly - Research Officer
• Patricia Thorp - Office Manager
• Réidín Dunne - Advocacy Manager
• Caroline Nolan - Advocacy Officer
• Joanna Seery - Advocacy Officer
• John Murphy - Advocacy Officer
• Peter Lane - Advocacy Officer
• Thérèse Gogarty - Advocacy Administrator

Jennifer Gargan, Director

Jennifer Gargan began working with EPIC in July 2005 and has responsibility for the day to day management of the organisation.

Jennifer has many years of experience working with children and families. She has been involved in community and family support work and has also worked within the voluntary sector.

Jennifer may be contacted on jennifergargan@epiconline.ie

Karla Charles, Advocacy and Policy Officer 

Karla Charles took up this post in late 2009.

Her role involves identifying policy issues that are relevant to young people in care and aftercare, and informing Government departments about these issues in order to advocate for improvements in policy and practice. The overall aim is to improve things for young people in care, and to make sure that the wider public, including the media, are informed about problems and developments.

Karla may be contacted at karlacharles@epiconline.ie

Children's Rights & Participation Officers

The responsibilities of this role involve acting as an independent support and advocate to children and young people in care or who have had an experience of care. 

Fiona Murray has been appointed as a Children's Rights & Participation Officer with EPIC since January 2006.

Fiona has many years experience in residential care and in more recent times has worked with Early School Leavers in a community setting.

Fiona may be contacted at fionamurray@epiconline.ie

Larissa Comiskey took up the post of Children's Rights & Participation Officer in January 2006.

Larissa's professional background is in Residential Social Work, Child Protection Social Work and more recently as a Co-ordinator with the Family Welfare Conference Service in Dublin.

Larissa may be contacted at larissacomiskey@epiconline.ie

learn more about our Children's Rights and Participation Programme

Brenda Kneafsey, Aftercare Network Support Co-ordinator

Brenda Kneafsey has been involved as Aftercare Network Support Co-ordinator since May 2007. Brenda has previously spent 8 years working in Management in long term Residential Care in Galway and Wicklow and during her professional career has worked with young people from age 7 onwards.

Brenda may be contacted at brendakneafsey@epiconline.ie

Learn more about our Aftercare Advocacy & Support Programme

Fiona Daly, Research Officer

Fiona Daly joined the EPIC team in September 2009. 

Her role involves finding out information about the issues that affect young people in care and aftercare to help inform the work of EPIC.

Fiona has been working in research for the last ten years, which included a study about the education of young people in long term foster care. 

Fiona may be contacted at fionadaly@epiconline.ie   

Patricia Thorp, Office Manager

Patricia Thorp is responsible for the day-to-day working of EPIC’s national office taking on whatever duties need to be done to keep the office running efficiently, allowing other staff members to concentrate on their own jobs.

Patricia joined EPIC in 2005, having previously worked as PA and Team Assistant for various businesses in the Corporate Sector.

Patricia may be contacted by at patriciathorp@epiconline.ie

Réidín Dunne, Advocacy Manager.

I have many years experience of working with children and young people. I have always worked directly with children, young people and their families. I have also worked in education, residential care, youth justice, youth work with teen parents and with families who need support.

Réidin can be contacted at reidindunne@epiconline.ie

Caroline Nolan - Advocacy Officer

Prior to joining the EPIC team in September 2012 Caroline worked as a Social Care Leader in a Children's residential centre in the southern region.

Caroline holds a professional qualification in Applied Social Studies in Social Care. She also holds qualifications in Development Studies and Non-Formal Guidance.

Caroline worked directly with young people in care for over 11½ years. Caroline has also been involved in developing Independent Living Skills Programmes, and working in an outreach capacity with young people who had moved onto to semi-independent living. Caroline has a particular interest in the area of children’s rights and aftercare.

Caroline can be contacted at carolinenolan@epiconline.ie

Joanna Seery - Advocacy Officer

Joanna’s professional qualification is in social work. She has worked in various sectors including probation, family support and fostering. Previous to her social work qualification Joanna spent eight years as a social care worker working with young people in residential care in the Dublin area.

Joanna can be contacted at joannaseery@epiconline.ie

John Murphy - Advocacy Officer

John has worked in residential care in both Wicklow and Cork. Following on from this he worked in Barnardos as part of the Origins team that worked with people who went through the Industrial and Reformatory School system to help them access information about their past and to trace family members. He has also have worked in Limerick as a Community Resource Worker as part of the Family Support Initiative.

John can be contacted at johnmurphy@epiconline.ie

Peter Lane - Advocacy Officer

Peter has experience working in residential for the past five years, often with young people with complex and challenging needs. Before that, he worked with YAP, as a Youth Worker and he used to give workshops in communications and media studies. He also has extensive experience in event organisation and management.

Peter has a Post-Graduate Diploma in Communications and Development and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Social Studies. He has a BA (Hons), a National Certificate in Philosophical Studies and a Diploma in Print Media and Journalism. He also has Fetac Level 6 qualification in Management.

He is deeply interested in Social Justice and issues concerning Equality.

Peter can be contacted at peterlane@epiconline.ie

Thérèse Gogarty - Advocacy Administrator

Thérèse joined EPIC in September 2012 as Administrator to the National Advocacy Service. Thérèse comes to EPIC with over 20 years’ experience of working in Community and Family Support Projects.

For any general queries or information about EPIC e-mail info@epiconline.ie