LGFA honour 20 graduates from ‘Learn To Lead’ Female Leadership Programme

THE Ladies Gaelic Football Association honoured the 20 graduates from its inaugural ‘Learn to Lead’ Female Leadership programme at The Croke Park last Saturday evening (February 15^th).

The LGFA Leadership Programme was devised to develop the next generation of female leaders within Ladies Gaelic Football – and the 20 participants embarked on a wonderful journey over the course of 12 months.

The course was delivered by experts in the fields of coaching, officiating, administration and PR/Media.

Over four days, and six evenings, the LGFA examined diverse leadership skills and focused on the skill-sets and techniques required to master each of the four strands – coaching, officiating, administration and PR/Media.

Five candidates were chosen to participate in each strand – and the list of 20 included leading coaches, officials, administrators and players, representing the four provinces.

The Programme commenced on Saturday, March 23, 2019, and concluded last Saturday with the Final Leadership Day at Croke Park, followed by graduation at The Croke Park, where the keynote speaker was Joan Kehoe, Global Head of Alternative Investment Services at JP Morgan.

Pedro Angulo, AIB’s Organisational Effectiveness Specialist and Head of Leadership Development, and Niamh McElwain, Manager and Leader Development at Google, delivered the Final day of course content, before the participants retired to the Hotel to reflect upon their achievements.

In 2018, the LGFA launched its Strategic Roadmap 2017-2022 and a key area is to ‘define a model to promote Female Leadership across the Association.’

The first step was to put a Female Leadership Workgroup in place and, there, the need for a Female Leadership Programme was identified, as part of the overall Female Leadership strategy.

Ladies Gaelic Football Association President Marie Hickey, who presented the participants with their commemorative medallions at the Graduation evening, commented: “We were delighted to honour our ‘Learn To Lead’ graduates on Saturday evening.

“Each and every one of them engaged passionately and whole-heartedly with the programme, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“This was another significant development for our Association, with superb candidates in each of the four strands, and I’m sure that we will seeing and hearing from them long into the future.

“The journey for the graduates didn’t end on Saturday evening – it’s only just beginning.”

The full list of graduates, and the strands in which they participated, reads as follows:

Name	Club	County	Strand
Sinead Reel	Silverbridge Harps	Armagh	Administration
Eileen Jones	Aodh Ruadh, Dungannon	Tyrone	Administration
Trina Murray	Moate	Westmeath	Administration
Liz Ahern	Carrigtwohill	Cork	Administration
Eimear O’Connor	Mountrath	Laois	Administration
Diane O’Hora	Clanna Gael Fontenoy	Dublin/Mayo	Coaching
Jennifer Higgins	Western Gaels	Roscommon	Coaching
Ailbhe Quinn	Latton Ladies GFC	Monaghan	Coaching
Olivia Butler	St Pat’s	Waterford	Coaching
Donna Hagan	Kildress Wolfe Tones	Tyrone	Coaching
Kelley Cunningham	Tullamore	Offaly	Officiating
Gráinne Sands	Glenn John Martins	Down	Officiating
Aisling Carey	Shandonagh Mullingar	Westmeath	Officiating
Mairead Dullea	Bantry Blues	Cork	Officiating
Sinead McHugh	Kilmacud Crokes	Donegal	Officiating
Nadine Doherty	Na Fianna (Dublin)	Donegal	PR/Media
Michelle Ryan	Ballymacarbry	Waterford	PR/Media
Niamh Dunne	Park Ratheniksa	Laois	PR/Media
Denise Masterson	Ballymun Kickhams	Dublin	PR/Media
Bríd Stack	Rockchapel	Cork	PR/Media