OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
Damien Coyle:
Co-chair
Damien’s background includes roles in the public, education and voluntary sectors. He held senior management positions at the Community Fund and Big Lottery Fund. His qualifications include Arts, Education, and Business Administration. He established the PGD/MA course in Cultural Management at UU and is a former CEO of University of Atypical and Vice Chair of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. He was awarded an MBE in 2016, and in 2022 he won the CO3 Leadership Award for Leading a small organisation, and was the recipient of the UU Distinguished Graduate Award in 2023. As a visual artist, he has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, and has published writings on art, history, culture and architecture. Damien is hearing impaired, disabled, and neurodivergent.
Noelle Mc Alinden:
Co-chair
Noelle McAlinden is co-chair of Mental Health Arts NI and Vice-Chair of the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Derry~Londonderry. She has been active as a creative adviser, artist, curator, arts educationalist, and human rights activist for almost four decades, working across Ireland, the UK, and Internationally, with statutory, voluntary, youth and community sectors. She was formerly Chair of Creative Youth Partnerships NI; Chair of the Forum for local Government and the Arts; Board member of the Arts Council NI, Void Gallery, Nerve Centre, and Beckett, Wilde, and FLive arts festivals; and High Sheriff of Fermanagh (2023). She was creative adviser to Derry~Londonderry’s first UK City of Culture (2013). She is a recipient of the Sir Ken Robinson Individual Award. She is a Hope ambassador and founder member of Hope, Healing and Growth. She is an ambassador for positive mental and emotional wellbeing, dedicated to the prevention of suicide, and a member of Ohana ZERO suicide. Noelle is a TEDx speaker.
Frank Liddy:
Trustee
Frank Liddy was a driving forces in the Twinbrook Residents Association in the seventies and eighties, taking a break for a short period to try his hand as a saxophonist in a punk band, before embracing the study of Zen Buddhism and mindfulness.
He has over 35 years’ practice-based experience with mindfulness programmes that have helped to transform the lives of many people across Ireland.
Frank is the co-founder of the Black Mountain Zen Centre and Compassionate City Belfast. He now lives in North Belfast but a return to Twinbrook is on the cards.
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Bronagh Lawson:
Trustee
Bronagh Lawson is a socially and spiritually engaged artist, writer, curator. With a focus on art as a key transformation lever in the on going transformation of our traumatised society. She has 13 year collaboration with Adjunct Professor of art therapy Suellen Semekoiski at the school of art Institute Chicago where together they have developed a form of contemporary art underpinned with art therapy that acts as a healing mechanism. She writes a weekly art column for Belfast Media group and has contributed to Fortnight Magazine and Art UK. In 2020 she published a book Belfast City of Light based on her experience of going to every church in Belfast for a service. A Fulbright scholar, she has won awards for her work with art and dementia with the Ulster Museum, A regional talk talk digital heroes award for her development and running voluntarily an online Platform for artists, galleries and audiences in Northern Ireland and during her 13 years of working on business/ community development within the enterprise sector she won awards for her finance training from the FSA. A gender equality award from European Equal programme and has helped hundreds of people into full or part time work, education or self employment.
She has 20 + years of board experience Current Chair of Bbeyond, previous chair of PsSquared, Belfast Print Workshop and Women’s Tec.
Her work is held in a number of collections including the Office of public works, UTV, South Eastern Health Trust, City East, Irish Architectural Archive, Ulster Museum and Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
William Nicholson:
Trustee
An experienced Independent Arts, Health and Wellbeing Consultant deeply passionate about the role that arts, culture and creativity can play in improving people's health and wellbeing. Will has relocated to Northern Ireland from London in 2022 and is initiating the development of the Northern Ireland Creative Health Network having established and experienced the benefits of similar initiatives in England.
Will has been involved in a wide range of arts and health work from local to national level in the UK and Ireland including; supporting the development of a Creative Health Toolkit for Integrated Care Systems for the UK National Centre for Creative Health, developing arts and health strategies for the Greater London Authority, Southwark Council and King’s College London and facilitating a culture and social prescribing conference in partnership with King's College London and The Science Gallery and a Museum’s and Mental Health event for the Baring Foundation. Will was co-founder of the Southwark Culture Health and Wellbeing Partnership, one of the first place-based creative health networks and strategic approaches to arts and health in a local authority area. Will recently facilitated a session at the 2023 annual national arts and health gathering led by Réalta, the National Body for Arts + Health in Ireland.
Outside of Arts and Health, Will is the Convenor of A Better Way, a UK-wide cross sector network of 1,500 senior leaders committed to a fairer society through transforming services and system change; recently working as a learning partner for NHS England and 16 Integrated Care Board's on better partnership working with people and communities. He is a Chartered Accountant and trustee of several charities including the Northern Ireland Mental Health and Arts Festival, An Rath Dubh Community Hall in Moneyneena, Co-Chair of STEPS Mental Health in Draperstown and Strategic Director for Ulster Squash.
Brenda Brady:
Trustee
Brenda Brady is currently a research Fellow, Queen’s University Belfast.
Brenda’s background includes roles in the civil service, social services and the community and voluntary sectors working in the areas of family and childcare, ADHD and community development. She is currently a research fellow in Queen’s University working in the area of youth justice and adversity. Brenda is a social worker and has worked across the fields of probation, mental health, learning disability and trauma. Her undergraduate qualifications include modern and contemporary English Literature, Bachelor of Social work and a Masters Degree (MRes) in social science research. She is the recipient of the Queen’s University Brian Rankin Medal for Social Work academic achievement and the Faculty Porter Scholarship in 2018. Presently she is about to complete a PhD at Queen’s University researching the relationship between mental health stigma, arts-based interventions and help-seeking in Northern Ireland and has built up strong collaborative links with other universities and organisations in the community and voluntary sector where the focus is the arts and mental health and community development. Another role Brenda is involved in is chair of the board of governors of a secondary school where the arts have been fostered at the heart of the school’s social, cultural and emotional development and have been used to promote wellbeing, enhance achievement and provide pupils with a voice and platform for self-expression and visibility.
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Dr Jonathan McCrea MCSP:
Trustee
Jonnie graduated with an Honours Degree and a PhD in Physiotherapy from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and has worked in clinical, academic and research settings in the statutory and third sector. One of the first patients he assessed was a Leprosy patient, a fisherman in his dugout canoe, while they both floated down a river in the Amazon, in Brazil with Dr Bill Woods OBE. Most recently he was Head of Adult Services at Brain Injury Matters and from 2025 has been a Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Ulster.
With his expertise in Evidence Based Practice he developed the concept and model of Human Rights Based Practice demonstrating it’s outworking through the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People by eradicating exclusion, challenging societal norms and changing expectations.
In 2023 he won the CO3 ‘Health Care Advocate of the Year Award’ for his outstanding and significant contribution to his profession and community, through his leadership, vision and drive.
In 2024 his work was included as a case study in the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy report, ‘Rehabilitation, recovery and reducing health inequity: easing the pain (2nd edition)’ as was described as follows:
“The unusual element, radical even, is that this not only engages people with an ABI to take part in the arts and sports, but protects their engagement from being turned into therapy, rehabilitation or a health outcome. There is a therapeutic benefit for all of us in society as we engage in the arts and sports, so the primary objective was for people with an ABI to also be able to take part on their own terms, on an equal basis as others, for its own sake.”
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Rachel Love:
Trustee
Rachel is an experienced Continuous Improvement and Change Management Leader with a deep passion for DE&I and Arts and Culture.
With a background in Talent Acquisition, Rachel guides global Continuous Improvement projects, including client implementations, transformations, remediations and significant international RPO projects.
Throughout the years, Rachel has championed Employee Resource Groups, diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives, and Health and Wellness events at regional, national, and global levels through their company’s Engagement Committee. Additionally AIRS certified in international Diversity and Inclusion Recruitment.
Starting from pilots of Art and Music therapies with CAHMS, they are a strong believer of the benefits of arts to local culture and communities, as well as the demonstrable benefits to mental health.
Eimear Burton
Trustee
Eimear Burton is an experienced venue and events professional with over 22 years in the industry, delivering more than 5,000 events across local, national, and international platforms. Her career spans global conferences, high-profile state visits, televised concerts, public festivals, and grassroots community programmes. Eimear currently manages 2 Royal Avenue, a cultural community hub in Belfast, where she leads operations, programming, and engagement—welcoming over 3/4 million visitors and supporting thousands of artists and community groups since 2022.
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Alongside her professional expertise, Eimear brings a deep personal commitment to mental health advocacy, inclusion, and creative placemaking. With lived experiences of mental health challenges as a member of the LGBTQI+ community, she is passionate about using the arts as a transformative tool for connection, healing, and social change. Her work is grounded in accessibility, community engagement, and amplifying underrepresented voices through safe, welcoming and vibrant public spaces.
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Eimear holds a BA in French and Spanish from Trinity College Dublin and a NEBOSH General Certificate in Health and Safety. She continues to contribute to festivals and cultural initiatives across Northern Ireland as a freelance production and site manager.
Randal Rory McDonnell:
Trustee
Randal Rory Mc Donnell has joined the MHANI Board as a member of Finance & Business subcommittee, and is graduate from Queen’s University in Belfast where he completed a BSc in Finance, graduating with First Class Honours. This included a year-long industrial placement where he worked as an Actuarial Associate with XPS Pensions Group in Belfast as part of their GMP Services Assistant on their Actuarial Client Support Team before joining Evelyn Partners in September 2024 as an Associate Investment Manager. In this role, he has been involved in supporting investment strategies, conducting market research, and contributing to client portfolio management. As part of his current position, he is undertaking the Chartered Wealth Management (CWM) qualification, having previously undertaken the Investment Advice Diploma. He hopes to achieve this professional qualification in the coming year and pursue the CFA qualification on completion.
Dr Pamela Whitaker
Research and Development Advisory Panel
Dr Pamela Whitaker is a lecturer in art psychotherapy and a researcher at the Belfast School of Art, Ulster University. She has written articles on environmental art therapy, festivity, the art of belongings and the material culture of home. She practises under the name of Groundswell, a social enterprise supporting hospitality, pride of place, biodiversity and the art of nature.
Dr Trisha Forbes
Research and Development Advisory Panel
Dr Trisha Forbes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Queen's University Belfast with extensive experience working on various projects very broadly around the area of mental health. Trisha is currently working on the Communication and Restraint Reduction Study in the School of Psychology, which has an overarching aim of minimising restrictive practice in mental health wards. Her PhD was a qualitative inquiry exploring young peoples’ perceptions of suicide and their feelings of connectedness to the community. Trisha has a particular research interest in improving services and care for those living with mental health challenges, as well as working alongside service users to inform each step of this research. She has a keen interest in the link between the arts and mental health and has been involved in the work of the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival (now Mental Health Arts NI) since around 2018.
Dr Emma Berry
Research and Development Advisory Panel
“My draw toward the arts and their role in wellbeing roots from my own personal experiences of mental health challenges, and art was and still is a key way for me to understand, communicate, and regulate. It was this that also nudged me toward the work undertaken by the Mental Health Arts NI (MHANI) board and organising community. I have been involved with MHANI since 2022 as a committee member, board member and co-chair, and now I sit on the research advisory group with interdisciplinary colleagues.
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My professional role in Health Psychology has allowed me to incorporate art and creative techniques and materials in both my teaching and research. This role also facilitates good connections between QUB and MHANI to help build capacity for research in community arts. I am keen to avail of creative methods and modes of data collection and research dissemination, so that creativity is centred in the design of the research, which fits well with the ethos of MHANI and with my ethical values. Art-based methods enhance the accessibility of research, by providing a plethora of tools to access and communicate experience, therefore improving engagement and meaning-making for participants. Art-based methods enable researchers and collaborators to delve into human experience and capture stories, imagery, textures, smells, or sounds, that convey insights far beyond numbers and words. Art-based methods are also more enjoyable and can cultivate empowerment in participants, which is especially important when conducting research on populations who are vulnerable, who have complex health and social challenges, or who might have neurodevelopmental, linguistic, or cognitive differences that can often result in exclusion from or barriers toward research participation.
I very much look forward to continuing to support MHANI in their research plans to develop a strategy to build research that captures the multifaceted impact of workshops and events, that explores the wellbeing needs of artists, and which creates opportunities for research participation that are engaging and empowering.”
OUR STAFF:
Sarah O'Malley Graham
Marketing and Projects Assistant
Sarah O'Malley Graham grew up all around the world before ending up in Belfast. She studied Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin, where she became an involved member of College Houses Cooperatives. In her time there she served various roles for the organisation, including Trustee of 21st Street Cooperative and Secretary of the College Houses Board of Directors. She remains passionate about the power of cooperation, the world around her, and all things art.
