Our Team
CyberSafeKids: Our Story
Our founders and staff have backgrounds in cybercrime investigation, law enforcement, psychology, education, online child protection, academia and the not-for-profit sector.
OUR team
Meet the people who make CyberSafeKids
tick on a day to day basis
Aoife Boyle
Education Support Team
Aoife has been working in the technology world for the past 15 years and worked in a number of different countries around the world, mostly in telecommunications. Having small kids herself she became interested in the use of technology within her own family. From this she realised that more education for children and parents around technology was a necessity. After 3 years as one of our most active trainers she is delighted to now move to an administrative role liaising between schools, trainers and our sales team.
Olwyn Beresford
Education Programme Analyst
Olwyn has a computer science degree and an MBA and worked in the software industry for many years as a trainer, consultant and product manager. Mother of four, she gained first hand experience of the challenges parents face today in keeping their children safe online. Olwyn volunteered for Problem Gambling Ireland, where she took a particular interest in reducing gaming and gambling-related harms for young people, and was a regular blogger for CyberSafeKids before joining the team at the start of 2020. She has developed course material and delivered our training to assist children, parents, teachers and youth workers to develop vital digital media literacy skills. One of our most experienced trainers, Olwyn continues to deliver educational training sessions and is our Education Programme Analyst, responsible for managing, analysing and reporting on the valuable survey data we collect each year in schools and publish in our annual report.
Orla Stewart
Volunteer Youth Advisor
Orla Stewart is a volunteer Youth Advisor to CyberSafeKids. Orla grew up between France and Ireland. As a survivor of sexual abuse online, she is very passionate about educating others on how to avoid harm online while still experiencing the benefits of the internet. To that end, she has spoken publicly about her experiences and shared her story widely. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, baking, playing with her cats and anything craft related.
Niall Gaffney
Fundraising Manager
Niall Gaffney Fundraising Manager Niall joined CyberSafeKids after 3 years as the Corporate Partnerships Manager in Focus Ireland, where he led a team of 6 people in achieving the organisation's ambitious fundraising targets. Previously, Niall also worked in corporate fundraising with Make-A-Wish Ireland. He is a graduate of UCD and the Michael Smurfit School of Business. Niall is excited to lead CyberSafeKids’ fundraising efforts to ensure that the vital services provided by the charity are fully funded.
Alex Cooney
CEO & Co-Founder
Alex is an experienced programme manager from the not-for-profit sector. She spent a number of years working in the international development sector with agencies such as UNDP in East Timor and with CAFOD, where she was responsible for the South East Asia programme. Before returning to Ireland, Alex was based in Jamaica, working for the British High Commission on a capacity building project in the prison sector. Following her return to Ireland, in 2015 she co-founded CyberSafeIreland, now known as CyberSafeKids, and is currently its CEO, helping to build the organisation to a level where it is providing its services to thousands of children each year. Both personally as a parent, and professionally in her role at CyberSafeKids, she is extremely passionate about ensuring that children and young people are equipped to be online in a safe and smart way. Alex completed a QQI Level 6 component certificate in Child Psychology in 2019, a Professional Certificate in Digital Policy at UCD in 2022 and holds a Master’s Degree in Peace Studies from Trinity College Dublin, in addition to a BA from the University of Edinburgh.
Aoife Keogh
Marketing & Development Manager
Aoife has amassed considerable experience in both the public and private sectors over a fifteen year professional career. She managed projects around the introduction of safer payment options when she was with the Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) before moving to Goodbody Stockbrokers where she was Marketing Manager and then part of the Corporate Broking team. Aoife spent five years working for the Trinity Foundation, managing TCD’s Alumni Programme and carried out a similar role with PwC Ireland. She joined CyberSafeIreland in January 2019 and is responsible for all office administration and relationships with schools across the country. Aoife holds a BSc in Business, Economics and Social Studies from TCD and a Masters in Marketing Practice from the UCD Michael Smurfit School of Business.
Philip Arneill
Head of Education & Innovation
Originally from Belfast, Philip is an international educator with over 20 years experience teaching and training all ages of learners in a range of multicultural contexts. A trained primary teacher, Philip holds Masters degrees in International Education from the University of Sunderland and in Documentary Photography from the University of Arts London. In addition to a year as a programme coordinator at British Council Cairo in Egypt, he lived in Tokyo for 19 years, teaching in different international schools; from 2014-17 he was Head of Year 6 at The British School in Tokyo. Philip has been increasingly involved in teacher training and mentoring since 2011, with a specific focus on the meaningful integration of educational technology tools in the classroom, Content Language & Integrated Learning (CLIL) and the teaching of modern foreign languages. In 2017 he moved to Dublin, where he has been delivering various teacher training courses under the auspices of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. Philip is excited as Head of Education & Innovation to lead the vital work educating and empowering children, teachers and parents about the real challenges which living, studying and working online increasingly pose. He is grateful to be supported by a passionate, hard working and extremely committed panel of trainers who help us to reach more schools with our innovative educational programme, and our fantastic group of volunteer Cyber Ninjas.
Mattia Messena
Researcher
Originally from Italy, Mattia holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology from University of Parma and a specialisation in Forensic Psychology from IPP Brescia. He has become particularly interested in psychosocial studies with children and adolescents since his undergraduate studies, focusing his interest on the role of cultures and technologies in interpersonal relationships, especially in family context. After his Master’s degree, he undertook a clinical internship in the healthcare service of Parma, working with minors. Alongside this, he was offered to collaborate in an European research project led by Dr Marina Everri at London School of Economics on the role of technologies in family relationships. This experience made him interested in studying how to promote children’s wellbeing in the so-called ‘digital age’. In 2018 he started a 2-years research fellowship in social psychology at University of Parma sponsored by Fondazione Alsos (Bologna) on migrations in Italy. In 2020 he has been awarded with a grant for a 4-year PhD project under the IRC Employment-Based Postgraduate Programme in partnership with CyberSafeKids and University College Dublin. Therefore, he joined CyberSafeKids’ team as Research Officer and the research team of the MSc in Systemic Psychotherapy at UCD School of Medicine.
Edel Flynn
Communications Officer
Edel has over sixteen years communications experience between Ireland and the United States of America (USA). In Bracken PR, she gained hands-on experience working for a large number of clients in the corporate, consumer, education, and not-for profit sectors such as; Bank of Scotland (Ireland) and Halifax, Mason Hayes and Curran, Assurant Solutions, Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) and Muscular Dystrophy Ireland. During her time in Bracken PR, Edel also successfully launched a number of startup companies, including Ireland’s very first lost and found company, yougetitback.com. For as long as she can remember, Edel has wanted to make a difference to children’s lives. Her recent roles as joint Communications Manager in Ireland’s largest children’s hospital, Children’s Health Ireland, at Crumlin (formerly Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin) and as Programme Manager at the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory – part of the Children’s Evaluation and Rehabilitation Centre at Albert Einstein College of Medicine New York – allowed her to do this. Edel holds a B.A. in Media Communications and Journalism from Griffith College and an M.A. in Public Relations from Dublin Institute of Technology (D.I.T.), now known as TU Dublin. More recently, she completed a Certificate in Digital Media Marketing from New York University (NYU). Edel joined CyberSafeKids in September, 2022 and is responsible for sharing its ongoing story and raising awareness of the important work they are doing in empowering children, schools and parents to navigate the online world in a safe and effective way. She is delighted to be working with a dynamic team at CyberSafeKids, and for such a worthwhile cause.
our trainers
We have a dedicated and passionate panel of external trainers who deliver both online and in schools all over Ireland, delivering the hugely important message to children, parents and teachers on how to use technology in a stronger, smarter and safer way.
OUR Volunteer CYBER NINJAS
Our team of Cyber Ninjas volunteer their time to help us keep on top of the constantly changing landscape of what kids are doing online.
TEAM
Meet the Board
They help to ensure the good governance of CyberSafeKids