Meet the Staff & Trustees

Fran Flood has been the Director of Skillshare International Ireland since September 2003. Fran has worked in the NGO sector in Ireland for much of his working life. This has seen him working in international voluntary work, in the mental health field, in the area of drugs awareness in Dublin's inner city and with people with disabilities. Fran has also been a development worker in The Gambia and Zimbabwe. Email

Rachel qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1991 and has specialised in paediatrics. She worked as a trainer with Action Health and Samarthya, a community based rehabilitation team in Southern India in 1998. She was the student fieldwork coordinator for the School of Occupational Therapy in Trinity College Dublin for a year and is now the Occupational Therapy Manager at the Central Remedial Clinic, a centre for children with disabilities in Dublin. Rachel joined the Board of Skillshare International (Ireland) in April 2003.

Cliff Allum has worked in international volunteering as CEO of Skillshare International for over ten years. Cliff's background is in academia and adult education, although prior to joining Skillshare he worked in training and community development in the UK's voluntary, trade union and statutory sectors. From 1998 until October 2004, Cliff was Chair of BOND, the UK international NGO network and has been President of International FORUM on Development Service since November 2002. He joined the Ireland Board in 2004. Cliff lives near Birmingham in the UK with his two children, Ellie and Daniel, and partner Sally. In his spare time, Cliff enjoys tennis and coaching and refereeing junior football.

Originally from the Sudan, Abdullahi is a community activist and an academic involved in issues of justice, human rights and development. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Joan joined the Skillshare International Ireland Board of Trustees in 2005 and the Skillshare International Board of Trustees in 2008. In 2004-2005 she was a development worker (Finance and Fundraising Officer) at the ACTION for Conflict Transformation Support Centre, in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is currently working in Dublin as Finance Manager with Pobal, a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to promote social inclusion, reconciliation and equality through integrated socal and economic development within communities. It manages programmes on behalf of the Irish Government and the EU.