Dr. Veronica Crosbie was appointed the Chair of POSI early in 2022. As a former Assistant Professor in Migration and Intercultural Studies in DCU and outgoing Chair of the MA Refugee Integration, she brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the role. Veronica was a key player in establishing DCU as the first University of Sanctuary in Ireland in 2016 and was the founding Chair of the University of Sanctuary Ireland (UoSI) network. She has conducted Participatory Research projects on refugee integration and has supervised and examined PhD theses in related areas. 

Veronica contributes to refugee integration at a local level, through her leadership initiatives including establishing the Phibsboro Community Sponsorship and Phibsboro For All programmes, both inclusive community led initiatives to welcome people with migrant and refugee backgrounds  into the neighbourhood. Veronica is an able and vocal advocate for refugee rights in Ireland and beyond.

Gerry Hassett is a former CEO of Irish Life Financial Services and has over 30 years’ experience in leadership roles in Ireland and Canada. He is Co-Founder of Instech.ie which aims to develop an Irish Insurtech Hub. He currently mentors and invests in a range of Fintech Startups. Gerry contributes to the PoSI Board mainly in the areas of strategy, governance, and fund-raising.

Br. Kevin, a Presentation Brother, is one of the founders of Waterford Place of Sanctuary, the first City of Sanctuary group in Ireland. He brings vast experience in the refugee sector and has been the Director of the Information and Support Unit (ISU) at Edmund Rice Centre in Waterford since 2006. He has also been involved in other parts of the community and voluntary sector and has experience with homeless people and refugees in inner city Dublin as well as Waterford. Kevin has lived in five different cultures since leaving his birthplace in Pakistan, which helps him empathise with new citizens and asylum seekers.

Tonye believes that the global-scale disruptions caused by greed, wars, and environmental misuse have resulted in massive dislocation and relocation of people across the world and therefore, there is a great need to focus on achieving harmony in diversity in societies. She posits that the need to respect diversity and inclusion and promote equality, social justice, and human rights, has never been more exigent and that achieving this needs an ‘all hands on deck’ approach. She believes that the work Places of Sanctuary do in supporting displaced people is very important for displaced people and asylum seekers whom she identifies with and is committed to supporting.

Tonye is a Senior University Tutor, lecturing and coordinating programmes in the Department of Applied Social Studies, at Maynooth University where she has worked since 2013.

Tonye is committed to social justice, human rights, and equality, and she is passionate about social change and harmony in society. Tonye brings more than 20 years of experience working with marginalised groups in Irish society as well as lived experience relevant to the work Places of Sanctuary does.

Dr. Tetyana Lokot is an Associate Professor in Digital Media and Society at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. A native of Ukraine, she researches threats to digital rights, networked authoritarianism, online disinformation, digital resistance, internet freedom and internet governance. She is the author of Beyond the Protest Square: Digital Media and Augmented Dissent, an in-depth study of protest and digital media in Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity. She is also the Vice-Chair of the ECREA Ukraine Task Force. 

As a researcher, Tetyana has a long-standing involvement with civil society and advocacy groups in the area of media freedom and digital rights, including Freedom House and Global Voices Advox. Prior to embarking on a research career, she worked as a journalist, non-profit consultant, and media trainer in Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia, and speaks fluent English, Ukrainian, and Russian.