Sara R Phillips
Chair

Cearbhall Turraoin
Vice Chair

Denise Breen
Finance Director
Denise Breen is married with two adult children. Originally a Dub, she married a Lilywhite and now lives in Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Professionally, Denise has been working as a Project Manager in the engineering and construction sector for over thirty years. She has worked for the ESB, Arup, Jacobs, PM Group, Google and currently works with Iron Mountain, headquartered in Boston. With Iron Mountain she is responsible for delivery of Data Centres in EMEA and APAC – so she travels a lot! Denise has lived and worked in Ireland, the UK, the US and Asia and has experienced transgender issues across these countries and regions. In her spare time, Denise works with KFM radio, the commercial station for Kildare and is passionate about broadcasting. She loves cinema and writes a blog on www.thefourthwall.xyz Denise transitioned some years ago while living in the US and since returning has experienced first hand the challenges that trans and non-binary people face in Ireland. It is because of this, together with a desire to give hope to others who may be questioning their identity that Denise continues to enjoy serving on the Board of TENI.

Aoife Martin
Company Secretary

Lynne Tracey

Ollie Bell

Rowan Golden

Ben Power

Sam Blankensee
Sam is the National Membership and Campaigns Officer with the Irish Traveller Movement and previously held the position of National Development Officer and then Policy and Research Officer in TENI until 2018. While in TENI, Sam supported the establishment of Trans Kerry and the Gorey Trans Peer Support Group. Sam also supported the submission to the Gender Recognition Action Review and is currently undertaking a Masters of Arts in Management for the Non-Profit Sector. Sam is a non-binary trans masculine person and is an administrator on TG Ireland. Sam also acts as a substitute facilitator for the Dublin Trans Peer Support Group when needed. Sam is 25 and has been involved in the trans community for 7 years. Sam has an Advanced Certificate in Youth Health Promotion with an interest in developing healthy organisations. Alongside trans rights, Sam is passionate about reproductive justice, Travellers rights, and seeing equality as an intersectional issue.

Alexis Riva

Veronica Victor

Dani O’Connor

Alex Lawson
Alex has served on the Board of TENI for more than 5 years. He has had considerable involvement with BeLonG To Youth Services since coming out in 2014, notably speaking on behalf of trans young people within the service at Dublin Pride 2015 and acting as panel member at
the first Department for Education roundtable focusing on the inclusion of
gender variant students. He worked as organising committee member and was one of two facilitators for the under 18 portion of the first Trans Youth Forum. Alex has taken part in numerous interviews and studies. “I feel my studies in Politics and Statistics have well-informed my activism. The steady foundations provided in political theory are cemented by systematic, logical approaches taught in statistics. What these subjects have in common is my passion – search for understanding. This is the passion which drives me to work on behalf of my community. I believe myself to be hard-wired to understand, listen and care.”
