John McQuaide
Chairperson
John has 23 years Higher Education teaching experience and of serving on academic boards. He is currently doing a PhD examining Models of Care for Adults who are Alcohol Dependent.
He has expertise in setting targets, monitoring, evaluating and governance. He is very interested in equity issues and promoting social change. He has significant knowledge of education and health and social care provision. He reviews the Safeguarding Policy for Sole Purpose on an annual basis. John has a keen interest in the arts as a tool for social change and aims to promote individual and societal awareness of community and social issues through supporting Sole Purpose in the very effective manner that this work is currently done and to assist with further development.
Elly Omondi Odhiambo
Vice Chair
Elly was a newspaper columnist for four years penning weekly for the Belfast Media Group's Andersonstown News, Belfast South, Belfast North and Belfast West newspapers. He also wrote a weekly column, Out of Africa, for the Sentinel Newspaper in Derry Londonderry.
He writes mainly on topical issues especially themes of migration, culture, literature, history, politics, conflict and race relations. He was based in Derry 2001-2010 where he was the Chair of the African and Caribbean Association of Foyle, and he organised conferences on migration while working as a Research Associate at Ulster University Magee. He co-wrote ‘Did You Come by Boat?’ with Patricia Byrne, a migration themed play, for Sole Purpose which toured the North of Ireland in 2010. Elly is based in Belfast where he works for the Belfast Trust, he supports Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Minors. He is especially interested in the genre of theatre in the community and theatre for social change.
Cath McBride
Treasurer
Cath McBride is the Company Director of In Your Space Circus. She leads the company on developing its strategic planning around the identified needs of participants, the wider community, the sector and the aspirations, talents and capacity of the artistic team. She is also currently leading on the capital development of a new home for the Company.
Cath has been working in the arts sector since 2008 where she began as the Fundraising Manager with Belfast Community Circus School. She has a strong belief in igniting the imagination and transforming lives and communities through circus and the arts generally.
Dr Jennifer Goddard
Secretary
Dr Jennifer Goddard worked for many years as a community/educational drama facilitator, assessor for the Arts Council NI, Arts Researcher for Community Arts Partnership Belfast and for the MAC Belfast before completing her PhD at QUB in drama and disability.
She is currently employed at Ulster University as a Drama Lecturer. She greatly values diversity and equality in all of the work she does, and has particular expertise in disability, mental health and trauma informed approaches to embodied performance.
Latifa Yeasmin
Board Member
Latifa Yeasmin is a theatre practitioner and academic from Bangladesh with extensive experience in socially conscious drama, she is deeply drawn to Sole Purpose Productions' commitment to using theatre as a catalyst for social change and community transformation.
As a faculty member in the Department of Dramatics at the University of Chittagong, she is passionate about the international dialogue of socially engaged theatre. Sole Purpose’s mission of investigating social issues through the ‘discourse of imagination’ resonates profoundly with her own artistic philosophy and professional trajectory.