THE IGNITE TEAM

Kathleen Cronin, Director and Coach

The idea for Ignite came to Kathleen as a result of her own career journey. She is passionate about access to affordable career development opportunties for girsl and young women. She believes strongly that all young women should have access to support to become strong, independent young women no matter what their social background. In a society which hyper sexualises women, a counter force is needed to present strong, positive role models and life choices. 

Throughout her career she has had experience of mentoring and coaching a wide range of young people and adults. While developing the ideas and programmes behind Ignite, she identified coaching as the ideal tool for sustainable learning, and trained with the Coaches Training Institute and is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

Kathleen has a strong background working with young people and developing organisations. Throughout university, she worked on community projects from establishing a youth club and running summer community education projects to working with a refuge to developing educational materials on how to identify signs of domestic violence.

She moved to the UK in 1998 and worked in various leadership positions, beginning at Edinburgh City Council implementing the Child Care Strategy. From Edinburgh she moved to London to the Children's Society and led the Children in Neighbourhoods programme involving children and young people in the regeneration of their neighbourhoods and secured half a million pounds to expand the work. She then moved on to the National Children's Bureau (NCB) to lead their youth participation work and established the Participation Unit, working with government and other partners on developing youth policy.

After NCB she became the Chief Executive of British Youth Council a national, youth umbrella organisation which provides support for youth led organisations and campaigns for young people. She re-positioned the organisation and trebled the income in four years.

Kathleen then moved to Cambridge and was the Chief Operating Officer of Speaking Up before securing funding from the Young Foundation to launch Ignite full time in February 2010.

Kathleen is a member of the Operations Committee of the Scout Association in the UK and an alumna of the Windsor Leadership Trust. She lives in Cambridge with her husband.

Rona Steinberg, Associate Coach

Rona is a CTI (Coaches Training Institute) professional life coach. Having graduated in law from Cambridge University, she chose to specialise in the film, television and theatre sector, and joined leading entertainment lawyers, The Simkins Partnership as an associate solicitor.

An enduring fascination with the written word led Rona to develop her interest in creative writing. This in turn led her to combine writing with her legal background and become a journal editor with legal publishers, Legalease. Her other great passion – style and fashion – further resulted in her working with Coathanger Image Consultants. More recently, she acted as client co-ordinator with careers development consultancy, Careers In Depth. Working closely with their team of career consultants and business coaches introduced her to the power of coaching as a profession and inspired her to train as a coach herself. She continues to work with Careers In Depth as a project manager.

Whilst Rona works with clients from all sectors, her particular interest lies in working with women who are feeling ‘a bit lost’ – young women starting out in their career unsure of their direction, mums at home struggling with identity issues, working mums seeking that elusive work/life balance, empty nesters…

Rona’s work as a coach is centred around a simple desire to connect authentically and powerfully with her clients working with them to realise their goals and potential – in whatever sphere these may manifest themselves. She brings warmth, compassion, energy, humour and a keen intellect to her coaching. Her own life experiences have enabled her to recognise how varied and surprising life can be and how at any stage it is possible to step in to the life we dream of (however ‘unrealistic’) – it’s just that sometimes we need some non-judgemental and caring support to do so.

Rona lives in London with her husband and three children.

Carmen Mardiros – GirlsCan Volunteer Web Developer

Carmen's motivation to join Ignite came from reaching a point in her life where running hobby and commercial websites, though successful at it, no longer brought a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. Having started her first website at 18, with absolutely no skills or technical knowledge, Carmen was successful in teaching herself the inns and outs of web design and online marketing and has been running her websites for the last 8 years.

Having made a successful living in an industry largely dominated by men has played a big part in the reason why she joined Ignite. She strongly believes that all girls should grow up believing that they can be whatever they want to be and feel confident in their ability and freedom to make choices regarding their own future regardless of social stereotypes and expectations.

What is Ignite's intended social impact on individual women, in communities and organisations, for society ... find out more.