Our Trust Board

Trust Board of Directors

Introducing our Trust Board of Directors—a group of dedicated leaders who provide strategic guidance and oversight to ensure we fulfill our mission to Make Christ Known and Make Lives Better. With diverse expertise and a shared commitment to excellence, the Board supports our vision, upholds our values, and works to create a positive, lasting impact across our family of schools. Their guidance is essential to fostering growth, opportunity, and achievement throughout our Trust family.

Please click the images below of our Trust Board to learn more about their experience and the positive impact they have had so far.

Sue Cronin

Co-opted Director

Experience and Impact

Term of Office: 27.10.2022 – 05.09.2026

Sue Cronin is newly appointed as the Director of Accreditation and Quality Assurance for the School of Education. She has spent more than 25 years in education holding a variety of posts in schools and in the university including Head of Teacher Education and Director of Quality and Teacher Development. Most recently her work involved leading on mentoring and coaching teaching and research, covering the full range of professional career stages from beginning teachers to school leaders. Sue’s current research interests and publications are focused on aspects of Teacher Education, in particular, coaching and mentoring, school leadership and partnership. This aligns with her main work activities which include supporting schools and leaders in the North West to provide quality education, largely through their involvement with university Teacher Educators and ITE. Her recent publications have focused on the impact of Covid on Initial Teacher Education.

Sue has a background of secondary mathematics teaching in a variety of Liverpool schools before joining the Liverpool advisory team. She originally taught on a variety of undergraduate modules including Teaching Assistants on Foundation degree courses. She then moved on to PGCE programmes, developing master’s mathematics education modules and CPD projects such as MaST (Primary Mathematics specialist teachers) and SKE course for non-specialist mathematics teachers. More recently Sue’s teaching has been focused on masters and PD provision for school leaders.

Martin Johnson

Foundation Director

Experience and Impact

Term of Office: 01.09.2021 – 31.08.2025

Martin Johnson has led Sacred Heart R.C. Primary School & Teach Heart Alliance (formerly Heart Teaching School Alliance), Westhoughton, since January 2006. The school's last graded inspection by Ofsted in April 2024 judged them outstanding in all areas. Martin has been chair of the SSAT Primary Advisory Board since 2013, and has presented at several national conferences on curriculum and innovation. As a Diocesan Leader of Education (NLE since 2015, completing NiOT training in 2022/3) with the Diocese of Salford, Martin is seconded (2 days / week since 2016) to lead system support & CPDF for schools across the Diocese, undertakes Section 48 CSI Catholic School Inspections, pastoral visits and represents the Diocese on senior leadership appointment panels; He has been CSI co-ordinator since September 2024. He spent two years co-ordinating the work of the North West Catholic Dioceses Training Partnership, and led on the organising team for Catholic Middle Leadership Programme and aspiring to leadership conferences. He is an inaugural member of the National School of Formation (NSF), experiencing the power of Catholic Social Teaching in action during several transformative visits, including to Northern Ireland & the Philippines. Teach Heart Alliance are partners with EducareM, greatly involved with the Building the Kingdom and Governance formation programmes; and leading the NSF Tabor programme for senior and middle leaders

Dr Jonathan Walsh

Foundation Director

Experience and Impact

Term of Office: 01.01.2025 - 31.12.2028

Jonathan has been involved with the support of Catholic education as a governor with over 20 years of experience in this role.

His background is not in the education sector but has been responsible for project developments that require the input of a range of diverse team members with multiple disciplines with a strategic goal.

Jonathan is a microbiologist and received his PhD in Microbial Culture Media development. Jonathan is the lead Scientist for 3M Europe, Middle East and Africa and works within the 3M Healthcare and the Food Safety Division.

He has a number of scientific publications and has been a key speaker for a range of expert organizations including the World Bank, Global Brand Management organization, and the Food Division of the European Union Group.

He has been a foundation governor for 22 years and is currently the Chair of Governors of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School in Bury.

He joined St Teresa of Calcutta in Autumn 2020.

Julie-Ann Hewit

Co-opted Director

Experience and Impact

Term of Office:
13.05.2024 - 12.05.2028

Julie- Ann is passionate that education can change lives. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Epworth Academy Trust, a Methodist Trust that operates across multiple local authorities and regions. She has expertise in Trust growth, rapidly improving school standards and in building relationships with key stakeholders within the sector.

Peter Riley

Foundation Director

Experience and Impact

Term of Office: 01.01.2025 – 31.12.2028
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Peter’s experience comes from his 20 years working at Manchester Metropolitan University where he is Head of Widening Participation, responsible for leading the institutional approach to supporting those from groups who do not traditionally progress to Higher Education. He is responsible for developing the Institution’s Access and Participation Plan – which is a strategic document which analyses performance in terms of access and success, identifies where data suggests risks to equality of opportunity for particular groups, and outlines intervention strategies to address these risks. The Plan also details the costs of these interventions, how they will be evaluated, and targets for improvement over the 4-year planning cycle.

He is also responsible for the Greater Manchester Higher collaborative network – which is a regional partnership of Higher Education providers funded directly by the Office for Students (part of the Department for Education) which delivers impartial IAG to young people across the region from under-represented groups. The partnership receives over £1m per year, and as Manchester Met is the lead institution Peter is responsible for ensuring the impact data and financial expenditure are carefully monitored and reported to the OfS.

In This Section

Trust Board of Directors

John McAuley

Stephen Carr

Sue Cronin

Martin Johnson

Dr Jonathan Walsh

Julie-Ann Hewit

Peter Riley

John McAuley

Experience and Impact

Stephen Carr

Experience and Impact

Sue Cronin

Experience and Impact

Martin Johnson

Experience and Impact

Dr Jonathan Walsh

Experience and Impact

Julie-Ann Hewit

Experience and Impact

Peter Riley

Experience and Impact

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