Tammy Darcy is a multi-award winning social entrepreneur, author and public speaker. She was named as the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian of The Year in 2021 for her work as the founder and CEO of The Shona Project, which aims to educate, empower and inspire today’s Irish girls to become tomorrows strong confident and curious young women.
The Shona Project is a tribute to her sister Shona, who was diagnosed with an acquired brain injury at 15, and has lived in 24 hour nursing care ever since. Tammy’s story is one of loss and trauma, and how she used the challenges she faced to motivate her to create change.
The Shona Project has impacted almost 30,000 girls in every corner of Ireland through its school workshops, has welcomed 57,000 (digital and live) to its annual shine festival and delivered over 60,000 handbooks to 1st year girls free of charge in the last few years.
For her work in The Shona Project, Tammy and The Shona Project have received numerous additional awards including double IMRO award winners, CEO of The Year award at the Irish Womens Awards 2019, Double Social Innovation Awardee, Image Magazine Social Entrepreneur of The Year Double finalist and many more.
In addition, Tammy is very passionate about the potential of social innovation to change how we conduct ethical business. She holds an MA in social enterprise, sits on the Government Implementation Group for Social Enterprise policy and regularly lectures, mentors and teaches on the subject of social innovation, social enterprise. She has spoken at the Social Enterprise World forum and many other conferences and events about strategic social investment.
