Chair
Ragnild Zonneveld completed the ECHA training in 2016. She works at Cedin Zorg en Onderwijs as an educational advisor, specialising in giftedness in young children. She also has her own company for early identification and guidance: Vroegwijs.
Ragnild has many years of management experience in various volunteer positions. She has been a committee member of the ECHA network since January 2017 and has become chair of the committee since 2018. Her areas of focus are liaising with external contacts (including RCSW, CBO and ECHA Europe) and the future of our network.
Vice-Chair
Simone Keijsers completed her ECHA training in 2018. She works as a Trainer/Coach for students and colleagues at Leiden University. In addition, she has her own Training and Coaching company. She is also co-founder of the National Network for Giftedness in Higher Education. Simone has been the ECHA Network’s vice-chair since January 2019.
PR
Lonneke van Drunen completed her ECHA training in 2019, previously having been trained as an illustrator and art and art history teacher at Artez University of the Arts. Lonneke has been working in secondary education for more than 20 years, where she is an art teacher and an in-house ECHA specialist in giftedness. As a project leader, she has set up and implemented a gifted programme at Openbaar Lyceum Zeist, a secondary school in the Netherlands. These efforts have resulted in its development towards a certified Giftedness Profile School (Begaafdheidsprofielschool).
In addition to her educational work, Lonneke guides gifted adolescents toward successfully completing their education. Because of her different roles, she regularly collaborates with primary and secondary schools, school partnerships, parents, and gifted adolescents themselves, of course. Within the ECHA committee, she focuses on public relations (PR).
Secretary
After obtaining his Master’s degree in German language and literature as well as language education, Martin Timmer specialised in coaching gifted children aged 12 years and up. Martin has his own practice, Voorsprong in Talent, where he coaches gifted adolescents, young adults, and their parents.
In addition, he has worked in secondary education since 1998. He has set up and implemented a gifted programme at a secondary school in Nijkerk, the Netherlands, having worked there as a giftedness coordinator for the last ten years. This work resulted in him becoming active within the BPS Academy committee for several years. This committee is part of the Association of Begaafdheidsprofielscholen (Giftedness Profile Schools) in the Netherlands (BPS).
Having started in 2022, Martin works as a giftedness specialist for a Secondary Education Partnership in the Dutch province of Gelderland. As such, he is co-responsible for designing and implementing an intermediate school facility for gifted adolescents. As a project leader, he also organises meetings and peer coaching sessions at the secondary schools within the Partnership.
Martin joined the ECHA board in 2019, initially facilitating our PR. He has taken on the role of secretary since May 2022.
Peer consultation
Sharon Duijveman-Weterings completed her ECHA training in 2020, previously having completed the Dutch teacher training course and her Master’s degree in Special Educational Needs, specialising in behaviour.
Sharon guides (highly) gifted students with an intensive need for support at Cals College in Nieuwegein. She also focuses on the educational programme for this group, both at school and regionally. Within the ECHA board, she focuses on peer consultation.
