Campus Ambassadors
- Atlantic Technological University: Rita Melia
- Discovery Programme Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland: David Stone
- Dublin City University: Elizabeth Matthews - maternity leave
- Dublin City University: Francis Ward - Interim Campus Ambassador
- Dundalk Institute of Technology: At large
- Limerick Institute of Technology: Daragh Naughton
- Marino Institute of Education: Jennifer O'Sullivan
- Mary Immaculate College: Vicky Brady
- Maynooth University: John Brown
- Munster Technological University: Michael Murphy
- National College or Art and Design: Rachel O'Dwyer
- Queens's University Belfast: Síobhra Aiken
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland: Helen French
- South East Technological University: Trina Rea
- Technological University Dublin: Anne Marie Shier
- Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest: Luke Geever
- Trinity College Dublin: Catherine Leen
- Ulster University: Ellen Corbett
- University College Cork: Sheena McHugh
- University College Dublin: John P Gilmore
- University of Galway: Sharon Glynn
- University of Limerick: Conor Ryan
Luke Geever
Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest
Luke.Geever@tus.ie
Dr Luke Geever is a Senior Research Fellow at Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest:, leading one of Ireland’s largest polymer research groups. As a 2015-2016 Fulbright-Enterprise Ireland Scholar at Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic, Luke undertook collaborative research with world leading experts while exploring the Clinical Applications of Novel Biomedical Polymers.
Conor Ryan
University of Limerick
Conor.Ryan@ul.ie
Prof. Conor Ryan is Professor of Machine Learning in the Computer Science and Information Systems (CSIS) department and the director of the Biocomputing and Developmental Systems Group. His research involves developing Machine Learning Algorithms that can automatically write computer programs and that can produce explainable and auditable results. He was a 2013-14 Fulbright Scholar in Massachusetts Institute of Technology using Machine Learning to identify early-stage breast cancer.
Trina Rea
South East Technological University
trinarea@gmail.com
Trina Rea is a Course Director in the BSc in TV & Media in the Department of Aerospace, Mechanical & Electronic Engineering at SETU. As a Fulbright-TechImpact Scholar to New York University in 2017-2018, she evaluated news habits of the first generation of digital natives and how those habits affected digital news organisations’ editorial choices, packaging and delivery of news.
Michael D. Murphy
Munster Technological University
Dr Michael D. Murphy is a Principal Investigator in the MeSSO Research Group and Lecturer in the Department of Process, Energy and Transport Engineering in the Munster Technological University. As a Fulbright Scholar, Michael carried out collaborative research in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder and in the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Michael’s work focused on novel simulation and optimisation techniques for the integration of next-generation district heating and cooling systems in the built environment.
David Stone
The Discovery Programme Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland
davidstone@discoveryprogramme.ie
Dr David Stone is a Project Archaeologist at the Discovery Programme Centre for Archaeology and Innovation Ireland (CAII) and an Environmental Archaeology consultant working in the commercial archaeological sector. He holds a PhD in Archaeology from the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin and a MSt. in Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. His research interests focus on the study of past agriculture in Ireland and Azerbaijan and the use of plant macro remain analyses to reveal insights into plant migrations, crop husbandry, agricultural adaptations, diet and changing landscapes. In 2018/2019 he was the recipient of the inaugural Fulbright-Creative Ireland Museum Fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC where he conducted research at the National Museum of Natural History, working with archaeobotanical collections to better understand the challenges of archiving plant remains for future research and to establish guidelines for best practice in the digital curation of ecofacts from archaeological sites.
Francis Ward - Interim Campus Ambassador
Dublin City University
francis.ward@dcu.ie
Dr. Francis Ward is an ethnomusicologist and lecturer in music education at the School of Arts Education and Movement, Dublin City University Institute of Education. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music education for primary teacher education, with additional foci on multiculturalism, creative pedagogy, and research methods. He also supervises postgraduate research in arts education. His research examines the transmission and teaching of music, particularly Irish traditional music, multicultural music education, social justice, play pedagogy, and the role of technology in teaching and learning. His work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Music, Technology and Education; Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education; Futures; British Journal of Music Education; Irish Educational Studies; and General Music Education. He is a former Irish Research Council Scholar with additional research interests in the use of GenAI in assessment and the impact of digital technologies on education. In 2020, Francis spent his Fulbright at the University of Washington, where he advanced his research on a virtual orality in Irish traditional music, developed musical and pedagogical content for the CeoLingua project (a CLIL initiative), and taught courses on Irish traditional music and dance. He has maintained collaboration and friendship with his Fulbright host, Professor Patricia Shehan-Campbell, and their work on Irish Traditional Music and World Music Pedagogy is set to be published in early 2025.
Elizabeth Matthews - maternity leave
Dr Elizabeth Mathews is an Assistant Professor with the School of Inclusive and Special Education at DCU St. Patrick's Campus, where she specialises in the area of deaf education. She completed her MA in Deaf Education at Gallaudet University, Washington DC as a recipient of the Dr. Mary L. Thornton Scholarship and a Fulbright Student award. She completed her PhD with Maynooth University (2011) funded by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. Previously, she was the coordinator of the Deaf Education Centre in Cabra, Dublin and is currently the co-chair of the Education Partnership Group. She is the author of Language, Power, and Resistance: Mainstreaming Deaf Education. She has recently led an innovative initiative to provide, for the first time, access to primary teaching for Deaf ISL users in the Republic of Ireland. Elizabeth is also the project lead for the Irish Sign Language STEM Glossary project – an initiative funded by Science Foundation Ireland to develop a lexicon of terms for scientific vocabulary in Irish Sign Language.
Rita Melia
Atlantic Technological University / GMIT
rita.melia@gmit.ie
Dr Rita Melia is a lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Care at GMIT Galway and Mayo Campuses. Rita is passionate about approaches to teaching and learning across the life course from early childhood to adult and further education. As an early childhood education and care professional, she has extensive experience in practice, research and policy. Rita`s Fulbright scholarship to Harvard Graduate School of Education under the sponsorship of Professor Howard Gardner (Multiple Intelligences Theory) 2016-2017 offered her an opportunity to extend her PhD research to include Reggio inspired early years settings in Boston. Rita is a member of The Children's Research Network, GMIT Taught Programmes Research Ethics Committee Castlebar Campus and is the Membership Secretary Irish Fulbright Alumni Association.
Daragh Naughton
Limerick Institute of Technology
Daragh.Naughton@lit.ie
Principal Investigator AIBIDS at AR Glass and Lecturer at the Department of Mechanical & Automobile Engineering, Limerick Institute of Technology, Daragh was LIT’s first Fulbright Scholar. During his 2012-2013 Fulbright Award to Northeastern University in Boston Massachusetts, he undertook research in the area of materials science as well as developing the concept of signature pedagogy for undergraduate engineers.
Jennifer O'Sullivan
Marino Institute of Education
Jennifer.OSullivan@mie.ie
Dr Jennifer O’Sullivan is a lecturer in literacy education in Marino Institute of Education. She is a research fellow in the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, and is past president of the Literacy Association of Ireland. She is principal investigator on the Enterprise Ireland funded ALPACA project, which aims to develop a digital assessment tool to identify young children at risk for reading difficulties. As a Fulbright scholar, Jennifer visited the Florida Center for Reading Research in Florida State University to collaborate and learn from world-renowned experts in the field of reading research. Jennifer’s particular interest and passion lies in the area of early reading development and the transfer of reading research to classroom practice.
Vicky Brady
Mary Immaculate College
Vicky.Brady@mic.ul.ie
A graduate of Mary Immaculate College B.A. in Irish and English, Vicky Brady completed a Masters in Irish in 2011, and is currently a PhD candidate and tutor at MIC. She completed a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Award Assistant to Villanova University, Philadelphia in 2016-2017.
John Brown
Maynooth University
John.Brown@mu.ie
Dr Brown completed his PhD in the Sociology Department of Maynooth in 2018. He holds a masters in International Development from DCU, and an undergraduate degree in Business, Economics, and Social Studies from Trinity College Dublin. He has received several awards to carry out his research, including from the Irish Research Council, The National University of Ireland, The Fulbright Commission, and Maynooth University. He started lecturing at the Centre for the Study of Politics in the Sociology Department of Maynooth University in 2018. He is currently an Irish Research Council Pathway Research Fellow at Maynooth University. His research focuses on the emergence of outsider parties and how such parties relate to social movement constituent bases in Southern Europe and the Latin America.
Rachel O'Dwyer
National College of Art & Design
odwyerr@staff.ncad.ie
Dr Rachel O'Dwyer is a Lecturer in Digital Culture at NCAD. Her recent research focuses on emerging markets at the intersection of digital money and digital networks. She is the leader of the Dublin Art and Technology Association and a member of the Orthogonal Research Methods Group in TCD, which focuses on building creative strategies at the intersection of technology and the arts. As a 2018-2019 Fulbright-TechImpact Scholar to University of California, Rachel focused on how blockchain technologies are transforming the creative and cultural industries.
Síobhra Aiken
Queen's University Belfast
S.Aiken@qub.ac.uk
Síobhra Aiken is a lecturer in Department of Irish and Celtic Studies in Queen’s University Belfast. She was an FLTA Fulbright scholar at Elms College in 2013–14, where she taught Irish and carried out research on the Irish-language revival in Springfield, Massachusetts at the turn of the twentieth century. Her publications include the monograph Spiritual Wounds: Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022) and two edited volumes: The Men Will Talk to Me: Ernie O’Malley’s Interviews with the Northern Divisions (Merrion Press, 2018) and An Chuid Eile Díom Féin: Aistí le Máirtín Ó Direáin (Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 2018). Her doctoral research from NUI Galway was awarded the American Conference for Irish Studies Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation 2021.
Helen French
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
hfrench@rcsi.ie
Dr Helen French is a senior lecturer in physiotherapy in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin. Her research interests include causes and non-surgical management of hip pain across the lifespan and the non-surgical management of osteoarthritis. She was a recipient of a Fulbright- HRB Health Impact Award in 2017 and spent three months in Boston University researching the role of altered biomechanics in hip pain.
Anne Marie Shier
Technological University Dublin
annemarie.shier@TUDublin.ie
Anne Marie Shier (MSW) is a lecturer at the department of Social Sciences at Technological University Dublin. She was a 2020-2021 Fulbright Scholar to the Rudd Adoption Research Programme where she worked on her Doctoral research which focuses on the ‘lived experiences’ of reunion for intercountry adoptees in Ireland. This research is the first Irish research to focus specifically on the reunion experiences of intercountry adoptees.
Catherine Leen
Trinity College Dublin
leenca@tcd.ie
Dr Catherine Leen is Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her teaching and research interests centre on Mexican and Chicanx visual culture, literature and cinema. A former Fulbright Scholar at the Chicana/o Studies Centre, University of California, Santa Barbara, she is currently Fulbright Ambassador at Trinity College Dublin, and is working on a Fulbright Alumni Award funded podcast on Mexican food in Ireland with fellow Fulbright Scholar Dr Melissa Hidalgo of CSU Long Beach, California. She is the co-editor of the volume International Perspectives on Chicana/o Culture: “This World is My Place,” (Routledge, New York, 2014 and 2017), and her most recent publications include ‘Chicana Lesbians and Ovarian Psycos: The Squad you Been Warned About.’ Journal of Lesbian Studies, 1-12 (2023).
Sheena McHugh
University College Cork
S.McHugh@ucc.ie
Dr Sheena McHugh is a Senior Lecturer and health services researcher at the School of Public Health in University College Cork. Sheena holds a HRB Research Leader Award and her research focuses on efforts to improve the quality of health services, particularly services for people with diabetes. Her research has focused on barriers and enablers to implementing evidence-based interventions and policies and designing, tailoring, and evaluating strategies to improve implementation. In 2017, she was a Fulbright-HRB HealthImpact Scholar to the Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She has maintained collaboration and friendship with her host Prof Byron Powell and continues to work with him on numerous projects. Sheena graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from UCD and a MSc in Health Psychology from University College London. She holds a PhD in Health Services Research from UCC.
John P Gilmore
University College Dublin
john.gilmore@ucd.ie
Dr John P Gilmore is Assistant Professor at the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, University College Dublin. His research interests cover the intersection of health & social justice, inclusion health, and sexual and minority health. At UCD John Co-Chairs the LGBTQI+ Staff Network and he is the Chairperson of Leargas, Ireland’s national agency for international programmes in Youth, Vocational Adult Education and Training and Sport. John was a Fulbright HRB Health Impact Scholar at University of California San Francisco in 2023.
Ellen Corbett
Ulster University
corbett-e3@ulster.ac.uk
Is as an Chorr Chríochach i gContae Thír Eoghain do Ellen Corbett. Sa bhliain 2019, bhain sí céim idirnáisiúnta sa Ghearmáinis agus i Léann an Aistriúcháin amach as Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh agus an deis a bhí aici fosta bliain a chaitheamh ag freastal ar Universitaet Leipzig sa Ghearmáin. I ndiaidh dí a céim a bhaint amach, chaith sí an bhliain acadúla 2019/2020 ina FLTA Fulbright in Ollscoil Montana mar a raibh sí ag teagasc Gaeilge do mhic léinn ollscoile agus mheánscoile, agus áit ina raibh sí in ann grá do na foinse te agus don fhiadhúlra a chruthú (rud a chuir eagla ar a muintir go cinnte!). Bhain sí céim máistreachta san aistriúchán amach as Ollscoil na Banríona, Béal Feirste sa bhliain 2021. Is taighdeoir PhD in Ollscoil Uladh anois í Ellen agus í ag díriú ar aistriúchán Gaeilge-Béarla agus an fhilíocht san 20ú hAois.
Tá suim aici san aistriúchán (aistriúchán litríochta go háirithe), san oideachas, agus sa Ghaeilge. Is duine dea-lámhach í Ellen agus nuair nach bhfuil sí ag déanamh staidéir, is maith léi ceardaíocht a dhéanamh ar nós fuáil, cniotáil, agus ealaín. Is léitheoir cíocrach í Ellen agus is breá léi a bheith ag taisteal nuair atá an seans aici fosta.
Ellen Corbett is from Cookstown, County Tyrone. In 2019, Ellen completed her BA International with German and Léann an Aistriúcháin (Irish Translation Studies) at the National University of Ireland, Galway, also spending a year at the Universitaet Leipzig during her studies. After her degree, she spent the academic year 2019/2020 as the Fulbright Irish FLTA to the University of Montana, where she had the opportunity to teach undergraduate and high school students, as well as develop a love for hot springs and the local wildlife (much to the chagrin of her family!). In 2021 she completed her Master’s in Translation at Queen’s University Belfast and is currently a PhD Researcher at Ulster University, focusing on the translation of poetry from Irish to English in the late twentieth century.
Ellen is interested in translation (particularly literary translation), education, and the Irish language. When she isn’t studying, Ellen likes to be creative, and knits, sews, paints, and crafts. She is a voracious reader and loves to travel when she has the chance.