Dr. Eithne Hunt is a State registered occupational therapist who has clinical, research and teaching expertise in adolescent health. Eithne graduated from Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with a first-class honours degree in Occupational Therapy in 1997. While working full-time in mental health services in Dublin, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics (TCD, 2000) and a Masters (Research) degree (TCD, 2001), in which she examined leisure occupations of well adolescents in Ireland. This was the first Occupational Science informed study to be conducted in Ireland. In 2003, Eithne was the first academic member of staff appointed to the then newly established Department of Occupational Therapy at UCC, when she co-developed the four-year undergraduate degree programme with founding Professor Dr. Susan Ryan. Her advanced scholarship in Occupational Science was pivotal in shaping the unique identity of the degree. Eithne now has 28 years' experience of working directly with young people in health and education sectors. Eithne received prestigious UCC President's Awards for Excellence in Teaching in 2009 and again in 2019, as well as a peer nominated university award for Outstanding Colleague (2020). She had held numerous leadership roles in her academic unit. From 2020-2022, Eithne was invited to be the sole academic advisor to the university's pioneering Graduate Attributes Programme. Eithne developed a novel digital badge microcredential based on her doctoral research which she completed at University College Cork in 2014. The Everyday Matters - Healthy Habits for University Life® programme is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at UCC. This programme yields statistically significant improvements across a range of wellbeing measures for participants. Building on this work, Eithne is now leading a three year (2025-2028) university wide Wellbeing and the Curriculum project at UCC

My teaching interests include adolescence, time use, daily occupations and mental health. I am very fortunate that my teaching and research are very closely aligned ensuring that I can bring the latest research into my teaching. I currently coordinate and teach OT1001 [15 credits], OT1005 [5 credits] and OT2004 [10 credits]. I examine in modules OT1002 and supervise undergraduate research projects in OT4004. I teach in a Level 10 module at Munster Technological University EDUC8047 and contribute to a Level 9 module there also, SPRT9001. I have two university wide digital badges available to students within and beyond UCC and one digital badge for staff. I am deeply committed to continually developing my teaching. I have taken multiple courses that help me maintain my theoretical currency and develop my skills.

These include:

2024 DECIDER training Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland [online]

2023 Redesigning Daily Occupations (ReDO®) Certification University of Galway

2022 Awakening Joy [online]

2022 Healthy Minds Masterclass University of Wisconsin-Madison [online]

2021 UCC/Institute of Leadership and Management Professional Skills for Research Leaders

2021 UCC/Irish Management Institute Current Leaders, Level 2 programme [online]

2020 Mindful Schools Self-Compassion for Educators [online]

2019-2020 UCC Aurora Women Only Leadership Development Programme, Dublin

2019 Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Training [online]

2019 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction – Teens Training [online]

2017 Mindfulness in Schools Project Paws B Training & Certification, Manchester

2017 Relax Kids coach training, Limerick

2016 Mindfulness in Schools Project B Training & Certification, Dublin

2015 Visual Thinking Skills Level One Training, UCC

2015 Identifying and Responding to Students in Distress UCC