I am a Research Fellow at the School of Public Health, University College Cork, Ireland. I am the Principal Investigator on two Health Research Board funded projects that are developing scientific evidence and practical resources for improving the practice and policy of HIA in Ireland (HIA-IM and TRANSLATE-HIA projects). I am the Deputy Chair of WHO Cork Healthy Cities and member of the Scientific Committee of the European Healthy Cities Network. I established and coordinate the Health Impact Assessment Network in Ireland. In UCC, I convene the ISS21 SHAPE (Society, Health Equity and Political Economy) research cluster.

I have an interdisciplinary academic background in political science, social science, public health and health promotion. The consolidation of my educational background with my academic endeavours has refined my core research interest- a curiosity of political and social institutional and policy drivers in a variety of contexts. Throughout my research studies, these drivers have been conceptualised and theorised as influencers of policy, organisational and cultural structures; in advancing contextualised public health action; and in shaping lived experiences.

My teaching experience and interests centre broadly on the interdisciplinary field of health promotion, particularly Health in All Policies and Health Impact Assessment (HIA). My interests span also inequality studies, in particular, health and gender inequalities with institutionalist and feminist institutionalist theories and approaches; Irish and European policies and their development, Irish politics (local and national); comparative health care systems; qualitative research methods. In University College Cork, I currently coordinate two modules delivered within the BSc Public Health Sciences degree programme, which are also open to students from other degree programmes. 'Introduction to Theories and Practices of Health Promotion' (5 credits) (EH2008) is a core module delivered to second year students. I have designed a new module being delivered to third year students of the BSc Public Health Sciences degree and BSc Environmental Science programmes, entitled 'Health Impact Assessment' (EH3005). This is the first module of its kind focused on enhancing skills and knowledge in HIA in Ireland, in a higher education institution. I supervise students on the Masters in Public Health programme in the School of Public Health, UCC, and students on the Masters in Healthcare Management, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (RCSI). 

Previous teaching delivered on programmes run in Trnava University, (Slovakia), College of Saint Rose (Albany, New York State), Irish Academy of Public Relations, and in UCC in the Department of Government & Politics and the School of Applied Social Studies.