I’m an interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Researcher at University College Cork, jointly affiliated with the School of Public Health and the Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21). I’m currently working on the Health Research Board funded project HIA-IM (Developing a Health Impact Assessment Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling Health Inequalities), led by Dr Monica O Mullane. My role involves contributing across three integrated work packages which include an Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of measures within Ireland’s national Climate Action Plan (2024) and the Cork City Development Plan. I’m leading Work Package 2, which uses implementation science to identify factors influencing the implementation of HIA. Before taking up this role, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher on a Safefood-funded project led by Prof. Janas Harrington exploring the integration of sustainability into national healthy eating guidelines. I led several work packages on this project including a scoping review of consumer behaviours around sustainable diets, a multi-country case study analysis, expert panel consultations and focus groups with consumers across the island of Ireland. This work provided important insights into the challenges and opportunities for embedding sustainability within national dietary guidelines. My academic journey began with a BSc in International Development and Food Policy, followed by a master’s in public health. My MPH dissertation examined the development of Ireland’s agri-food strategy Food Harvest 2020 and revealed a significant disconnect between agricultural development policy and population health. This research identified a lack of public health engagement in agri-food policymaking and highlighted the need for stronger advocacy at the interface of agriculture, food systems, and health.

I was awarded an Irish Research Council PhD Scholarship and a UCC Strategic Research Award PhD Studentship which enabled me to complete my PhD in Human Geography. My mixed-methods doctoral thesis examined responses to food poverty in Ireland using an embedded case study approach to explore the growth of surplus food redistribution in Ireland’s expanding charitable food system and its implications for health and social justice. A central finding of this work was that the emphasis on surplus food redistribution as a solution to both poverty and environmental concerns pose challenges to creating equitable, just, and sustainable food systems in Ireland.

My research interests include exploring the relationships between public health, food systems, policy and politics, food governance, and social justice. I am particularly interested in how governance processes and politics shape food and health policy, how values and ideas inform decision-making, and the implications of these dynamics for equity, sustainability, and public health.

From 2020 to 2021, I lectured in the Department of Geography where I delivered undergraduate modules including Food Geography and The Geography of Tourism and contributed to teaching on qualitative research methods. I have also taught at postgraduate level with UCC’s Adult Continuing Education where I developed the module The Irish Food System and Food Policy delivered as part of the Postgraduate Diploma in Irish Food Culture. I have also served as second reader and supervisor for MA Food Studies theses at the American University of Rome, and as co-supervisor of MPH dissertations at UCC.