Mairead is a Facilitator / Lecturer in the School of Health Science since 2003. She worked in the leisure industry after completing the BA (hons) in Recreation and Leisure (2000) and returned to WIT to complete an MSc by Research (2003) investigating the effect of different exercise prescriptions on bone turnover in postmenopausal women. Since 2003 she has taught across all undergraduate programmes in the Department of Health Sport and Exercise Science. Her main role involved facilitating learning on the BSC (Hons) Public Health and Health Promotion Degree and the MA (Level 9) in Advanced Facilitation Skills for Health and Well-Being. She is also Co-Course Leader for the MA in Advanced Facilitation for Health.
Mairead is Chairperson of the Association of Health Promotion in Ireland Accreditation Board (The Irish National Accreditation Organisation for the IUHPE) and is an IUHPE Registered Health Promotion Practitioner. She is also a qualified Gestalt Psychotherapist and volunteers as a Psychotherapist in St Brigids Family Resource Centre in Waterford and Youghal Cancer Support Centre. She is completing a Practitioner Action Based Co-Inquiry Masters in Gestalt Psychotherapy with the Gestalt Institute of Ireland and SETU exploring "Gestalt Psychotherapists in the midst of personal grief encountering disenfranchised grief in their therapeutic practice".
Undergraduate
Since 2003, she has taught across all years on a range of programmes within the School of Health Science (Bachelor of Business in Recreation & Sport Management; BA in Exercise and Health Studies; BSc Exercise Science; BSc in Sports and Coaching Performance). Since 2024 her main portfolio of undergraduate teaching is on the IUHPE Accredited programme, the BSc Public Health and Health Promotion. Main areas of teaching:
Social Personal and Health Education / Life Skills / Experiential Groupwork / Facilitation Skills (1st, 2nd and 4th year Public Health and Health Promotion).
Promoting Health Children, and Young People / Youth at Risk (3rd and 4th year Public Health and Health Promotion).
Active Citizenship (2nd year Public Health and Health Promotion).
Lifestyle and Health (3rd year Public Health and Health Promotion).
Health Promotion Leadership (1st year Health Promotion).
Research and Learning (1st year Exercise Science / Sports Coaching).
Research methods & Statistics (2ndd year Exercise Science).
Final year project supervision.
Supporting the Peer to Peer Mentoring Programme and facilitating students within the Department of Sport and Exercise Science to complete their Senior Mentor Special Purpose Award (Level 7).
Postgraduate - MA in Advanced Facilitation Skills for Health and Well Being.
Group Development and Workshop Design.
Advanced Facilitation Skills.
Personal Development / Advanced Personal Development.
Dissertation supervision
Mairéad is a member of the Centre for Health Behaviour Research Group. As a practicing Gestalt Psychotherapist her research interest is in practitioner based research in the field of gestalt psychotherapy and in group facilitation for health and well being. She also has a keen interest in evaluating community community based health initiatives.
Mairead is a member of the Association of Health Promotion Ireland (AHPI) and in 2023 became the Chairperson of the AHPI Accreditation Board who are the National Accreditation Organisation of Ireland for the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. She previously held the role of Treasurer. In 2018 she collaborated with the AHPI for WIT to host a CPD Workshop “Leadership in influencing the Health and Wellbeing Agenda’.
She is a pre-accredited member of the Irish Association of Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She completed her practical training as a Psychotherapist with the community-based mental health services MyMind and now volunteers as a Psychotherapist with Youghal Cancer Support and St Brigids Family Community Centre.
Mairead works at developing partnerships that are are mutually beneficial to the School of Health Science, the community partner and the students learning experience. Such partnerships were Squashy Couch Adolescent Health and Information Service, Students Union, SHINE Discovery, Waterford Schools Completion Programme with Access office in WIT.
She facilitated links between the Department and organisations for guest speaking, placement opportunities or community based research such as Waterford Area Partnership, Waterford Health Promotion Officer in the HSE, UCASADH Project, Men’s Development Network, St Brigid’s and Sacred Heart Family Resource Centres, Development Perspectives, One World Centre, Community Based Drugs Initiative, Grow Remote, Mens Sheds, Young Social Innovators, HSE, Inclusion, Family Support Network in Waterford.
Other activities/organisations Mairead has engaged with:
2016 – 2021: Committee member of Healthy Waterford Steering Committee.
2016 – 2020: Member of the “Facilitation for Health and Well Being Advisory Network” (WIT staff acted as secretariat to network).
2017-2020: Founding member and chairperson of local womens jogging group called “Greenway Joggers” registered with Athletics Ireland.
2017-2019: Committee member of Waterford Age Friendly Alliance.
2009-2011: Volunteered as secretary on adult committee of Community run youth café in Kilmacthomas supported by Foroige. Lead author on funding/grant applications
2023-2025: Practitioner Action Based Co-Inquiry Masters Project "Gestalt Psychotherapists in the midst of personal grief encountering disenfranchised grief in their therapeutic practice".
2018 – 2020: Collaborating with Waterford Social Prescribing Service as a Researcher by conducting an evaluation of the Social Prescribing Service in Waterford Metropolitan Area over the course of 2019.
2018 evaluated an Early Years Initiative run by Waterford Childcare Committee. This initiative was called "#kindwaterford Early Years Initiative: Kindness through Collaboration and Participation".
2010 Completed an Evaluation of Squashy Couch Adolescent Youth Café, Sexual Health Programme,
2015-2017: Co-supervised the research project "An exploration of the sustainability of facilitation skills for health and well-being training in the out of school sector". This was a project that was in partnership with The National Youth Council of Ireland and is co-funded by the HSE and National Office for Suicide Prevention.
Barry, M, (2019). An evaluation of the Social Prescribing Service in Waterford Metropolitan Area in the South East of Ireland. 2nd International Social Prescribing Network Conference at University of Westminster: 'From system to local'. London, United Kingdom. July 2019 [Oral]
Barry, M, (2019). Panelist (evaluation) on the Panel of Experience. 2nd National Social Prescribing Conference: Advancing Social Prescribing in Ireland, North and South. Waterford Social Prescribing Service and Social Prescribing Network, Ireland. Waterford, Ireland, November 2019
Carroll P. & Barry M. (2019) Cultivating resilience among staff in the educational setting: a personal development approach. Annual Health Promotion Conference, Building a Healthy Ireland: Promoting Health and Well Being in Education Settings, NUI Galway, June 2019. Available at: https://the-space-inbetween.org/2019/06/12/cultivating-resilience-among-staff-in-the-educational-setting-a-personal-development-approach
Lindy, D., Barry, M., (2018), #Kindwaterford – kindness through collaboration and participation. WHO International Healthy Cities Conference Changing cities to change the world Celebrating thirty years of the Healthy Cities Movement Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1-4 October 2018 [Oral]
Carroll P, Barry M, Harold L, O'Grady M, Barry-Murphy B, O'Neill A, Brennan L; An investigation of the impact of ‘Facilitation Skills for Health and Well-Being’ training. 10th European Public Health Conference Sustaining resilient and healthy communities Stockholm, Sweden November 2017 [Oral]
Carroll P, Barry M, Harold L, O'Grady M, Barry-Murphy B, O'Neill A, Brennan L “...this is not about changing my work load or content, it is about changing how I do my work”: The personal and professional impact of facilitation skills for health and wellbeing training on youth workers in out of school settings. 21st Annual Health Promotion Conference at NUI Galway June 2017 [Oral]
Harold L, Carroll P, O’Grady M, Barry-Murphy N, Brennan L, O’Neill A, Barry M, An Exploration of the sustainability of facilitation skills for health and well-being training in the out of school sector. 20th Annual Health Promotion Conference at NUI Galway June 2016 [Oral]
Barry, M., Carroll, P., Barry Murphy, B., Brennan, L., Trainers Programme in Experiential Based Facilitation Training for Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE), SPHE Network Conference, Dublin. Oct 2014 [oral]
Barry, M., Summary of practice-based experience of delivering SPHE in the Department of Health Sport and Exercise Science, WIT, 4th Schools for Health Europe International Summer School. Limerick June 2014 [Oral]
Carroll P. , Fanning O. , Barry-Murphy B. , Loughnane M. Family Communications and Self Esteem (FCSE): An experientially facilitated parenting programme, Health Promotion Summer School. Galway June 2014 [Poster]
Carroll P., Jakeman P.M., Barrett E, Murphy N., Donnelly R., Loughnane M., Murphy M. Biological Day-to-Day Variability and Critical Differences in the Serial Measurement of Two Biochemical Markers of Bone Turnover in the Sera of Healthy Young Adult Males. 28th Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of Clinical Biochemists in Ireland, Limerick, October 2005 [Poster]
Carroll P., Hunter A., Barry D., Barrett E., Loughnane M., Donnelly R., Murphy N., Jakeman P.M. The components of variance and the critical difference in specific markers of bone turnover in healthy adult males and postmenopausal women. 28th Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of Clinical Biochemists in Ireland, Limerick, October 2005 [Poster]
Carroll P., Murphy N., Donnelly R., Barry D., Barrett E., Jakeman P.M. Loughnane M. Acute effects of anaerobic exercise on bone turnover in healthy postmenopausal women. 28th Annual Scientific Conference of the Association of Clinical Biochemists in Ireland, Limerick, October 2005 [Poster]
Loughnane M., Murphy N., Donnelly R., Barrett E., Barry D., Jakeman P.M., Carroll P. Acute effects of anaerobic and aerobic exercise on bone turnover in healthy postmenopausal women. 9th Meeting of the National Osteoporosis Society, Bath, June 2003 [Poster]
Carroll P., Early J., Murphy N.M., O’Connor J., Barry M., Eagan-Torkko M., O’Connor R., Richardson N., Stone A. (2022). Strengthening Health Promotion Pedagogy through Global Learning: Development of the Transnational Education and Community Health Collaboratory (TEACH CoLab). Pedagogy in Health Promotion. 8 (4): 287-296. DOI: 10.1177/23733799221089583
Carroll P, Barry M, Harold L, O'Grady M, Barry Murphy B, O'Neill A, Brennan L. (2017). An investigation of the impact of ‘Facilitation Skills for Health and Well-Being’ training. European Journal of Public Health, Volume 27, Issue suppl_3, 1
Loughnane M., Murphy N., Donnelly R., Barrett E., Barry D., Jakeman P.M., Carroll P. (2003) Acute effects of anaerobic and aerobic exercise on bone turnover in healthy postmenopausal women. Published in the proceedings of the 9th meeting of the National Osteoporosis Society, Bath, UK. P27
Carroll P., Murphy N., Donnelly R., Barry D., Barrett E., Jakeman P.M. Loughnane M. (2003) Acute effects of anaerobic exercise on bone turnover in healthy postmenopausal women. National Institute of Health Sciences, Research Bulletin 1:5, 43-44
Carroll P., Hunter A., Barry D., Barrett E., Loughnane M., Donnelly R., Murphy N., Jakeman P.M. (2002). The components of variance and the critical difference in specific markers of bone turnover in healthy adult males and postmenopausal women. National Institute of Health Sciences, Research Bulletin, 1: 4, 44-45
Carroll P., Jakeman P.M., Barrett E, Murphy N., Donnelly R., Loughnane M., Murphy M (2002) Biological Day-to-Day Variability and Critical Differences in the Serial Measurement of Two Biochemical Markers of Bone Turnover in the Sera of Healthy Young Adult Males. National Institute of Health Sciences, Research Bulletin, 1: 3, 41-42
Carroll P., Barrett E., Murphy N., Donnelly R., Loughnane M., Jakeman P.M., (2001) The optimum marker of bone resorption for both healthy young males and non-osteoporotic postmenopausal women: Sample collection, mode of assessment and inherent variability. National Institute of Health Sciences, Research Bulletin, 1: 2, 41-42
