Academic biography

Qualifications include a PhD (an action research study of a social enterprise as it evolved from an idea to successful implementation), an MSc in Strategic Management, and a Business Studies Degree (Marketing). Employment experience includes 18 years in financial services, of which ten were in strategic development roles; over ten years as Director and then General Manager in a volunteer- led new model of social enterprise in school age childcare, and over 5 years experience in lecturing at third level. 
Teaching: Modules I have delivered include: Market Feasibility Research, Applied Marketing Research, Practical Research Methods, Innovation and New Product Development Studies, Creativity and Discovery, Marketing Management (all at DCU) Operations and Supply Chain Management (UCD), Irish Social Policy in Early Years Education and Practical HR Research Methods - CIPD in HR (NCI).
Research and Innovation: In addition to research in industry, my research includes exploration of how the rhetoric of theory, policy and/or strategy is applied locally, and how research can both inform, and  be informed by, action, for example:

• The reality of parents as partners (primary school level) compared to the rhetoric set out in the Education Act, 1999, utilising a Learning Organisation framework.
• An action research study of the development of a social enterprise in school age childcare.
• The overlapping relationship between the business and social/educational elements of childcare.
• A review of social partnership and its role in the development of childcare in Ireland.
• The emergence of childcare in Ireland with an emphasis on school age childcare.
• Evaluation of the introduction of e-portfolios as a method of learning and assessment.