Prof Áine Carroll – Director at IFIC Ireland,

Professor Healthcare Integration and Improvement at University College Dublin,

Consultant Rehabilitation Medicine at National Rehabilitation Hospital 

Áine is Professor of Healthcare Integration and Improvement at University College Dublin, Ireland and a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dublin. She is a Director and Senior Associate of the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC) and co-Director of IFIC Ireland. Prior to this, she was National Director of the Clinical Strategy and Programmes Division in the Health Services Executive. During her tenure, Professor Carroll established the Integrated Care Programmes for older persons, chronic disease, children’s health and patient flow to promote coordinated care and teamwork across services and specialties, ensuring that care is provided effectively and seamlessly to patients as they move through the system. Áine is acknowledged Internationally for her expertise in whole system change and implementation. An experienced Improvement advisor, she has provided advice, guidance and training on improvement and change to leaders of healthcare systems across the world. She is passionate about Person Centred Coordinated Care and Implementation Science.

Dr Sloan Harper – Chair at IFIC Ireland,

GP Advisor at Health and Social Care Board, NI 

After qualifying  in Medicine from Queen’s University Belfast, 1983 Sloan worked as a GP in Belfast for 14 years followed by posts in primary care management at medical adviser and director level with the Northern Health & Social Services Board; and Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. He was appointed Director of Integrated Care at the Regional Health and Social Care Board in 2010 with responsibility for the delivery of GP, Community Pharmacy, Dental and Ophthalmic services across N Ireland as well as initiatives to improve the level of integration between the health and social care workforce and local communities. Sloan is Chair of IFIC Ireland and his focus is an all island approach to improving wellbeing by addressing integration and the social determinants of health. He is a non-executive director of Radius Housing, one of the largest housing associations on the island of Ireland. 

Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani – CEO at International Foundation for Integrated Care 

Dr Niamh Lennox-Chhugani has 30 years of experience in evidence-based transformation in healthcare internationally as a clinician, academic and consultant. Her experience has included integrated health and education service design and provision for children in the NHS in the early 1990’s, health system policy reform in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, advising on health system reform in the Russian Federation, scaling up infectious disease programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and implementing new care models in the NHS. She has provided leadership to teams in the public sector, commercial businesses and non-profits. As a subject matter expert on integrated care as part of wider healthcare reform, she has spoken at conferences, on panels, written papers, contributed as part of international teams to health system reviews. Most recently, Niamh led the healthcare practice at Optimity Advisors which included directing several EU-funded health projects. Since late 2019, she worked independently leading evaluations of digital health technology. She has a PhD from Imperial College London in organisation change in healthcare.

She has been an active member of the International Foundation for Integrated Care since 2015. Niamh has shared the International Foundation’s passion for integrated care from the beginning of her career as a clinician in the early 1990’s and all the way through her subsequent career as a leader, academic and advisor. Niamh was appointed as CEO by the IFIC Board in March 2021.

Dr Siobhán Ní Bhriain – National Clinical Lead & Group Advisor for Integrated Care at Health Service Executive 

Dr. Siobhán Ní Bhriain is a graduate of UCD and trained in Medicine and Psychiatry in the UK and Ireland. She worked as a Research Fellow in the Mercer’s Institute for Research on Ageing before completing her Higher Specialist Training in Old Age and General Adult Psychiatry. She has worked in Tallaght University Hospital/CHO 7 as Consultant in Psychiatry of Later Life since 2006 and was appointed Clinical Director for the Tallaght and St. James’s Mental Health Services in 2012, finishing up in 2018. During that time, she also served as Chair of the TUH Medical Board for four years and represented the MB at the Hospital Board. She took up the post of NCAGL for Mental Health in Jan 2019 and is moving to the role of National Clinical Lead for Integrated Care, Clinical Design and Innovation in February 2020. Her clinical interests include the diagnosis and management of dementia and delirium with an emphasis on the management of the psychiatric sequelae of those conditions. She also does complex capacity and consent assessments, as well having an interest in the psychiatric complications of Parkinson’s and related diseases. She is particularly interested in the development of integrated care pathways across the continuum of care for patients and has worked closely with colleagues in various settings to develop care pathways. She is a Member of the Royal College Physicians of London, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the College of Psychiatry of Ireland and has recently completed an MSc in Leadership in RCSI. 

Jacqui Browne – Chair, The DPO Network

Jacqui Browne is a member of the Disability Advisory Committee of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. IHREC is the Independent Monitoring Mechanism for the implementation of UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Ireland. Jacqui is a Thalidomide survivor, not a victim and has over 30 years of experience as a disability equality activist and consultant. With a BA Degree in Economics & Politics from UCD and a Masters’ degree in Education from Trinity College Dublin she has many years of experience working at local, national, European and International levels. She is a former member of Commission on Status of People with Disabilities whose report A Strategy for Equality was a blueprint for disability rights in Ireland. 

Jacqui is Chairperson of DESSA – the national Disability Equality Specialist Support Agency, a member of the HSE Board Patient Safety and Quality Sub-Committee and the Irish Thalidomide Association. Jacqui is also actively involved as a patient advocate in IPPOSI – the Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry and is a EUPATI Fellow – European Patient Advocacy Training Initiative.

Paul Cavanagh – Interim Director of Planning and Commissioning at Health and Social Care Board, NI 

Paul Cavanagh was an Assistant Director in HSCB’s Commissioning Directorate, leading on commissioning of health and social care services in the Western Area and regionally on ambulance services, radiotherapy services; major trauma care; Helicopter Emergency Medical Service; intermediate care; external contracting; and direct patient services, including patient travel and national contact point for EU directive on cross-border healthcare.

He is formerly the Chief Executive of City Centre Initiative in Derry and Coordinator of the North West Community Network. He currently sits on the Social Impact Committee for Comic Relief; is a former member of the Board and NI Committee of the Big Lottery Fund; and was a founding NI Charities Commissioner.

Cormac Russell – Managing Director of Nurture Development

Cormac is a social explorer, an author and a much sought after speaker. He is Managing Director of Nurture Development and a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, at DePaul University, Chicago.

Over the last 25 years, Cormac’s work has demonstrated an enduring impact in 35 countries around the world. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other community-based approaches in Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe and North America.

Fiona Lyne – Director at IFIC Ireland,

Director of Communications at International Foundation for Integrated Care 

In 2014, Fiona joined the International Foundation for Integrated Care as Director of Communications. Fiona is responsible for developing the overall brand, marketing and communication strategy for the Foundation. Fiona has worked in public policy communications since 2003. She began her career as a community stakeholder engagement manager at Fingal County Council in North Dublin supporting the local Community and Voluntary Forum to have an impact on local decision-making bodies. She went on to hold various project co-ordination and communication roles in both the public and private sector including periods with NHS North West London and the Royal Society of Arts. In 2010 she joined the King’s Fund, an internationally renowned healthcare policy think tank, as Head of Events and in subsequent years was responsible for moving the Fund into a leading position in the healthcare conference market.

Fiona has a BA in Politics and Economics from the University of Limerick, an MA in Community Development and Stakeholder Engagement from the National University of Ireland, Galway and a Diploma in Management from the Dublin Business School.

Michael Fitzgerald – Chief Officer at Cork/Kerry Community Healthcare, HSE 

Prior to his current role as Chief Officer of Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Michael was Head of Strategy & Planning, Services for Older People and Palliative Care. Michael also held the role of Head of Operations in Services for Older People nationally in the Social Care Division of the HSE. Previously, he was the Integrated Services Manager for Kerry ISA, with responsibility for Kerry General Hospital and all Kerry Community Services. In addition he held the lead role for Services for Older People across the HSE South region. Other previous roles included – General Manager and Local Health Manager Kerry Community Services, Regional Specialist for Older People Services HSE South, Medical Manpower Manager Kerry General Hospital, Manager of Kerry CWO services.

Dr Patricia Sheahan – Consultant Palliative Care at University Hospital Kerry 

Dr Sheahan  is a Consultant in Paliative Medicine in the Bon Secours Hospital Tralee. Dr Sheahan was Chairperson of the Ulster Community and Hospital Trust’s Palliative Care co-ordination Group, which developed a Palliative Care Discharge Pathway for patients. Dr Sheahan was also Chairperson of the Medicine Management Group at Marie Curie Centre in Belfast, this group developed clinical guidelines that were integrated with regional guidelines. Dr Sheahan also developed guidelines for pain management and the management of nausea in collaboration with the HIV Pharmacist at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London. Dr Sheahan was involved with the design of a computerised database for referrals to the hospital’s specialist palliative care team and established guidelines for symptom control for the cancer centre at the Belfast City Hospital.

Dr Sheahan has taught at both Undergraduate and Post graduate level, which includes lecturing on the Marie Curie Diploma and Degree Courses for Palliative and Cancer Care. She has also lectured in Palliative Care to final year Medical Students during their Oncology module. She has participated in numerous Publications and Presentations and took part in a major research study which looked at the ‘Impact of Receiving Quality of Life Information from Palliative Care Patients on their Quality Of Life’.

Dr Sara Shaw – Associate Professor of Health & Social Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow at Green Templeton College 

Dr Sara Shaw is Associate Professor of Health & Social Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow at Green Templeton College. She has a background in sociology and policy studies and interests in the organisation and delivery of health care including the development, implementation, spread, scale up and sustainability of health and care technologies. Her PhD used discourse analysis to examine the development of health-related policy. Since then she has maintained a keen interest in language, communication and power in health service delivery. She has significant experience of qualitative research, and is internationally renowned for her work on linguistic ethnography and policy.

Sara currently leads a programme of work on technology-enabled care, including remote and video consulting. This overlaps with an interest in sustainable health care and a commitment to supporting the shift to net zero health services by 2045. She is currently supported by an AHSN/BRC Fellowship, specifically to build research on sustainable health care. She has worked with a range of agencies and funders including the Department of Health, NHS England, Royal College of General Practitioners, National Institute for Health Research and Medical Research Council; and has published widely on topics ranging from spread and scale up of digital health and integrated care, to critical approaches to understanding policy.

Sara currently supervises six DPhil students. She is not currently accepting new DPhill students.

Dr Dominika Lisiecka – Clinical Director at Kerry SLT Clinic,

Lecturer at Munster Technological University

Dominika obtained her MSc in Speech & Language Therapy in 2003 and a PhD in Medicine and Health in 2018. Dominika’s professional experience includes a variety of disability and acute services for babies, children and adults. At Kerry SLT clinic, Dominika provides services for children with feeding difficulties and autism, and adults with voice difficulties and acquired swallowing and communication disorders.

Dominika also works as an academic lecturer at Munster Technological University Kerry and has a special interest in research. Dominika was awarded a Research Fellowship from the Health Research Board in Ireland (2015 – 2018). Dominika is passionate about neurology and she completed a 12-month post-doc in the field of advanced dementia and is currently an advisor on a DiaMoND study in the UK (Motor Neurone Disease).

James Cawley – Policy Officer at Independent Living Movement Ireland

James Cawley is Policy Officer at Independent Living Movement Ireland, a National Disabled Persons Organisation (DPO). He is a disability activist and a former secondary school teacher. He has a BA in Business and Geography and a Professional Masters of Education from Maynooth University. James has co – facilitated on the Maynooth University Disabilities studies course. He is a board member of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) and he was appointed by Minister Anne Rabbitte to the Disability Stakeholder Group (DSG) in January 2022. James is married and lives with his Wife Ally in rural Longford. He uses a Personal Assistance Service to assist him day to day.