Dr Laura Dunne is a Chartered Psychologist and a Reader at the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW), Queen’s University Belfast. Laura’s research interests lie in three main areas; child wellbeing in educational settings, early child health and development, and programme evaluation with a particular interest in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

She has extensive experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research and is particularly interested in national and international engagement and advocacy. Laura is Research Impact and Public Engagement Champion for SSESW.

Dr Karen Galway (School of Nursing and Midwifery) is co-chair of the Suicide Prevention Research and Impact Network (SPRIN). She carries out public mental health research that explores how best to improve everyone’s mental health, through effective and accessible support and services. 

Dr Galway has also worked to improve psychological and psycho-social support in cancer care, and is interested in research that empowers people through the use of digital technologies and co-design.

Dr Aideen Gildea (SSESW) has a professional background in special community public health nursing and an interdisciplinary academic background spanning health, social sciences and educational research. 

She has completed numerous evaluations of school-based programmes using a range of methodologies, and in particular, am experienced in the design, management, analysis and reporting of qualitative methods; specifically process evaluations that are designed to run alongside randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in school settings.

Dr Gildea's work over the last decade has involved undertaking high quality quantitative and qualitative research on a range of RCT’s, in community and educational settings in Ireland and the UK.

Dr Julie McMullan is a Research Fellow in the School of Nursing and Midwifery.  Julie has a background in public health research and has worked on various projects at Queen’s University Belfast since completing her PhD 6 years ago. 

Much of Julie’s research to date has used qualitative methods and she particularly enjoys working alongside PPI groups to discover how research makes a real difference to individuals. 

Most recently Julie has joined the Common Health Assets project which focuses on how community led organisations impact on the health and wellbeing of people living in deprived areas.

Professor Sarah Miller's research revolves around three inter-related themes: social emotional development, academic attainment and programme evaluation. She is particularly interested in the development of prosocial behaviour in early childhood and primary school children, as well as literacy and numeracy progression more generally.

Prof Miller (SSESW) has designed, conducted and published over 25 large-scale studies, which have included: simple and cluster randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews, quasi-experimental evaluations and cross sectional surveys.

Most recently she was involved in leading three systematic reviews on improving outcomes for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

Jill Mulholland is a qualified nurse who is undertaking an interdisciplinary PhD across the School of Nursing and Midwifery and School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, which is contributing valuable information to the work of Queen’s Innovation Zones.

Jill’s PhD is entitled Referral Routes to Community Support: exploring the impact of social prescribing. It aims to explore and assess the impact of referral mechanisms involved in connecting people to community-based support. Jill’s research is part of the NIHR funded Common Health Assets programme which will examine how community led organisations impact the health and wellbeing of people in disadvantaged areas across the UK.

Dr Leeanne O'Hara is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Public Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at Queen's.

She has published research a range of public health issues, such as the use of prescription drugs in prisons in Northern Ireland, and a public health approach to novel psychoactive substances.

Junyi Wang is undertaking an interdisciplinary PhD across the School of Social Sciences Education and Social Work and School of Arts, English and Languages, where she is being supervised by Dr Liam O’Hare (SSESW) and Dr Franziska Schroeder (AEL).

Junyi’s project aims to explore and assess if the Crescendo music and social learning programme supported by Queen’s Innovation Zones can be translated into a Chinese context.