I currently work as a Post-doctoral Researcher in the Department of Agri-food Business and Spatial Analysis in Teagasc, where I am involved in the EU CommBeBiz project. Within this project, I am working with FP7 and H2020 project partners at all stages of their ideas and research development to enable more effective and speedier transfer of knowledge to the marketplace, to policy-players and for the public good.

Before joining Teagasc, I spent 5 years in the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy, & Population Science in University College Dublin. During my time in UCD, I worked in national and European research projects in the area of food, health and consumer-related behaviour and lectured undergraduate and postgraduate students on risk communication and nutrition and food safety behaviour. I have also participated in an EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellowship, spending four months (June - September 2014) in Canada working in the University of Ottawa. I have a BA in Psychology and MSc in Health Psychology, both from the National University of Ireland, Galway. I completed my PhD in 2014 which investigated consumers' food risk-related attitudes and behaviours, with an aim to encourage the development of effective risk communication strategies, and with a specific interest in the role for newer online communication platforms (social media).

I am particularly interested in consumer behaviour research which can help inform stakeholder decision-making relating to food chain integrity and sustainability, food safety and quality, and food and health. My specific research interests include risk and crisis perception and communication, the maintenance and change of food and health behaviour, and the application of new communication platforms in research and practice. I am also interested in science communication, public engagement and knowledge transfer activities within the research setting and I am interested in motivating and supporting other researchers to become involved in these areas.