Management Committee
Professor Catherine Blake
A graduate in Physiotherapy from UCD, she completed a MMedSc degree as a clinician researcher, before moving to UCD, where she was awarded a PhD in Medicine. She has 190+ publications and her research focus on ‘exercise for health’.
Professor Karen Doyle
Karen Doyle is a Professor in the School of Medicine at University of Galway. Her research involves studying neurovascular stress, the causes of neuronal loss and investigating novel strategies to protect brain tissue from damage. Prof Doyle’s focus is on understanding the pathophysiology of occlusive stroke and the characteristics of human blood clots that cause occlusive strokes. Prof Doyle is President of Neuroscience Ireland (2021 - present) and was the Founder and first Director of the Galway Neuroscience Centre.
Dr Francesca Farina
Francesca is a neuroscientist whose research focuses on early detection of risk factors and biomarkers for dementia. She has a particular interest in women’s brain health and fear of dementia in older populations. She is actively involved in multiple international research projects focusing on brain health and dementia prevention across the life course. She also collaborates with patient and community advocacy groups to reduce stigma associated with dementia and promote lifelong well- being. Francesca received her PhD in neuroscience from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in 2016. She completed post-doctoral training at the School of Psychology, University College Dublin, and the Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, before joining the Global Brain Health Institute in 2020. She is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.
Professor Seán Kennelly
Professor Sean Kennelly is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine in Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) and Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College. He is Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and the Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin. He is clinical director of the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service in TUH. He is co-lead investigator on HRB-funded Dementia Trials Ireland, a national clinical trials network, and is the PI for HRB-funded of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI).
Dr Claire McEvoy
Dr Claire McEvoy is a dietitian and epidemiologist at the Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, QUB, where she investigates the role of nutrition in healthy ageing. She has a special interest in understanding how dietary patterns influence neurodegeneration during ageing, and works to inform evidence-based dietary recommendations for dementia prevention. She is also a Senior Atlantic Fellow of the Global Brain Health Institute, University of California San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin.
Dr Bernadette McGuinness
Dr Bernadette McGuinness works as Clinical Professor of Ageing within the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast and Consultant Geriatrician in the Belfast Trust where she leads a memory service. From a research perspective she is especially interested in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment and the role of inflammation and nutrition in neurodegeneration; she leads a research portfolio of studies in these areas. Bernadette is Clinical Lead of the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing (NICOLA) study and leads on
Dr Hilary McMahon
Hilary McMahon undertook a PhD in protein biochemistry and was conferred with the degree of PhD from UCD in 1998. Her work in prion diseases commenced in 1999 as a research associate (Jan 1999 to October 2000) at the IGH du CNRS, Montpellier, France. She returned to UCD as a college lecturer in October 2000 and was appointed to the faculty of Science in October 2002, where she is a tenured academic. Hilary McMahon’s research lies in prion related neurodegenerative disorders. In prion diseases themselves, an example of such diseases in humans is Creutzfeldt Jackob disease and in animals' Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, scrapie and chronic wasting disease. Her group is involved in the unravelling of the biochemical pathways of these disorders, and they have identified therapeutic directions for these diseases. Most recently her group has identified proteases, now patented, that can degrade the prion agent under mild conditions. The McMahon group is also highly interested in the link between the prion and Alzheimer's disease paradigms. Their work in this area has identified that a neuronal adaptor protein bridges these disorders. This adaptor protein is regulated by the prion protein, and it is a regulator of an Alzheimer's disease associated pathway. Hilary McMahon's research group currently studies: the biochemical mechanisms behind prion diseases, therapeutic approaches to treat these disorders, and the evolving link between prion disorders and Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Laura O'Philbin
Laura is the Research and Policy Manager at the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. She has a background in Psychology and holds a PhD from the Dementia Services Development Centre at Bangor University in Wales. Before joining the ASI in 2019, Laura worked in academic research.
Sean Donal O'Shea
Séan Dónal O'Shea is a Dementia Advisor in Limerick City and County with the Alzheimer Society of Ireland. He is a member of the Dementia Research Network Ireland Management Committee and a founding member of the Dementia Carers Campaign Network. Séan Dónal holds a Master of Arts by Research degree from the Technological University of the Shannon Midlands Midwest (TUS). His presentation discusses the 'Some Dance to Remember' research project undertaken by him for the award of Masters in which he explored the psychosocial effects of the introduction of an adaptive Irish céilí (group, social) dance programme with people living with dementia and their carers.
Dr Dominic Trepel
Dominic Trépel, TCD -- Dominic Trépel is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin and faculty for the Global Brain Health Institute and Trinity School of Medicine. He is also primary investigator in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) where he directs Trépel lab.
Scientific Project Manager
Dr Vanessa Moore
The network is co-ordinated on a day-to day basis by Scientific Project Manager Dr Vanessa Moore, Trinity College Dublin. Vanessa has a PhD from the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin, where her research centred on the lived experience of people with young onset dementia in Ireland. She has an MSc in Applied Social Research from TCD and an MA International Relations from University College Cork. Before taking up her role at DRNI, Vanessa was a senior researcher at the European Institute of Women’s Health. Vanessa also worked as a Research Assistant at the Living with Dementia programme in TCD.
Advocates Advisory Board
Carmel Geoghegan
Carmel has a background in community development and has been advocating for and involved in devising innovative community responses to issues since the early 1990s. Carmel became primary carer to her mum Angela in 2010, who received a very late diagnosis of vascular/frontal temporal dementia. Carmel cared for her mother until the end of life, and this life changing experience began Carmel’s advocating for the voice of persons with a disability and the primary carer/family. She established Dementia Ireland Empowering Communities with an emphasis on education to reduce the misunderstanding attached to a diagnosis and empower those affected to voice their needs, fears and be involved in the decisions that affect them.
Carmel’s advocacy work centres on the importance of including the voice of the person in all interactions relating to them and in particular ensuring that their voice is central at all stages of research including the planning, consultation and translation of outcomes arising from the research into actions. Carmel has extensive experience in policy and human rights work and advocacy on a local, national and international level.
Helen Rochford-Brennan
Helen Rochford-Brennan is a Global Dementia Ambassador who has significantly contributed to dementia advocacy and research. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2012 and immediately began championing the rights of people living with dementia. Helen is former Chair/Vice Chair of the Irish Dementia Working Group, former Chairperson if the European Working Group of People with Dementia, member of the Board of Directors of Alzheimer Europe, and is also a member of the Board of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, to name but a few. Helen sits on the Monitoring Committee of Ireland’s first National Dementia Strategy and is a panel member of multiple advisory groups in Ireland and Europe. She has contributed to several books and documentaries about dementia, and has received several awards for her advocacy work, including an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the National University of Ireland Galway for her work on the Rights of People with Dementia.
Mrs. Ann Twomey
Ann is a dedicated Advocate committed to enhancing support and services for people living with dementia. With over a decade of experience, she has championed the importance of early diagnosis, treatment advancements and the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy. As a former carer to her late husband, who had vascular dementia, Ann co-founded Kinsale Community Response to Dementia (K-CoRD) as part of the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Genio Dementia Programme (2012–18). This initiative, supported by Atlantic Philanthropies in partnership with the Health Service Executive, spearheaded 13 dementia projects across Ireland delivering personalised supports to empower people with dementia to live independently within their communities. Serving as a Director, Ann led efforts in assistive technology and represented the programme at the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing in Brussels (2012-15). She actively contributes to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s Board, engages with the Dementia Carers Campaign Network and advised the National Advisory Steering Group to the HSE National Dementia Office. Additionally, Ann served on the National Covid_19 Biobank Working Group (NICB). Appointed by the Minister for Health in May 2021 she brings her expertise to the National Research Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials (NREC-CT).