• Dr Ruth Barrington, Chairperson
• Gail Birkbeck, Strategic Learning & Evaluation Executive, the Atlantic Philanthropies, RoI
• Sarah Craig, Head of National Health Information Systems, Health ResearchBoard, Dublin
• Dr. Bob Illback, President, CEO, & Senior Evaluation Researcher, Reach, Louisville, Kentucky, US; & Deputy CEO, Headstrong, Dublin
• Gabrielle Jacobs, Assistant Principal in the Disability Unit, Office for Disability & Mental Health, Dublin
• Dr. Fiona Keogh, Research & Information Manager, Genio
• Prof. Charlie Lakin, Director, Research & Training Centre on Community Living, University of Minnesota, US
• Prof. Philip McCallion, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Ageing & Community Wellness, University of Albany, US
• Dr. David McDaid, Research Fellow in Health Policy & Health Economics, LSE, UK
• Prof. Gerard Quinn, Director of the Centre for Disability Law & Policy, NUIG

Research team lead by Prof. Roy McConkey, University of Ulster

Biographies

Chaired by Dr Ruth Barrington

(also Genio Trustee)

Dr Ruth Barrington is Chief Executive of Molecular Medicine Ireland. MMI is a charitable company that is mobilising the strengths of its five academic partner institutions and associated hospitals to build a sustainable system of clinical and translational research. Dr Barrington was Chief Executive of the Health Research Board from 1998 to 2007. She was previously Assistant Secretary in the Department of Health and Children. She is a member of the board of IPPOSI - the Irish Platform for Patients’ Organisations, Science and Industry and is a member of the advisory board of the College of Psychiatry of Ireland. She was chair of the Monitoring Committee on A Vision for Change from 2006-2009 and is a director of TASC – think tank for action on social change. She is Chair of the Irish Times Trust and a director of the Board of Irish Times Ltd.  Dr Barrington is a graduate of University College Dublin and was awarded a Ph.D from the London School of Economics. She is the author of Health, Medicine and Politics in Ireland, 1900-1970. She was awarded an honorary degree in laws by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in May 2005.

Gail Birkbeck
Gail Birkbeck is the Strategic Learning and Evaluation Executive at The Atlantic Philanthropies. Based in the Dublin office, she works across the programme areas in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, providing technical advice and support as well as commissioning evaluations. Her academic background is in psychology and statistics and she has extensive knowledge of a broad range of research methodologies.

Sarah Craig
Sarah Craig is currently Head of National Health Information Systems at the Health Research Board.  This role includes the overall management of the disability and alcohol and drugs information systems currently managed by the Health Research Board.  She previously worked as Head of Research at the National Council for Special Education and as a Policy Analyst with the National Economic and Social Forum and has written a considerable number of research and policy papers on key social inclusion areas.  She also managed the Centre for Social and Educational Research at Dublin Institute of Technology, and worked at the Policy Research Centre in the National College of Ireland as well as spending time as a researcher at the University of Limerick.  She has also worked at the Combat Poverty Agency and with Pobal.  She is one of the founding members of the Irish Social Policy Association and chaired the Association between 2000 and 2003. 

Bob Illback, PsyD.
Bob Illback is President, Chief Executive Officer, and Senior Evaluation Researcher at REACH of Louisville, Inc. (Kentucky), an agency that serves children and youth with serious emotional and behavioural disabilities. His professional and research interests include systems of care in child mental health, school-based and school-linked integrated service programs, community-based intervention, program planning and evaluation, and planned organisational change. He has published widely and has served as principal investigator or program evaluator for a number of nationally-recognized systems of care initiatives, including Kentucky's Family Resource and Youth Services Centers, Kentucky IMPACT, Integrated Resources in Schools (IRIS), Health Access: Nurturing Development Services (HANDS), Community Partnerships for Protecting Children, Early Childhood Mental Health, Family-to-Family (F2F), the Kentucky Safe Schools Data Project, Project Family, and Kentucky's substance abuse prevention programs. Presently, he also serves as Deputy CEO for Headstrong - The National Centre for Youth Mental Health, in Dublin, Ireland.

Gabrielle Jacob BA, M. Phil.
Gabrielle Jacob is an Assistant Principal in the Disability Unit, Office for Disability and Mental Health. She has inter alia responsibility for policy matters relating to Part 2 of the Disability Act 2005 and its implementation, and the EPSEN Act 2004 (as it relates to the health sector).  She is a member of the Cross Sectoral Team with Education and is also a member of the HSE National Coordinating Group on Progressing Disability Services for Children and Young People. Previously Ms Jacob was Assistant Principal in the Strategy Development Unit in the Office for Older People. Prior to joining the Department of Health and Children (DoHC) in 2009, Ms Jacob worked for the National Council on Ageing and Older People in a variety of capacities including Acting Director and Work Programme Coordination Manager. She was a member of the Centre for Ageing and Research Development in Ireland (CARDI) Steering Group and was the DoHC representative on the UNECE Working Group on Ageing from 2008-2010.

Charlie Lakin Ph.D. 
Charlie Lakin has recently been appointed Director of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research in the US. He was formerly Director, Research and Training Center on Community Living, University of Minnesota. Mr. Lakin has 40 years’ experience in services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities as a teacher, researcher, consultant and advocate. He has directed numerous research and training projects and has authored or co-authored 300 publications based on that work. He frequently consults with state, federal and international agencies in matters of policy, research and evaluation. Among recognitions for his work are appointments by President Clinton to the President's Committee on Persons with Intellectual Disabilities, the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities’ Dybwad Humanitarian Award, the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Community Service Award and the Distinguished Research Award of The Arc of the United States. 

Philip McCallion, Ph.D. ACSW
Philip McCallion is Professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany and Director of the Center for Excellence in Aging and Community Wellness. A John A. Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar and Mentor, Professor McCallion is also a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.  His research has included evaluation of non-pharmacological interventions for persons with dementia, the development of innovative demonstration projects designed to maintain aging persons and persons with intellectual disabilities in the community and system design work on creating aging prepared communities and on embedding evidence based health promotion programs and participant directed practices in ageing and disability focused services. Dr. McCallion is visiting Professor to the School of Nursing and Midwifery in TCD and has over 70 publications on interventions with caregivers of frail elderly, persons with Alzheimer's disease, and persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

David McDaid
David McDaid is Research Fellow in Health Policy and Health Economics at LSE Health and Social Care and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is co-ordinator of the Mental Health Economics European Network, a 32 country network examining a range of issues, including detailed analysis of the financing of mental health and the socio-economic impact of mental health problems, including aspects of prevention and promotion of good mental well-being. Other recent research has included evaluation of the first phase of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy in Scotland, the UK wide Healthy Living Centre Initiative, and undertaking a review of the extent to which economic evaluations have been used in public health for the Welsh Assembly Government. He has also co-authored a recent report on the Irish health care system. He has published more than 40 peer reviewed papers largely on the use of economics in policy making and on mental health policy and acted as a consultant to a variety of governments, public and voluntary agencies including the World Health Organisation, the European Commission and Amnesty International. He is co-editor of the recently published book Mental Health Policy and Practice Across Europe, editor of Eurohealth, associate editor of Health Policy, co-convenor of the joint Campbell/Cochrane Collaboration Economic Methods Group and a director of the Health Equity Network.

Gerard Quinn
Gerard Quinn is the Director of the Centre for Disability Law and Policy at the NUI Galway School of Law.  Called to the Irish Bar in 1983, he holds a masters (LL.M.) and doctorate in law (S.J.D.) from Harvard Law School.  His specialization is international and comparative disability law and policy. He is a member of the Irish Human Rights Commission and helps co-ordinate the work of National Human Rights Institutions worldwide on disability issues.  He led the delegation of Rehabilitation International (RI) during the UN Working Group that elaborated the basis for the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He has worked in the European Commission (as a civil servant), and held a number of posts such as Director of Research for the Irish Government’s Law Reform Commission and Vice President of the European Committee of Social Rights (Council of Europe).  He sits on various advisory boards dealing with disability law and policy issues such as SOROS-OSI (Washington, DC), Disability Rights Fund (Boston, MA), European Foundation Centre Consortium on Disability(Brussels), European Coalition for Community Living (London), Interights (London).

Fiona Keogh, PhD, Dip. Stats. Cert. Health Ec.
Research and Information Manager, Genio (Also member of Genio team – see next section)