The centre seeks to inspire, nurture and sustain innovations in teaching
and learning.
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Bisi Adigun, Performing Artist, Academic and Artist Director It was at the young age of nine, when Bisi saw the spectacular production of The Gods are Not to Blame the Nigerian version Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex that he decided to become a theatre artist when he grew up. From that day, drumming became his first love and acting became his hobby. To turn his hobby into a career, Bisi applied to Obafemi Awolowo University (Nigeria) from where he obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Dramatic Arts in 1990. Upon graduating, Bisi worked as a radio presenter /producer in Radio Lagos Nigeria and then as a television Producer with Swift Studios, a Lagos (Nigeria) based independent television production company. In 1993, Bisi availed of an opportunity to travel out of Nigeria for the first time when he was asked to travel to London in order to supervise a Swift Studios animation television commercial being produced there. Upon completing the animation, Bisi couriered it to his boss back and stayed back in the UK having successfully applied for a two year working holiday visa which enabled him, as an under 27 years old commonwealth citizen, to seek part time work legally in the UK. To regularise his stay and return to London, Bisi arrived in Ireland’s shores in May 1996. But he has since obtained an MA in Drama Studies from UCD and another MA in Film and Television from DCU; joined and toured the world with Irish African band, De Jimbe; married a fine Mayo girl with whom he has a beautiful daughter; co-presented Mono, RTE flagship intercultural television programme; founded Arambe Productions, Ireland’s first African Theatre Company; and commenced a doctoral programme in Drama Studies at Trinity College Dublin. It is indeed true that when man plans, God laughs. For more on Bisi: visit www.arambeproductions.com |
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Shane Kelly, Students Union President Ireland Shane grew up in a small town (or large village) in the greatest county in Ireland, Donegal. As an only child, imagination was very important to him. Following early ambitions to be an astronaut, he was soon devastated to find that Ireland's space exploration ambitions did not match his own. This lead to a rethinking of career prospects, but as it would turn out; Donegal wasn't the place to be if you wanted to become the President of the United States. After completing his leaving certificate, Shane decided to work for a few years before going to college, and so found himself working for bank of Ireland, and while being perfectly happy there, he was ultimately not fulfilled. Third level came calling in 2002, and so did the sunny south east, Shane completed his undergraduate Degree in 2006 at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he went on to become the president of the students' union. In 2008, he was elected as President of the Union of Students in Ireland (ok, not quite the United States, but it's a start). He fills his day by picking fights with the Minister for Education and Science, and moving between endless committee meetings. He still hasn't given up on the astronaut ambitions. |
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Justin McCarthy, Entrepreneur, Director of Abaltat, Spiddal, Galway Justin left school and decided he was going to begin his adult life addressing defects in his intellectual makeup. So he went to UCD and studied logic. Having completed his studies he used his degree in Logic in a unique fashion. He formed a Band (it was the 80's) and got a job as a pot washer in Captain Americas in Dublin. Unable to sustain the fundamental contradictions of this most illogical of positions Justin settled on a career in Television. Having worked as a TV editor and Director since the early Eighties he worked on hundreds of TV programs: documentaries, corporate promos, music videos and commercials. Justin moved to Galway in the early 1990's three years before the TnaG began broadcasting. The creation of TG4 created a lot of opportunity specifically in station promos training VJ's (video journalists) and access to a now generation of Broadcast Technology. That led to the founding of Abaltat. He co-founded Abaltat with Siun Ni Raghallaigh in 2004. Abaltat still remains the only company in the world that produces software that can automatically compose music to moving pictures. Justin still plays music but gave up washing pots. |
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Muiris O’Connor, Acting Head, Policy and Planning HEA Muiris O'Connor grew up in Tralee. After doing a very good Intermediate Certificate (aka Junior Cert), he got what he wanted out of the Leaving Cert before heading to Galway to study Philosophy and Sociology (Soc. & Pol.). Although his mother still regards Galway as the "graveyard of ambition", Muiris loved his studies and loved Galway. Muiris later spent a year in Brussels working as a graduate apprentice (stagiaire) with the European Commission and also found time to manage a small Irish pub called Sin-é. He returned to Ireland to do his MA in European Social Policy Analysis. This was done between NUI Maynooth and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. After completing his Masters, Muiris served as a cling-on in Maynooth before getting a contract from the Department of Economics in UCG to undertake surveys of social need in the Gaeltachts of Ireland. Upon completion of this contract, he moved to Dublin to work with the ESRI. It was in the survey unit of the ESRI that Muiris crafted his trade as a statistician. He also did a night-time post-graduate diploma in stats in Trinity at this time. From the ESRI, Muiris went on to work as Education Research Officer with CORI (the Conference of Religious of Ireland) and later on to the Department of Education and Science, where he spent five good years as statistician. There was a strong international dimension to this work and Muiris was active in OECD and Eurostat groups working on the development and refinement of international indicators on education and training. Since 2006, Muiris has worked in the Higher Education Authority, where he has served in a number of roles. Last year, he was Acting Head of the National Access Office and he is currently serving as Acting Head of Policy and Planning. Over the years, Muiris has written reports on a wide range of subjects including social need and social entrepreneurship, quantifying homelessness, lifelong learning, fees, access to higher education and gender in Irish education. Most recently, he authored the current National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2008-2013. He teaches a half-module on Education Policy Analysis to final year students of the BA in Social Policy in NUI Maynooth. |
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Geraldine O’Neill, Senior Lecturer in Education Development, University College Dublin Despite Geraldine’s strong love of sport as a child, it was her interest in music and art that influenced her choice of occupational therapy as a career. Maybe sport was just too precious to mix with work. Occupational therapy, as it turned out, gave her more than a career it gave her an insight into people, what they did and what they valued. It was through this career that Geraldine initially worked with people to support them in taking some choice and control over their lives with a disability. However, later she changed career to work with staff who were attempting to similarly empower students in their learning. There seemed to be a natural progression in the change of career from practicing occupational therapist, to occupational therapy lecturer in Trinity College, to educational developer in University College Dublin (UCD). Her PhD explored how people, with dysfunction in their hands, had carried out activities that they needed and wanted to do and, despite adversity, had adapted to their environment. Is this not what students do in their struggle to learn in challenging environments? In her current role as Senior Lecturer in Educational Development in UCD, she has used some of the occupational therapy approaches in supporting staff who are striving to improve student learning, i.e. drawing on staff and students’ creativity, adaptability, motivation, values and desire to learn. These approaches are emphasised, in particular, in her current teaching of a module on ‘Curriculum Design in Higher Education’. She continues to do her sports, sailing regularly in Dublin Bay, and still doesn’t mix this interest with work. |
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Chairperson, Andrea Deverell, Director of Incubation Centre As a child Andrea spent many a happy hour on a pig farm in Laois. At twelve years she ventured into the unknown and spent six-years in a boarding school in Dublin. She graduated with a BA in European Studies from the University of Limerick specialising in Spanish and French. She enjoyed living abroad for a number of years working in both Spain and France and eventually finding her way into business working with a very small wallpaper company in Spain and travelling as a glorified sales person all around Europe. From wallpaper to college this time graduating with an MSc in Technology Management with a particular focus on innovation. She has worked as a research assistant travelling the length and breath of Ireland meeting with diverse companies. She took up her role as Technology Transfer Manager in the University of Limerick and worked for four-years in the challenging space between academic knowledge and business commercialisation: facilitating, negotiating and driving innovation between academia and industry. Currently Andrea works as a part-time lecturer facilitating learning for post graduate students based in industry and is completing her doctorate study on the role of emotions in post-graduate learning in University College Dublin. She took up her post as Director of the Incubation Centre for teaching and learning in September 2008. She has an energetic love for creativity and fun and she has run many a creative session across the private and public sector. As a presenter she seeks to provoke and inspire creative thinking. |
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Karen McGrath, Coordinator of Incubation Centre Karen grew up in County Clare and flew the nest at the age of 18 to begin her studies in Waterford RTC as it was then known (now WIT). Four memorable years later she graduated with a degree in Legal and Business Studies and set about taking on the world. This involved 12 months in Ivor Fitzpatrick & Co in Dublin working in their debt recovery department. In 1998 she moved to the UK and was initially employed by a law firm well known in the Intellectual Property circle for representing such clients as Formula 1 and The Six Nations. Realising that she never wanted to become a solicitor Karen stumbled upon an organisation she had never heard of before called CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution). It was only then that she realised there was more she could do with a Legal and Business qualification than simply work for a law firm. And so her 5 years at CEDR began, during which Karen managed the Dispute Resolution arm of the organisation and also became a CEDR Accredited Mediator. Alas the calling of home was too much and in 2003 she returned home and began her career in the University of Limerick spending the first two years in Marketing and the next two working for the Procurement Office. As coordinator for the Incubation centre Karen now believes she has truly found a home for her skills. |
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The Panel is a dynamic group of experts drawn from different domains. The Panel plays a central role in the incubation centre as the backbone to the centre’s dynamic review process. The Panel comprises of a diverse group of individuals representing a variety of voices: student, academic, entrepreneurial, educational, artistic and governmental.
