Category: team

Bio

Ken is a consultant in high-performance sport and business, an expert advisor in industry innovation, and a lecturer at Letterkenny Institute of Technology. He is an expert in human wellbeing and performance and has worked with many of the world’s greatest sports champions and extreme explorers for over 25 years.

Ken has extensive experience working in higher education, high-performance sport and industry. He was Director of Sport Sciences at the English Institute of Sport, leading the support of Great Britain’s athletes to their historic medal haul at the London 2012 Olympics. More recently, he launched and led the GlaxoSmithKline Human Performance Lab, an industry innovation centre committed to advancing human health & performance.

A Fellow of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) with a PhD in sport and exercise science, Ken is currently a Non-Exec Director and board member at the English Institute of Sport.

Research, Innovation & Engagement

Ken consults to sport & business organisations globally on high-performance strategy & infrastructure. He works with the health, wellness and fitness sector on new product innovation and brand growth.

His research explores high-performance in elite athletes, with a particular focus on training, recovery and adaptation. Translation of these research insights to enhance wellbeing and productivity of the wider population is the foundation of his work in commercial innovation and public engagement.

Bio

Meadbh Ruane has lectured in the Department of Business Studies since 2002. She lectures on both under and post-graduate programmes in the areas of digital business, managing change and strategy. Meadbh has been facilitating Action Learning Sets at LYIT since 2008 as part of an executive MBS Innovation and Leadership programme. Additionally, she has extensive experience supervising participants in the completion of their dissertations on Master’s programme in the Department of Business Studies.

In her role as a lecturer and facilitator, Meadbh has a strong belief in practice-based education and continuing professional development where student-participants are at the centre of their own learning. She incorporates pedagogy that links real-world and practitioner experience to academic theory.

Before joining LYIT Meadbh worked both nationally and internationally as a project manager and business analyst facilitating teams in developing software solution that addressed business challenges.

Meadbh was awarded her Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Business Studies from NUI Galway in 1990 and 1991 respectively and in 2018 was awarded her Professional Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of Northumbria.

Research, Innovation & Engagement

Meadbh’s key area of research interest is in further developing understanding of the process of learning towards developing frameworks that can support organisational and individual transformation. Her doctoral thesis inquired into participant learning on an accredited post-graduate programme and is titled “A story of participants’ learning experiences: Illuminating the complexity and multi-dimensional process of learning”.

She is currently the course co-ordinator on the executive MBS in Innovation and Leadership at LYIT where she delivers modules on Managing Change, Managing People and Action Learning Research.

Bio

Suzi has lectured in the Department of Business Studies since 2003. Whilst initially lecturing in the area of accounting, in recent years she has also been involved in developing and delivering modules in the area of study skills for accounting and other business students, and also is lead lecturer on the Student Centred Learning module as part of the MALT programme. She has a keen interest in teaching and learning and has supervised research in that area as part of the MALT programme.

After graduating from University of Birmingham in 1989 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Russian Studies), Suzi joined Touche Ross, Birmingham and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992. She worked in various finance roles in UK and internationally from 1989 to 2002, when she moved to Donegal and started lecturing at LYIT.

Research, Innovation & Engagement

Suzi’s key area of research interest is in the area of student engagement and student learning, with particular focus on the first year experience and transition for students from second to third level. She has been involved in developing the Firstly programme in the department of Business Studies, which helps students with the transition from second to third level education, and has presented in this area at the European First Year experience conference.

Bio

Cróna brings a multitude of experience to her lecturing role in the Department of Design & Creative Media at LYIT. A graduate of Limerick School of Art & Design; Ulster University and Central Saint Martins, UAL London, she has worked in a variety of roles within the creative industries – graphic designer, art director, project manager, curator and community engagement specialist. Central to her work is a passion for people, placing the needs of the end user at the centre of all creative solutions.

Whilst running a successful commercial gallery in Dublin’s cultural quarter she represented over 250 artists nationally and internationally and was responsible for an extensive programme of exhibitions and outreach activities. Having added spatial design skills to her credentials through her MA, Cróna worked with leading architects and councils on some of the largest regeneration projects in London at the time, ensuring the views of the community and key stakeholders were considered in the final designs/strategic plans.

Cróna taught on the BA (Hons) Interior and Spatial Design at Chelsea School of Art & Design (UAL) and the MA in Narrative Environments, Central Saint Martins (UAL) before returning to her native Donegal to commence her roles at LYIT and OD Design.

In 2020 Cróna began a PhD exploring the role of the studio space in creative tertiary education.

Research, Innovation & Engagement

Publications, Presentations and Projects

Digitally Enhanced Learning, Annual Conference, hosted by Parsons School of Design, New York
In September 2019, Cróna delivered an interactive session exploring the what the physical design studio represent to educators, how is this translated online?
https://www.digitallyengagedlearning.net/2020/schedule/

Learning Teaching & Student Experience Annual Conference 2018 and 2022
In April 2018, Cróna and her colleague Dr. Tena Patten presented the design thinking/creative process they developed for first year design students at LYIT – UNIQUE, which divides the creative process into the six stages of Understand, Needs, Ideas, Quick prototyping, User testing and Evaluation. They presented this process in action at the 2022 conference.

DICE_TY
Successfully secured funding for the last 4 years to run Creativity and Entrepreneurship project for 100 Transition Year students. DICE_TY Academy, brought together 100 Transition Year students from around Donegal both on campus and virtually to participate in a different design challenge each year.

Brand New | Old Quarter
Collaboration each year between Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter and all first-year design students to encourage more engagement in the area. One group’s proposal from 2018 was realised through a further collaboration with UV Arts and their mural was unveiled in October 2019.

Telling Stories Differently – creating compelling visitor experiences
Eager to ensure their museum and showcase remain relevant and at the cutting edge of visitor experience, Volkswagen Autostadt commissioned Central Saint Martins to conduct a thorough investigation into the future of museums and interactive installations.

Bio

Humphrey is a business development consultant in sports, tourism and outdoor recreation having previously worked as a developer of commercial, public and education sports businesses for private and public bodies in Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe. He also lectures part-time at Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

Academic Qualifications: BA, MBS (Business Development), MSc (Exercise and Nutrition), Graduateship Marketing MIII, Postgraduate Diploma (Research Methods.), currently completing an MSc in Data Analytics.

A qualified coach in a range of adventure sports he has led first descents of some of the world’s most challenging rivers in Siberia, Caucasus and the Himalayas (kayaking and rafting), solo flights across its deserts in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (paramotor) and solo climbing ascents of some of its highest mountains in the Himalayas and Karakorum including Everest.

Research, Innovation & Engagement

His research interests are in the role and conceptualising of active recreation to support healthy lifestyles and the search for authenticity through the experience of risk, discomfort and chaos. Humphrey has presented at a number of Irish and international sports and outdoor recreation conferences on these topics and has chaired panel discussions, acted as rapporteur and provided after-dinner speeches at these events.

Humphrey has overseen the delivery and has provided external evaluation services on EU funded INTERREG and Horizon sport development programmes in a number of European countries.

He is the author of a number of sports and physical activity strategic reviews and plans for government departments, Sport Ireland, and a number of County Councils. He has developed the national guidelines on outdoor recreation water trails, co-authored the 1998 and the 2014 review of the need for safety legislation in the Irish adventure sports sector and is occasionally called on to provide expert witness testimony for adventure sports related accidents.

Humphrey has worked closely with waterways Ireland, Failte Ireland and Sport Ireland on the conceptualising, development, piloting and evaluation of the Blueway concept and he has developed most of the adventure sports related level 4 and 5 training awards.

Bio

Dr. Conor McTiernan is a lecturer in the Department of Tourism in ATU Donegal. He completed his PhD in Leeds Beckett University exploring the role of trust in inter-organisational knowledge transfer in Irish festival and event tourism networks. His teaching role includes such subject areas as strategic tourism and hospitality management, food and beverage management, tourism planning, destination development and research methods. Conor has undertaken many academic roles in LYIT including membership of Academic Council and is currently an external examiner in both Athlone Institute of Technology and Institute of Technology Sligo. Conor is currently supervising a number of post graduate dissertation projects. He is a member of the Irish Hospitality Institute (IHI) and the First International Network of Trust (FINT).

Research, Innovation & Engagement

Conor’s research primarily focuses on innovation, knowledge management and trust in tourism SMTE’s. Recent publications include:

• McTiernan, C, Thomas, R and Jameson, S (2018) ‘Focusing on knowledge exchange: The role of trust in tourism networks’ in The Future of Tourism: Innovation and Sustainability. Editors Fayos-Solà, Eduardo and Cooper, Chris, Springer.
• McTiernan, C, Musgrave, J and Cooper, C (2021) ‘The role of trust in the transfer of pro-environmental knowledge in small and medium sized tourism enterprises’ Journal of Sustainable Tourism.

He has consulted and conducted analysis of various festivals and events in Ireland and was a recipient of both Enterprise Ireland Innovation Vouchers and Fáilte Ireland research bursaries. Conor is a regular journal reviewer, most frequently for Current Issues in Tourism and Journal of Sustainable Tourism, and conference paper reviewer for EuroChrie, UK CHEM and THRIC.