Director of Strategic Engagement
Sarah Bowman is Director of Strategic Engagement for the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability, and Director of the Health Research Board-Irish Research Council Ignite Programme at Trinity College Dublin, which advances public, patient involvement in health. Sarah has eighteen years of experience as a public engagement specialist, guiding teams and ensuring programme work plans and products advance initiatives. Sarah has served as Director of Public Engagement at Trinity College’s Centre for Research in Ageing (Trinity EngAGE), The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), and Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing (MISA) at St. James's Hospital.
She has assisted researchers in crafting public involvement plans and impact frameworks, aiding them in accessing significant funding for engaged research. Sarah has led event planning and facilitation including: the 10th Anniversary Celebration of IDS-TILDA (300 attendees); the Irish Universities Association Engaged Research Report Launch (90 attendees); Celebrating 10 Years of TILDA (615 attendees); the UCC Engaged Research Consultations (100 attendees); the Michael Longley Public Lecture (406 attendees); and the TILDA Conference Evidence for Policymakers (125 attendees). Sarah has managed community outreach and educational initiatives including the 2017 International Summit on Ageing with an Intellectual Disability (225 attendees / 6 CEUs); the Falls and Syncope Unit International Training (133 participants / 14 CPDs); the Universal Design Innovation Showcase (90 undergraduate engineers); the FutureLearn Massive Open Online Course Strategies for Successful Ageing (30,000 learners); and the EngAGE With Science NanoWow Programme (primary school students).
Sarah is co-author of the Engaged Research Report: Society & Higher Education Working Together to Address Grand Societal Challenges and the Engaged Research Framework which has been endorsed by major funders and the Irish Universities Association. Working with more than 1,200 communities, Sarah has managed a wide range of community engagement projects ranging from single-day workshops to multi-year efforts, in addition to developing educational tools for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, AARP, Federal Highway Administration Transportation Research Board, Quebec Ministry of Health, Abu Dhabi Municipality, National Association of Realtors, Blue Zones, and others. Sarah has edited publications on community engagement for The New York Times, Men’s Health Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, ITE Journal, Michigan Municipal League, Better! Cities & Towns and Unleash Magazine.
In 2009, Sarah co-founded the 501c3 non-profit organisation, Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, facilitating public engagement activities in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to this, Sarah led community engagement activities at the University of Notre Dame, working with land owners during campus expansion of facilities and ensuring proactive environmental stewardship to protect sensitive areas.