Dr. Claire Donnellan

Biography

Claire is Professor of Nursing Research with Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia and Adjunct Associate Professor with Trinity College Dublin. She is a qualified Chartered Health Psychologist and a Registered General Nurse with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London (2002) and Ph.D. from the Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin (2008). She completed the Masters' training in Advanced Neuroimaging with University College London with a distinction for her work on neuroimaging and cognition in antiphospholipid syndrome. She holds the nurse specialisation qualification by the English Nursing Board in neuromedical and neurosurgical nursing. Her clinical nursing and management experience involved working in neurological and rehabilitation specialised units in Australia and the UK. As a nurse manager, she was the nursing lead for endocrinology services at St George's Hospital, Tooting in London which was the first clinical trial centre for adult growth hormone in the UK. Her involvement in setting up cardiovascular, endocrinology and neurology clinical trials in NHS hospitals and academic clinical centres in the UK led to her interest in an academic career. In 2007, she began lecturing full time when completing her research thesis on Adaptation to stroke using the Baltes' model of successful Ageing as part of the first longitudinal study in Ireland on ageing - the Healthy Ageing Research Programme (HARP) with the Royal College College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Trinity College Dublin (TCD), the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) AND Queen's University Belfast (QUB). Her scientific interests include examining and understanding consequences of large and small cerebral vessel disease and neurodegeneration on the behavioural and cognitive health of older adults. In her academic role, she has developed programmes and curricula for undergraduate and postgraduate courses across health sciences including gerontology and behavioural and social sciences; and directs and coordinates interdisciplinary age-related and cerebrovascular disease research. Her research experience starting up and project managing pharmacological clinical trials included for example, the European wide trial using riluzole as a potential disease-modifying agent in Parkinson plus disorders (NNIPPS: Neuroprotection and Natural History in Parkinson Plus Syndromes). She has several publications in medical, nursing, psychology and age-related journals and reviewer for over 10 journals and contributes to 2 editorial boards. She's a member of the European Stroke Organisation and reviewer for Stroke Association UK Project Grants. As a visiting professor in 2012, she completed a series of research placements in other international rehabilitation science centres' e.g. University of Toronto; Auckland University of Technology, Melbourne's Florey Institute of Neuroscience, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Association for Gerontology in Hong Kong. Academic management and leadership roles have included Director for International Initiatives and Global Relations for the School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONM), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) from 2016 to 2018 and Programme Subject Lead for Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Bahrain (2013 to 2016). She is currently a core member and was facilitator for the CHARM-EU (CHallenge driven, Accessible, Research-based Mobile European University) 5 partner universities (TCD, Universitat de Barcelona, Utrecht University, Eötvös Loránd University and Université de Montpellier) Knowledge Creating Team Life and Health and is actively contributing to curricula design and teaching and learning strategies package in delivery since September 2021.