Associate Deans

Dr Michael Connolly is Joint Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing at UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems and Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services.   He was appointed Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in April 2023, having previously been Head of Subject for Adult General Nursing, from 2018-2023.

Michael has worked at UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems since 2001 and has significant experience in nursing and healthcare education. Michael was awarded a College of Health and Agricultural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award in 2022.

Michael’s teaching interests include palliative care; ethical and legal issues in nursing, midwifery and health care; ethical issues at end-of-life; spirituality in health and palliative care; health inequalities; LGBTQ+ health and end-of-life care. His research interests include palliative care education; palliative care competence development; spirituality and ethical issues in palliative care and at end of life; LGBTQ+ health and end-of-life care.  Michael has experience as a Principal Investigator on research and has also acted as co-applicant for funded research projects that were successful completed and published in peer reviewed journals of international renown. He has experience in both quantitative and qualitative methods for data collection and analysis. Michael is member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Nursing and is an Associate Editor for BMC Palliative Care and reviews regularly for a range of high impact nursing and healthcare journals.

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Maria Brenner is Full Professor of Children's Nursing and Associate Dean for Global Engagement. She holds a PhD, MSc and BSc from UCD and is on the register of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland for Children's Nurses, General Nurses and Nurse Tutors. She leads an interdisciplinary programme of research on technology and complex care and is the recipient of substantial national and international research funding. This includes TechChild, a 5-year project exploring the initiation of technology dependence, funded by the European Research Council. She collaborates widely internationally, including Gravitate Health, funded by the European Commission and the Innovative Medicines Initiative. She previously led the development of the first European standards of care for children with complex care needs, as part of the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) project (EU Horizon 2020 programme). She works with numerous international organisations and institutions on child health issues.

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Associate Professor Y. Sinem Uzar-Ozcetin, is associate professor in mental health nursing in the UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Health System and Associate Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), first appointed in 2023. Since then she has chaired the School EDI committee. As Associate Dean, the aim is to develop an awareness of inequalities experienced, including but not limited to the 10 equality grounds of the university: Age, Civil status, Disability, Family status including carer status, Gender (including gender identity), Traveller community membership, Ethnicity (race, skin colour, nationality or ethnic origin), Religion, Sexual orientation, and Socio-economic-status; and to develop action plans to address such inequalities by raising awareness, challenging discrimination and encouraging attitude and behaviour change towards a more inclusive culture.

Dr Uzar Ozcetin is research active and contributing/ leading many national and international research projects. Generally, Dr Uzar Ozcetin`s research interests include cross-cultural mental health care, nursing education, workplace violence, and psycho-oncology including a specific focus on WV among nurses and nursing students, metacognitions, ruminations, resilience, posttraumatic growth, and cross-cultural awareness/sensitivity toward displaced individuals, individuals with cancer. Dr Uzar Ozcetin has completed theoretical and skills educations, over 250 hours supervisions in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) from an accredited association by Beck-institute. Related to her CBT background, she has provided therapy for many cancer survivors, nurses, and nursing students. Dr Uzar Ozcetin chaired as an assistant coordinator of Bologna process in the faculty for over 10 years, so she has experience in curriculum development and design at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Again, she chaired as an assistant coordinator of Student Mobility Erasmus Program in the faculty for over 10 years, hence she has international collaborations and experience to develop bilateral agreements in E+. Dr Uzar Ozcetin is an Editorial Board member of Nurse Education Today since 2021. More recently she was invited and appointed as associate editor of the journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Nursing. Dr Uzar Ozcetin has also been contributing to peer-review processes of many international high-ranked/ quality journals as a reviewer.

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Valerie Smith is Full Professor of Midwifery at University College Dublin. She is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland in the General Nursing, Midwifery, and Tutors’ divisions of the Register. Valerie holds a BSc in Nursing, a BSc (Hons) in Midwifery, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Clinical Health Sciences Education, a MSc by Research, and a PhD. Valerie is/has been involved in research projects at national, European, and international levels, including projects funded by the EU-FP7 programme, the Health Research Board Ireland, and the Health Services Executive. She has also held roles as Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning (TCD; 2018-2020), Programme Director for Advanced Practice Nursing/Midwifery and Nurse/Midwife Prescribing (TCD; 2021-2023) and is an External Examiner (University of Galway; 2023-date). Valerie is a member of the Executive Board of Evidence Synthesis Ireland and the Executive Board of the Health Research Board Trial Methodology Research Network. Valerie has supervised six PhD scholars to completion and is currently supervising four in-progress PhD candidates.