Dr Katriona O’Sullivan is an associate professor in Maynooth University, a psychologist and memoirist. Her memoir Poor debuted at #1 on the Irish Non-Fiction bestseller list – remaining there for 52 weeks. Her memoir won the Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year Award and The Last Word Listeners’ Choice Award at the An Post book awards in 2023. It also won Eason’s book of the year and the Ian Dempsey’ show book of the year. The book, a memoir of growing up in extreme poverty, describes the far-reaching impact of childhood poverty. As one of 5 children in a home shaped by her parents’ heroin addiction, Katriona’s story chronicles her journey from poverty, teenage pregnancy, homelessness to graduating with a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and becoming an award-winning lecturer whose work challenges barriers to education.
Katriona leads the award winning STEM Passport for Inclusion project an initiative which supports working class girls to become STEM Prepared. This project has won national and international awards, including European gender equality project of the year and IBEC women in STEM award 2023. She has lead initiatives that tackle inequality in education- including leading the research programme which established the impact of the Foundation Year in Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.
Katriona has been invited speaker at the United Nations, the World Education Forum, the European Gender Action Workshop and the UN gender equality workshop. She has worked with policy makers in Ireland the Scotland to develop policies around education and inclusion. She has published research on equality, gender, education, inclusion and STEM.
I like to read book, enjoy my holidays and spend time with my 3 sons and my lovely grandson!
