Professor Deirdre Heenan

Overview

Professor Deirdre Heenan was appointed as a Professor of Social Policy in 2009. She is a former Dean of Academic Development, Provost of the Magee and Coleraine campuses, and a former PVC of Communications.

She is a National Teaching Fellow and Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. She is a Senior Associate of the Nuffield Trust London.

She has written extensively on healthcare, politics,
and devolution.

She is a co-founder and former co-director of the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey.

In 2012 she was appointed to the Irish Council of State as one of the seven personal nominees of President Michael D Higgins.

She was a trustee of the British Irish Association from 2011 to 2024.

Prof Heenan is currently the Northern Ireland lead for IMPACT, a £15 million UK wide project on social care funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation.

She is a board member of ARINS. A research collaboration between the Keough-Naughton Institute of the University of Notre Dame and the Royal Irish Academy.

She is the chair of the International Foundation for Integrated Care Ireland.

She is currently working in collaboration with Prof Mark Lawler QUB on an all-island cancer care policy funded by ARINS.

She is the Northern Ireland Honorary Consul to Austria.