​​​​​​​
Invited Speakers
Emeritus Professor Mark Dooris
​
Mark is Emeritus Professor in Health & Sustainability at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), where he was until 2023 Co-Director of the Healthy & Sustainable Settings Unit. Mark is a keen cyclist, hill walker, runner and photographer – and with a background in health promotion, public health, community development, strategic planning and sustainable development, he has over 38 years’ experience of working within and across the higher education, health, local government and voluntary sectors. He has published and presented widely and undertaken advisory/consultancy work for the World Health Organization and Public Health England relating to Health in All Policies, Healthy Cities and Healthy Settings.
​
Up until 2023, Mark was Chair of the UK Healthy Universities Network and an advisory group member for Universities UK’s Mental Health in Higher Education Programme. He is currently Expert Adviser on the International Healthy Campuses Network (for which he was Co-Chair until 2023), a member of the Planning Group for the 2025 International Healthy Campuses Conference from 2011-2014, and a member of DIY Learning Disability Theatre ‘s Advisory Group. He has previously chaired the International Union for Health Promotion & Education (IUHPE)’s Global Working Group on Healthy Settings and the UK Health for All Network; and been responsible for co-ordination of the UK Healthy Cities Network and the operational delivery of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health in Prisons.
​
Professor Hiram V. Arroyo
​
​​​ Hiram is Director of the Department of Social Sciences of the School of Biosocial Sciences and Graduate School of Public Health of the Medical Sciences Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. He is also Prof. of Health Promotion and Health Education in the academic programs of Doctorate in Public Health; Doctorate in Public Health with Specialty in Social Determinants of Health; and in the Master's Program in Health Education.
Since 2008, he has been Director of the World Health Organization (WHO/PAHO) Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Health Promotion and Health Education. Since 2009, he has been Coordinator of the Ibero- American Network of Health Promoting Universities (RIUPS). From 1996 he has been Coordinator of the Inter-American Consortium of Universities and Personnel Training Centers in Health Education and Health Promotion (CIUEPS). He is also the Founder, Regional Vice President and Regional Director of the Latin American Office (ORLA) of the International Union for Health Promotion and Health Education (UIPES/ORLA, Period 1988-2019), and National Representative in Puerto Rico of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education since 2022.
Hiram has been a Visiting Professor at Universities in Latin America and Europe, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Panama, Portugal and the Dominican Republic. His main research focuses on the topics of Public Health, Health Promotion, Health Education, School and University Health, Health Promotion Networks and Global Health.
He has published 13 books, 43 published book chapters and over 100 additional publications in peer-reviewed journals.​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Professor Isil Ergin
Dr.Isil Ergin, a Professor at Ege University, Department of Public health, specializes in health inequalities and the social determinants of health, with a particular focus on addressing systemic barriers to equity through research and policy-driven approaches. Currently serving as the Occupational Health and Safety Coordinator, she aims to integrate her work in this field with the Healthy Universities approach, fostering a holistic and inclusive framework for health promotion within academic institutions.
​
Starting as a general practitioner in Van, Turkey, she witnessed the effects of underdevelopment and conflict on public health, which, along with her volunteer work during the 1999 Istanbul earthquake, inspired her transition from family medicine to public health. Since joining Ege University in 2001, Dr. Ergin, has led multidisciplinary research on global health, urbanization, migration, occupational and environmental health, and gender issues. She has conducted field studies among marginalized groups, including Syrian refugees, and worked on innovative projects such as the Tobacco-Free Campus initiative, which secured national funding. Her expertise spans research, teaching, and policy translation, contributing to the integration of public health perspectives into medical education and curriculum development.
An active member of global health networks, Dr. Ergin has collaborated with organizations such as the Healthy Universities Network and the European Association for the Study of Obesity.
​
Dr. Ergin, has extensive teaching experience, leading courses on epidemiology, social determinants of health, and health policy across undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her work in curriculum design has fostered preventive and holistic health education. She is currently pursuing a PhD on elderly health, further expanding her expertise in aging and public health.
​
Dr Rebecca Kennedy
In addition to multiple leadership roles at UAB she is the co-chair of the International Health Promoting Campuses Network and was the founding chair for the US Health Promoting Campuses Network. She is also the co-author of a chapter entitled, “Well-being in Higher Education: Evidence- and Policy-based Strategies to Enhance the Well-being of People, Place and Planet” that was published in early 2023 and the December 2024 article, The Okanagan Charter to improve wellbeing in higher education: shifting the paradigm in Frontiers in Education.Prior to UAB she served at the University of West Florida from 1999 until 2018, including for nearly five years as the AVP and Director, Counseling and Psychological Services. She holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology from State University of New York at Buffalo and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from George Mason University.
She is deeply devoted to help create a better world for those who are here today and for those who have yet to come. As a licensed psychologist and EMDR therapist she managed a part-time private practice for over ten years, providing treatment to veterans and dependents, specializing in depression, anxiety and complex PTSD. In her current work she aspires to collaborate with others on her campus, in our country, and around the globe to transform the health and sustainability of our current and future societies and contribute to the wellbeing of people, places and the planet.
​
​
Dr Matt Dolf
Providing strategic direction for health and wellbeing promotion at UBC, Matt takes a systems-wide approach to supporting UBC Wellbeing – a collaborative effort to make the University a better place to live, work, play, and learn for all community members. He currently co-chairs the Canadian & International Health Promoting Campus Networks.
Matt holds a Doctorate in the field of sport and sustainability from the UBC School of Kinesiology. His research examined how sport events can measure and improve their environmental performance with Life Cycle Assessment methods and how they might leverage human and ecological wellbeing. He completed his Master of Advanced Studies in Sports Administration & Technology (MSA) at AISTS in Lausanne, Switzerland and a B.A. in Sport and Leisure Administration at the University of Victoria, Canada. Matt has researched and published in the areas of sport management, environmental impact assessment, sustainability, and health promotion.
Matt has travelled extensively; he has lived on four continents and speaks English, French, and Swiss German fluently. He also has a competitive sport background as a former tennis athlete, coach, and official at the national level. In his spare time he loves spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter.
Matt feels privileged to live on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and SelÌ“ílÌ“witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
Andrea Deverell
As Director of Sustainable Futures and Innovation at UL, I am responsible for collectively exploring and actively shaping sustainable and regenerative futures for Higher Education.
There are two central elements to our work: 1) Strategic Foresight: actively exploring and articulating preferable futures; and 2) Innovation: backcasting from the preferred futures, while designing and developing a portfolio of innovation plays or experiments.
From my experience there are a number of ingredients that are central to successful strategic foresight these include; enabling deep and meaningful participation in future making, re-igniting individual and collective imagination and taking a systems view of organisations. As a team we work to articulate future narratives and design speculative artefacts that help bring the future into view today. Futures is a relatively new area for HE and so I count myself privileged to be on this journey at the University of Limerick.
Assistant Professor Cuisle Forde
Dr Cuisle Forde is an Assistant Professor in the Discipline of Physiotherapy, Trinity College Dublin. She graduated with a BSc in Physiotherapy from Trinity College Dublin in 2008. Having been awarded a Trinity scholarship during her undergraduate career, and an Irish Research Council scholarship to carry out a PhD, she began work on her doctoral thesis the following autumn, which she completed in 2012.
During her doctoral studies, Cuisle investigated the efficacy of active video games as a form of exercise for children who have cystic fibrosis and those attending weight management clinics. She also examined the capability of an active video game to be used as a tool to estimate cardiorespiratory fitness. She completed a Diploma in Statistics and was also involved in research projects investigating arterial stiffness and physical activity in adults.
After spending some time working clinically and lecturing in critical thinking in Kosovo, Cuisle returned to Dublin in September 2013 to begin a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Discipline of Physiotherapy, Trinity College Dublin. With an interest in technology and innovative teaching methods, Cuisle helped develop the Online Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma in Clinical Exercise and is now coordinator for this course. Her latest publications investigate the efficacy of e-learning for the acquisition of clinical competencies.
Associate Professor Catherine Darker
Associate Professor Catherine Darker is a Health Psychologist and her research interests lie in translating evidence into practice, in particular, using theories, evidence and methods for changing the behaviours of healthcare professionals, patients and the general public. This is known in Ireland and the UK as Implementation Science research. She has a particular expertise in applying and developing complex intervention methodology in the context of community based programmes and trials (including intervention design, outcome measurement, fidelity, feasibility, and process evaluation), for prevention related research (e.g., smoking cessation, alcohol, physical activity/sedentary behaviour). She has a proven track record in attracting research funds as PI or Co-Applicant (€2.5 million). She has been PI and Co-PI on funded research by the Health Research Board (HRB) to undertake public health studies relating to COVID-19; a pilot cluster randomized trial of a community-based smoking cessation intervention for disadvantaged women in Ireland, and a a peer-to-peer motivational interview intervention for smoking, alcohol and physical activity among at risk adolescents in low SES communities. Professor Darker is routinely commissioned by the Health Service Executive to conduct outcome and process type evaluations of national programmes and services.
All of her research has a clearly defined Knowledge Exchange Dissemination plan with recommendations to change policy and practice in the prevention and management of a range of chronic conditions. She has served as Head of Discipline of Public Health & Primary Care. She is the Director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning within the School of Medicine. She is a senior member of teaching teams and develops and delivers innovative curriculum's for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is an active member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (Chartered Health Psychologist) having held many roles within the governance of the Society. She is a member of the European Health Psychology Society.
​
She was an inaugural member of the Healthy Ireland Council, and a Member of the Expert Committee on Prevention within the Irish Cancer Society. She is a strong advocate for the just and equitable distribution of and access to healthcare services. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications (h-index 20) and supervises and examines PhD and Masters students. In 2024, she was elected as Fellow of Trinity College Dublin.