Monday
June 9th
Speakers Programme: 2025 Opening Day
A Celebration: Kindness in Motion, Looking Back, Reaching Forward
The event took place in the Paccar Theatre, Naughton Institute, Trinity College Dublin.
A packed two hours of joyous celebration welcoming new and returning community, live and online. Inspirational activity developing from previous Creative Brain Weeks, and details of the week ahead in Dublin.
Creative Brain Week 2024 Recap and Look Ahead
Looking Forward to the week of Activating Kindness” with panellists:
- Iracema Leroi
- Nicholas Johnson
- Brian Lawlor
- Ian Robertson
- Dominic Campbell
- Eimear Mc Glinchey – Africa Down Syndrome Network
- Gráinne McGettrick – Acquired Brain Injury
- Harris Eyre – Brain Health policy goes global
Contributors
Dominic Campbell is leading the Creative Brain Week initiative. As Bealtaine Festival Director he steered its celebration of creativity and aging’s development over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration he transformed St Patrick’s Festival’s three shows into ninety growing production, managerial teams, financial support, engagement and impact.
Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” delivering 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.
He mentored “celebration of ageing” festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins, replicating it in San Francisco (2018) and Kentucky (2019).
Recognized as a key cultural influencer in Ireland by The Irish Times and by First Avenue as a Key Influencer in Aging in the US, in 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia. Currently developing an arts programme for the Irish Hospice Foundation as response to the pandemic and the Ageing Voices programme with Sing Ireland.
Website:
www.creativeaginginternational.com
www.gbhi.org/profiles/dominic-campbell
Social:
X: @CreativeAgeIntl and @CreativeBrainWk and @IrelandChorus
Harris is a physician-executive focused on advancing the brain economy and building brain capital. To do this, he works across public, non-profit, philanthropic, and private sectors. He is integrating and actioning the disciplines of grand strategy, new economic thinking, transdisciplinary science, and financial engineering. He is a senior advisor for neuroscience at the Rice Office of Innovation, an adjunct with Rice’s Neuro Engineering Initiative, a visiting senior fellow at the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative, a senior advisor with McKinsey and Company, adjunct at UCSF, advisor at MD Anderson’s Cancer Neuroscience Program. Eyre is an alumnus of the Forbes 30 Under 30 and the Fulbright Scholar program. He has garnered recognition with the prestigious EB1A Green Card, an honor typically reserved for Nobel and Pulitzer prize winners. He has authored over 200 papers and chapters in journals such as Nature Medicine, The Lancet Neurology, Neuron, World Psychiatry, The Brookings Institution, OECD Press, and was the lead editor of the book ‘Convergence Brain Health’ (Oxford Press).
Websites:
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Brain-health-directed-policymaking_Final.pdf
Social Media:
Nicholas Johnson is Associate Professor of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, where he directs the Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies and convenes the interdisciplinary Creative Arts Practice research theme. His books include Beckett’s Voices / Voicing Beckett (Brill, 2021), Influencing Beckett / Beckett Influencing (L’Harmattan, 2020), Experimental Beckett (Cambridge UP, 2020) and Bertolt Brecht’s David Fragments (1919–1921): An Interdisciplinary Study (Bloomsbury, 2020). He co-edited the “Performance Issue” (23.1, 2014) and the “Pedagogy Issue” (29.1, 2020) of the Journal of Beckett Studies (Edinburgh UP). Directing credits include Virtual Play (2017–19) and world premieres of The David Fragments (2017), Enemy of the Stars(2015), and No’s Knife (Lincoln Center, 2015). He works as dramaturg with Pan Pan, OT Platform, and Dead Centre and facilitates theatre workshops internationally. He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 2021.
Websites:
https://tcd.academia.edu/NicholasJohnson
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/about/partners/beckett-centre.php
Social Media:
Professor Brian Lawlor (MD, FRCPI, FRCPsych, FTCD (Hon), DABPN) is Conolly Norman Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, and a Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College. He is a geriatric psychiatrist with an interest in dementia, late-life depression, loneliness and brain health. Brian has worked for over 30 years on developing services and delivering care to people with dementia. His research interests range from early detection and prevention to evaluating new treatments for dementia.
Websites:
https://www.understandtogether.ie
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/brian-lawlor
Social Media:
Bluesky: @proflawlor.bsky.social
Iracema specializes in pragmatic interventions for cognitive and neuropsychiatric issues in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. She leads the HRB-CTN Dementia Trials Ireland and was Chief Investigator for the EU-funded SENSE-Cog programme, exploring the links between hearing, vision, and cognition in older adults. She now heads the HRB-funded EMERALD Lewy research program, focused on advancing the diagnosis and care of Lewy body disease in Ireland. At St James’s Hospital, she established the ‘Mind and Memory’ clinic, supporting individuals with cognitive and behavioral issues related to Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia.Iracema is an academic geriatric psychiatrist with a special interest in pragmatic interventions for the cognitive and neuropsychiatric aspects of neurodegenerative disorders, particularly Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
Iracema is also an accomplished open water swimmer, with swims including the 44km Manhattan Island Marathon.
Websites:
Grainne is the Director of Policy and Research with Acquired Brain Injury Ireland where she leads the strategic development of the organisation’s policy and research agenda. With a background at the intersection of policy, research, and advocacy in the Irish NGO sector, Gráinne is dedicated to addressing health inequalities and championing the human rights of those facing exclusion due to ageing, dementia and disability. She has played a key role in leading successful national policy advocacy campaigns, forming alliances and coalitions, engaging stakeholders, and fostering collaborations at national, European and international levels. Gráinne is a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Centre for Policy and Health Management, TCD.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/grainne-mcgettrick
Social Media:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gráinne-mcgettrick-77129121/
X; @ABIIreland and @GBHI_Fellows
Instagram: @braininjury_ire
Dr. Eimear McGlinchey is an Assistant Professor in Intellectual Disability in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and a Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute, focused on identifying early biomarkers of dementia for people with Down syndrome by developing an intervention program using online cognitive training with adults with Down Syndrome.
Eimear’s background is in Psychology and her primary area of interest is in the promotion and maintenance of brain health in people with an intellectual disability, with particular focus on the area of dementia in people with Down syndrome. Eimear’s work in the area of dementia and Down syndrome includes investigating early biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease using neuroimaging, blood- based and cognitive biomarkers and is PI of the PREVENT dementia – DS project. This project is part of a collaborative international study with the Horizon 21 European Down syndrome Consortium. Dr McGlinchey is co-PI on a project that includes the voices of people with an intellectual disability in developing guidelines for post-diagnostic dementia support.
Eimear’s work is based in the Trinity Centre for Ageing and Intellectual Disability and is research lead with the National Intellectual Disability Memory Service. Her other areas of interest include equity and inclusion as well as accessibility and innovative dissemination.
Eimear teaches on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in the school and provides supervision to undergraduate, masters and PhD students. She is Program Director for the Ageing Health and Wellbeing in Intellectual Disability MSc, the Dementia MSc, and the Community Health MSc in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She has a number of publications and has disseminated widely through national and international conferences.
Websites:
https://www.tcd.ie/tcaid/people/mcgline/
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/eimear-mcglinchey
Social:
Ian Robertson is a Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. He is co-leader of the BrainHealth Project (Center for BrainHealth UTDallas) and is a Member of Academia Europaea and of the Royal Irish Academy. He is widely known for his research on neuropsychology and his science writing has included books aimed at the general reader: Mind Sculpture (2000), The Mind’s Eye (2003), Stay Sharp (2005), The Winner Effect (2012) and The Stress Test (2016), all of which have been widely translated. His most recent book How Confidence Works was published by Penguin in 2022.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/ian-robertson
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-robertson-4480502/
Looking Around the world
Looking Around the world and at other Creative Brain Weeks: News of six “thematically connected, locally informed” Creative Brain Week’s inspired by Dublin, delivered in Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Egypt, India, Singapore by extraordinary collaborative effort over the last 12 months
The panel includes
- WHO/Jameel Arts and Health Lab, and Lancet Specials – Nisha Sajnani
- Egypt Creative Brain Week – Mohamed Salama (online)
- Botswana Creative Brain Week – Lingani Mbakile-Mahlanza (online)
- India Creative Brain Week – Anusha Yasoda-Mohan, Jayashree Dasgupta (in person and online)
- Australia Creative Brain Week – Kim Nguyen and Juanita Wheeler (online)
- Singapore Creative Brain Week – Cissie Fu (online)
- Argentina Creative Brain Week – Alejandra Davidziuk and Agustín Ibáñez (online and in person)
Welcome Address: Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity College Dublin
More information on Global Creative Brain Weeks available here.
Contributors
Dominic Campbell is leading the Creative Brain Week initiative. As Bealtaine Festival Director he steered its celebration of creativity and aging’s development over eight years. Formerly an Artistic Director of Ireland’s national celebration he transformed St Patrick’s Festival’s three shows into ninety growing production, managerial teams, financial support, engagement and impact.
Dominic went on to design and produce national celebrations marking the expansion of European Union in 2004 and Centenary celebrations for James Joyce. For “The Day Of Welcomes” delivering 12 simultaneous festivals pairing EU expansion countries with Irish towns and cities engaging 2,500 artists from 32 countries.
He mentored “celebration of ageing” festivals in Wales (Gwanwynn), Scotland (Luminate), and developed projects with partners in Australia and The Netherlands. In 2012 he established the first global conference on Creativity In Older Age opened by Irish President Michael D Higgins, replicating it in San Francisco (2018) and Kentucky (2019).
Recognized as a key cultural influencer in Ireland by The Irish Times and by First Avenue as a Key Influencer in Aging in the US, in 2016 he became an inaugural Atlantic Fellow for Equity and Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute a project between Trinity College Dublin and University of California San Francisco an ambitious worldwide program seeking social and public health solutions to reduce the scale and adverse impact of dementia. Currently developing an arts programme for the Irish Hospice Foundation as response to the pandemic and the Ageing Voices programme with Sing Ireland.
Website:
www.creativeaginginternational.com
www.gbhi.org/profiles/dominic-campbell
Social:
X: @CreativeAgeIntl and @CreativeBrainWk and @IrelandChorus
Jayashree Dasgupta is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and social entrepreneur whose work focuses on caregiving, brain health, and creative engagement. An Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, she is a faculty in the department of Healthcare Management at Chitkara University, Punjab and Co-Founder of Oasis Heal. Her work integrates psychology, public health, and creative approaches to reimagine care, particularly for women caregivers and transnational families. She leads culturally grounded, community-driven initiatives that use mediums such as radio, storytelling, and participatory workshops to challenge stigma and shift narratives around ageing and mental health.
Jayashree holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India, and cherishes the privilege of listening to others’ stories as a practicing therapist. She also serves as a faculty member at the Oxford Winter Neuroethics School and contributes to global policy dialogues on inclusive and ethical eldercare.
Websites:
https://neurologyacademy.org/profiles/dr-jayashree-dasgupta
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/jayashree-dasgupta
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jayashree-Dasgupta
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayashreedasgupta/
Instagram: @dr.jayashreedg
Alejandra Davidziuk holds a Lic. in Communication Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a M.A. in International Affairs from The New School, New York, with a concentration in social and economic development. She is currently taking a doctorate program in Social Science at the IDES-UNGS (Argentina). She has over ten years of progressive experience as journalist, researcher, project manager, and outreach officer with special focus on virtual and onsite communication strategies and community relationship building. This experience is essential to her daily work at the international cooperation field, where she is actively involved since 2007. She is currently the Outreach Manager at the Latin American Institute of Brain Health (BrainLat) at the Adolfo Ibáñez University (UAI).
Alejandra recently coordinated three milestone events connecting brain health and the arts in Latin America: the PILOT project “Making A Way Out Of No Way” (aimed at improving adolescent brain health in underserved communities in San Juan, Argentina, supported by the Atlantic Institute and involving 7 fellows from 6 countries), the first Latin American edition of Creative Brain Week (held in San Juan, Argentina), and the AAIC Neuroscience Next Chile Hybrid Hub supported by the Alzheimer’s Association in Santiago.
Website:
Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-davidziuk-1031251/
Dr Linda Doyle was appointed the 45th Provost of Trinity College Dublin by staff and student representatives, coming into office on August 1, 2021. The Provost is the Chief Officer of the university responsible to the Board and ultimately to the State for the performance of the university.
She served previously as Trinity’s Dean & Vice President of Research (2018-2020) and was the founding Director of CONNECT – the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for future communication networks. Before that, she was Director of the Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR).
Prior to her appointment as Provost, Linda was Professor of Engineering and The Arts in Trinity. Her expertise is in the fields of wireless communications, cognitive radio, reconfigurable networks, spectrum management and creative arts practices.
She has raised over €70 million in research funding and has published widely in her field. Linda has a reputation as an advocate for change in spectrum management practices and has played a role in spectrum policy at the national and international level. She has served as Chair of the Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board in the UK and has been a member of the Open Research Europe Scientific Advisory Board.
She was formerly a Director of Xcelerit and Software Radio Systems Ltd (SRS), two spin-out companies from CTVR. Linda has published extensively and has given over 100 keynotes and invited talks at various events globally.
Combining creative arts practices with engineering for many years, she founded the Orthogonal Methods Group (OMG) a research initiative in CONNECT that works in critical and creative tension with technology with the purpose of generating knowledges, insights and alternative research orientations across disciplines that are sometimes perceived to be mutually exclusive.
She serves on the Board of Science Gallery International (SGI), and served previously on the Board of the Festival of Curiosity, a STEM outreach activity for children based on a city-centre yearly science festival.
Linda has also served as Chair of the Board of the Douglas Hyde Gallery (2013-2021), as a member of the Board of Pallas Project Studios, KTH Sweden Scientific Advisory Board, and the Board of the Wireless Innovation Forum.
As well as her contributions to research and the arts, she is an active advocate for women in engineering and computer science. She has been involved in numerous initiatives such Girls in Tech, Teen Turn, and HerStory.
She holds an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering (BE) from University College Cork and an MSc, PhD, and PGDIP STATS from Trinity College Dublin. She is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.
Linda is a native of Togher in Cork and attended Togher Girls National School and St Angela’s College.
Website:
Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-doyle-3602441a/
https://twitter.com/lindadoyle
Dr Cissie Fu is a political theorist and co-founder of the Political Arts Initiative which is interested in the ways in which people interact and compose political ideas and actions through technology and the arts.
Born in Hong Kong, Cissie studied, taught, curated and performed across cultural and educational institutions in Asia, Europe, the UK, and the Americas and most recently as Dean of the Faculty of Culture and Community at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Canada.
With a forthcoming open textbook on cultural production and the law, Cissie is currently completing a monograph on the politics of silence, which draws from artistic practices to resuscitate silence as a positive political concept. Cissie’s practice-led research interests in relational aesthetics and decolonial action, combined with her experiments in experiential and transformative organisational design, inform her approach to institution-building as a creative, critical and communal cultural practice.
Website:
https://www.lasalle.edu.sg/schools/mcnally-school-of-fine-arts
Social Media:
X: @lasallesg
Agustin Ibanez is an Argentinean neuroscientist interested in global approaches to
addressing diversity and disparity in brain health. He is a full professor and Director of
the Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI,
Chile). Also, Agustin is a professor in global brain health, and he directs the
International Program in Global Brain Health Research at the Global Brain Health
Institute (GBHI), Trinity College Dublin. He is a Team Leader of the Predictive Brain
Health Modelling Group at Trinity College Dublin, a Senior Atlantic Fellow at the GBHI
(UCSF), and a Research Associate Professor at GBHI-Trinity College Dublin. He has
received multiple research funding from different international stakeholders, including
the NIH/NIA, the Alzheimer’s s Association, The Fogarty International Center, the
Rainwater Charitable Foundation (Tau Consortium), Takeda, GBHI (USA); the Inter-
American Development Bank (IDB); ANID (Chile); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); DAAD
(Germany); CONICET (Argentina); MRC (United Kingdom); and Horizon 2020
(Europe). Dr. Ibanez holds a track record with +400 publications (+160 in the last five
years), including top-ten journals (e.g., Nature Medicine, Lancet Neurology, World
Psychiatry, Nature Reviews Neurology, Nature Aging, Nature Human Behavior, Trends
in Cognitive Sciences, Trends in Neuroscience, Nature Communications, JAMA
Neurology, Neuron, Brain, Alzheimer's & Dementia, Nature Mental Health, Lancet
Healthy Longevity). As a consultant, he has provided expertise in digital biomarkers
and global approaches to dementia for startups and companies. This includes
collaborating with Neureka, Cumulus Neuroscience, Altoida, Robin, Prodeo, Lilly,
Bluefield, Roche, Cites, and Globant, as well as with the National Institutes of Health of
the US as a member of the Special Emphasis Panel of U54 large-scale national grants
for new technologies and health. Dr. Ibanez is the founder of significant regional
initiatives, such as the Multi-partner consortium to expand dementia research in Latin
America (ReDLat); the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium on Dementia (LAC-
CD); and the BrainLat, affiliated with the GBHI (UCSF and Trinity), launched in 2021.
These projects have received over $28 million in research funding and involve over
100 researchers across 15 sites in the US and Latin America. His team has developed
a multicentric framework to address the unique impact of diversity in brain health, using
computational neuroscience and machine learning approaches to maximize
replications across diverse and underrepresented populations and heterogeneous
settings. He has developed new brain-phenotype models by integrating computational
neuroscience with social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience to highlight the
biological impact of structural inequalities related to socioeconomic, educational,
stress-related, and exposome conditions. Dr. Ibanez is an active member of different
societies, a Team taskforce of the Human Affectome Project, a former President of the
Latin-American Chapter of the Society for Social Neuroscience, a former co-director of
the Institute of Behavioral Sciences and Public Policies and the Institute of Cognitive
and Translational Neuroscience (Argentina), a member of the ISTAART Advisory
Council, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of AAIC (Alzheimer's
Association). Agustin has directed or co-directed more than 40 postgraduate research
projects and created and directed the first major in Behavioral Sciences in South
America in 2020. He has received prestigious international awards (including the
ALBA-Elsevier Award on Brain Sciences, the IgNobel, the Outstanding Latin American
Professor award from the Penser Foundation, the Nelson Butters Award of the
International Neuropsychological Society; the Latin-American Award of the Society for
Psychophysiological Research (four times); the International Society for Neuroimaging
in Psychiatry Award) and local recognitions for his work in brain health (Outstanding
recognition by the Legislature of Buenos Aires in 2019; and the Outstanding Neighbor
Award of San Juan City, his birthplace, in 2021). He also has established current
international collaborations with centers of excellence such as the MRC Cognition and
Brain Science Unit of Cambridge and the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom),
the University of Heidelberg (Germany), The University of Sydney (Australia), and the
Universities of California San Francisco, New York, Caltech, Chicago, and Wisconsin
(USA), among others. He is an associate editor of different journals. His intense work
has helped Latin American translational neuroscience by establishing a framework to
engage scientists through internships, workshops, and master's and Ph.D. programs,
organizing educational activities for the health community, and focusing on brain health
in underserved and underrepresented populations. His research has been highlighted
in different outlets, including the BBC, Nature, Nature News, Nature Medicine, Nature
Aging, Nature Social Sciences, Discovery Channel, Popular Science, Daily Mail,
Newsweek, Le Monde, and Oxford University Press.
Websites:
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6758-5101
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/agustin-ibanez-0
Social:
https://twitter.com/AgustinMIbanez
https://www.instagram.com/dr.agustinibanez/
Lingani has an appointment at the University of Botswana as a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the psychology department and as coordinator of the psychology clinic. She has a special interest in neurodegenerative conditions, traumatic brain injury, and training in neuropsychology.
Lingani is also an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute.
Website:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/lingani-mbakile-mahlanza
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lingani-mbakile-mahlanza-5b7770154/
Kim-Huong applies economic theories and methods to assess the social and economic values of healthcare and social services. She designs policies and programmes to optimise the value of health and social care and to improve equitable access and use for disadvantaged groups.
Her interests encompass brain health in older adults and those with brain injuries, as well as evaluation methods in Creative Health for resource allocation. She works closely with advocates, health and social service consumers, policy analysts, and researchers from diverse backgrounds, including medical professionals, artists, industry organizations, and peak bodies.
Kim-Huong is a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin and University of California, San Francisco. She holds a PhD in Applied Econometrics in Health from the University of Queensland (Australia).
Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia) and leads the Health Economics and Health Services Research portfolio at the Queensland Brain Injury Collective.
Before her academic career in Australia, she was a development analyst for international agencies providing foreign development aid to Vietnam.
Kim-Huong is also a Global Atlantic Fellow with the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin and the University of California, San Francisco.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/kim-huong-nguyen
https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/20210
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-huong-nguyen-64850663
Mohamed is a professor at the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI). Additionally, he is the lead PI of the Longitudinal Study of Healthy Aging in Egypt (AL-SEHA), as well as the North African Dementia Registry (NADR), a member of the steering committee of the African Population cohorts consortium APCC and of the International Parkinson’s Disease Genome Consortium (IPDGC)- Africa.
Websites:
https://www.aucegypt.edu/fac/mohamed-salama
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/mohamed-salama
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohamed-Salama-39
Social:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/16MRDSyQbf/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-salama-311a4458/
Nisha Sajnani is the founding co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established in collaboration with the WHO, where she leads the Lancet global series on the health benefits of the arts. Nisha is an associate professor and director of the NYU program in drama therapy and the chair of the NYU Creative Arts Therapies Consortium. Other faculty appointments include NYU Abu Dhabi where she developed a trans-disciplinary course entitled Can Art Save Lives? uniting current evidence for the health benefits of the arts with practice and policy, the NYU Stern School of Business where she teaches Improvisation and Leadership, and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma where she lectures on the role of the arts in supporting the wellbeing of people who are forcibly displaced. Nisha received her PhD in interdisciplinary studies, combining drama therapy and community economic development, from the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. An award winning author, educator, and advocate, her body of work explores unique ways in which aesthetic experience can inspire equity, care and collective human flourishing across the lifespan.
Website:
https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/nisha-sajnani
Social Media:
Full & Frank’s Founder, Juanita Wheeler, is known for her strategic mind, her ability to inspire, and her trademark style of delivering insights and advice in a manner best described as comprehensive but blunt (or full & frank).
Juanita has over two decades of experience, devising and implementing strategic solutions for a broad range of organisations. She has amassed experience as a nonprofit CEO, a board member, a global marketing and market development specialist, a political strategist, political and corporate negotiator, speechwriter, speaker and speaker coach.
Juanita has been delivering speeches, presentations, pitches and keynotes, for more than twenty years, including her own TEDx Talk. So she knows what works, whether it’s in a 1:1 pitch meeting, in a boardroom with ten people or on stage in front of 10,000.
In 2013 Juanita left the multinational corporate world behind and formed her own company, Full & Frank.
Through Full & Frank’s online courses and coaching services, Juanita helps executives, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and changemakers to develop and deliver high impact presentations, worthy of their great ideas. This naturally complements Juanita’s side-hustle roles as the Executive Director of TEDxBrisbane, and an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Queensland, where she lectures in the art & science of presenting.
Juanita says “Bad presentations are the place good ideas go to die.” She’s determined to ensure no great idea is lost to the world due to an absence of strong presentation skills.
In addition to her years of experience, Juanita holds a Bachelor of Arts, an Executive MBA, a Master of Business (Philanthropy & Nonprofit Studies) and is currently completing a Master of Social Change Leadership.
Juanita is a Lifelong Fellow with the Atlantic Fellows program, managed by the Atlantic Institute based at Oxford University. The global program unites and supports fellows from across the globe, dedicated to accelerating the eradication of inequities for fairer, healthier and more inclusive societies.
Juanita is a (madly besotted) partner to husband Rob, proud mother of three twenty-something sons, dog-mum to Australian labradoodle Gromit, and a former teen mum.
An introvert by nature, Juanita likes to spend her ‘spare time’ watching TED Talks, colour coding her bookshelves using Pantone colour charts, and identifying native plants indigenous to her local catchment to plant in her backyard. She says she finds it relaxing.
In 2021, Juanita delivered a keynote address as part of International Women’s Day celebrations. Read the article based on her address here – 10 things I wish I had known a little sooner.
Websites:
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/fullandfrank
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanitawheeler/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fullandfrank/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fullandfrank
Dr. Anusha Yasoda-Mohan is a Global Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and the Program Manager for a National Research Program called EMERALD-Lewy aimed to improve diagnosis, management and lived experience of Lewy Body Dementia, a type of neurodegenerative disorder, in Ireland. She is also a trained Indian classical and Bollywood dancer. While her research looks into the intersection of sensory perception and cognition in different brain related conditions like tinnitus (the continuous ringing in the ears) and dementia, she practices communicating neuroscience topics through performing arts-based workshops with the aim to promote brain health literacy.
Google Scholar:
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=GxPjtv4AAAAJ&hl=en
Social:
Instagram: @nushmo90
Facebook: @Anusha.mohan.39
LinkedIn: @AnushaYasoda-Mohan
Creative Brain Week Exhibition Opening
A first look at the exhibition of creative work accompanying the fourth Creative Brain Week. Featuring a performance by The Bleeping Interns Choir, founded by Dr Anne Marie O’Dwyer and introduced by Dr Oana Deac.
Dr Sarah Wrigley in conversation with Ian Robertson shares the backstory to the exhibition “A Time Otherwhere” featuring the work of John Kelly and Christina Todesco-Kelly
Contributors
Professor Anne-Marie O’Dwyer is a clinical professor and psychiatrist with almost four decades of clinical experience. Her responsibilities have included training medical students in psychiatry as well as providing teaching for post-graduate students in courses such as Translational Oncology. She studied medicine at TCD and, after qualifying as a doctor, initially trained in hospital medicine at the Trinity Federated Voluntary Hospitals scheme in Ireland, becoming a Member, later a Fellow, of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. She subsequently moved to train in psychiatry in Ireland at St Patrick’s University Hospital and in the UK at the Maudsley Hospital, London, the Institute of Psychiatry, London and Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. She gained a diploma in Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy from the Institute of Psychiatry, London, and Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK.
She was appointed to consultant psychiatrist posts at the Maudsley Hospital and St James’s Hospital, Dublin, in 2000. In 2004, with colleagues, she founded the first dedicated Psycho-Oncology service in Ireland, creating a blueprint for psycho-oncology services nationally (National Cancer Strategy, Ireland 2017). In 2002, she helped to establish the Liaison Psychiatry Section, Irish Division, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, serving as honorary secretary until 2007. She was also a member of the Post-Graduate Training Committee (Examinations Sub-committee of the Irish College of Psychiatrists). In 2017, she returned to study for a Masters in Education at TCD.
https://www.tcd.ie/research/researchmatters/am-odwyer.php
Dr Oana Deac is an Oncology trainee and prestigious ICAT fellow, currently pursuing a PhD at Trinity College Dublin. Her doctoral work focuses on young onset stomach cancer, leveraging cutting edge research looking at ex-vivo explant models and clinical artificial intelligence tools to identify actionable biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
A proud TCD alumna, Dr Deac holds a B.A. (Hons) in Molecular Medicine, graduating first in class, and an MSc by Research from Trinity. She returned to Trinity for her medical degree (B.A., B.Ch., B.A.O., 2013–2018), earning first-class honours in both Medicine and Surgery, and was awarded the MRCPI certificate in 2021.
Beyond her clinical and research work, Dr Deac is passionate about the role of creative expression in healthcare. She led the relaunch of the Bleeping Intern Choir in 2023—drawing on her own experience as a former Bleeping Intern—to reduce burnout, foster connection, and help build resilience among junior doctors. Under her stewardship, the choir has performed at several national and hospital events as well as cancer research fundraisers, and has been credited with improving morale and well-being not only among junior doctors but also staff and patients.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oanadeac
X: @OanaDeac
Instagram: @deaco11
Ian Robertson is a Founding Director of the Global Brain Health Institute and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. He is co-leader of the BrainHealth Project (Center for BrainHealth UTDallas) and is a Member of Academia Europaea and of the Royal Irish Academy. He is widely known for his research on neuropsychology and his science writing has included books aimed at the general reader: Mind Sculpture (2000), The Mind’s Eye (2003), Stay Sharp (2005), The Winner Effect (2012) and The Stress Test (2016), all of which have been widely translated. His most recent book How Confidence Works was published by Penguin in 2022.
Websites:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/ian-robertson
Social:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-robertson-4480502/
John Kelly was born in 1965. His father was from County Cork and mother from Bristol, the family immigrated to Australia the same year. Due to his birth, heritage and circumstance John now holds three passports and therefore is an Englishman, an Australian and an Irishman and identifies as both a Joke and an Irish boomerang. Kelly has lived in all three countries and for the past two decades has resided in west Cork, Ireland.
In 1985 Kelly obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts Painting) from RMIT University, Melbourne, where he also completed his Masters of Arts in 1995. As a winner of the 1995 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, he travelled to London to study as an Affiliate Student at the Slade School of Art from 1996 to 1997. In the UK he exhibited regularly with the prestigious Piccadilly Galleries in Cork Street, London, then Agnew, the Redfern Gallery, and is now represented by Smith and Singer (formerly Sothebys Australia)
His monumental sculptures have been exhibited on the Champs-Elysee in Paris (1999), Melbourne’ Docklands 2001 to the present, Monte Carlo (2002) London 2005, Glastonbury Festival 2005 & 2007, Nice, France; MAMAC museum 2007, Cork City 2012, West Cork 2007 to the present, Sunshine, Melbourne Australia 2016 to the present.
His work has been collected into the Yale Center for British Art, the National Gallery of Australia, the Crawford Gallery, Ireland and the Guangdong Museum in Guangzhou China, MONA, Tasmania, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, etc.
Kelly has undertaken art residencies in Antartica (2013), The Burenn (2014), Venice (2017) & Cork University Hospital (2018/19).
As a painter, sculptor and printmaker Kelly engages across mediums and also writes, having written for Art Monthly (Australia & UK), Circa magazine (Ireland), The Jackdaw (London) and Daily review (Australia). In 2017 he was nominated for a Walkley Award for Arts Journalism. In 2023 his article, ‘I told you I was ill’ was published by the British Medical Journal.
https://johnkellyartist.com/more/
Photo credit: John Minihan 2021
I was born in 1959 and came to a love of art early in life, only to be dissuaded from it in favour of a more stable career. Hence, my early professional life was in corporate London before literally flying out of the city by taking a job at British Airways eventually as cabin crew, where it enabled me to visit every art museum and opera house I could around the world. It was my indirect art education before leaving to focus on being a full-time mother.
Finally, in 2017 at the age of 58, I undertook some life drawing classes above a Dublin art shop and was encouraged to apply to the RHA Dublin drawing programme. This progressed from being taught to being admitted into the self-directed life drawing classes. It was at this time that a quite extraordinary and life-changing event happened; I was late to my first class, and not wanting to cause a disturbance with the session about to start, I made my way to the back of the large room to reach the only available easel – an enormous heavy wooden one suitable for large canvases. The result was that my view of the model was severely restricted; armed with a pen and paper I realised the only way I was going to participate was to draw with my left hand, not my natural right – the images that ensued were utterly different and distinct from what might be rightly described as a tonal ‘academic style’.
Using my left hand countered the restrictive thought processes associated with drawing with my right and found a form of expression that created unpredictable lines of expression that were not preconceived.
When my husband was admitted to CUH a friend, Eoin McGonigal, rang me and said ‘don’t stop drawing’. It was sage advice as it served to distract me both from the serious threat of losing my life partner, and also the extreme fear and anxiety that comes with sitting beside a very sick patient for such a long period of time. John was gradually able to join me, and it became an invaluable continuum that we could share in what was for both of us ‘a time otherwhere’.
The Pratchett Prize - Announcement
The Pratchett Prize – Announcement
Inspired by the life and work of author Terry Pratchett, this award, in its second year, acknowledges the contribution of a scientist, artist, activist, or person living with dementia who, collaboratively or individually, works to reduce its impact.
Natasha Duffy of Sofft Productions, producer of “An Old Song Half Forgotten” project, which was the recipient of the inaugural prize, share details of the project’s progress and lives of Bryan Murray (actor living with dementia) and Deirdre Kinahan (playwright).
In the spirit of Terry Pratchett’s literary and personal work, the “adjudicating wizards” awarding the Prize seek humour and wit in art and science, kindness, creativity and curiosity, playfulness, attention and dedication, in equal measure. The winner of this year’s award will be announced by James Hadley and presented by the Lord Mayor of Dublin Emma Blain on the night to Fiona Flavin and Sinead Gallivan of Singing for the Brain.
Singing For the Brain (SFTB) was founded by Fiona Flavin and first piloted by the Crystal Project Mallow in 2015. Fiona remains its Founding Director. Sinéad Gallivan (Project Worker, North Cork Dementia Alliance) is Project Lead on SFTB
since January 2025 responsible for supporting existing SFTB groups and assisting new groups in getting started.
Singing for the Brain continues to adhere to Fiona’s model which aims to “Connect, Stimulate, Comfort, Support”. The HSE Community Work Department continue to support the project.
It has expanded to Cork city and county, as well as offering an online option. The core goal of SFTB is to nurture, uplift, and energize participants through the power of group singing. By joining a SFTB group, individuals can experience social connection, camaraderie, and a sense of belonging, all of which are integral to maintaining mental and emotional well-being. Its supporters recognize the importance of social connection, particularly for those facing challenges such as dementia. SFTB provides a welcoming and supportive environment, where everyone, regardless of their abilities or health condition, can enjoy the benefits of group singing in a fun and friendly environment.
They also value the vital role that carers and family members play in supporting individuals with cognitive or health conditions. SFTB offers a space where carers and loved ones can feel supported, understood, and encouraged, helping them to stay connected to others facing similar challenges.
By participating in this initiative, coordinators, musical facilitators, and volunteers also contribute to a meaningful cause, making a difference in the lives of others. At the same time singing has positive effects on Brain Health. Singing on your own and with others stimulates all sorts of neural networks, encourages the adaptability of the brain know as neuro-plasticity, improves relaxation, lowers stress and encourages well-being.
SFTB welcomes anyone interested in the uplifting experience of group singing—no singing experience is necessary. Whether in-person or online, the groups provide a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere for all.
Currently there are eight live groups across Cork, about 150 participants, and three new groups engaged in the process of establishing a new SFTB group. All of these groups are live and in-person except for the Ballyphehane group which is hybrid
(three weeks on Zoom and one week in-person). At the moment, they have one group (the original group in Mallow), which is exclusively for people with dementia and their carers. The other groups across the county are open to everyone in the community.
As Fiona Flavin outlined when Singing For the Brain was a case study for Ageing Voices research,
“Singing indirectly engages what is possibly the body’s greatest stress reliever- the breath! When we speak, the hemispheres of the brain that deal with language light up, however when we sing, both parts of the brain spark into life. Singing aids concentration, attention span and memory recall. While the act of singing in itself activates several things in our bodies and brains, when we engage in it with others
we add another layer to this. Singing the weight of the words- sometimes speaking in metaphors or singing the words of someone else’s song can more accurately express our feelings and emotions. Singing is like an aerobic workout for your heart
and lungs! Singing can help to maintain speech and language skills- a person who cannot speak conventionally may still have the ability to sing”
Find more about the thinking behind Singing For The Brain in Sing Ireland’s The Ageing Voice: Special Interest Choirs
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/singingforthebrainireland/
Terry Pratchett & Trinity College Dublin
Pratchett did not go to university. He left school early so as to start working as a journalist, having been offered the job. After working for some time as a journalist, he started writing fiction in his spare time. He took his first book to Trinity graduate, Colin Smythe, who owned a small publishing House (Colin Smythe Limited). Smythe published Pratchett’s first few books himself, and then became Pratchett’s literary agent when larger publishers (Gollancz and later Penguin Random House) took over publishing his work.
Smythe began donating copies of all Pratchett’s books in all published languages to Trinity, Liverpool and Senate House Library (University of London). This collection continues to grow today, being represented by all 41 of Pratchett’s Discworld novels, several other novels, children’s books and other books, and all their translations into at least 40 languages. At last count (just before the pandemic), this collection was over 2000 items strong.
Pratchett was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity in 2008 for his services to Literature.
He created a bursary to facilitate a student exchange between Dublin and Adelaide each year
In 2010, Pratchett was made an Adjunct Lecturer in Creative Writing at Trinity. You can view his inaugural speech (the importance of being amazed by absolutely everything), here.
He came to Trinity regularly. There’s also a nice talk on the Science of the Discworld, which he gave in the Science Gallery, here.
Pratchett Project
The Project was set up in 2018, when the library approached us about the collection and asked whether there would be any interest in it for literary translation students. Since then, each culture night we have brought together anyone from any discipline or inter-discipline whose work has intersected in some way with the life and/or work of Terry Pratchett. We have welcomed speakers from topic areas including: literary studies, digital humanities, translation studies, library studies, theatre studies, and neuroscience. Many of the talks that have been given in the past are available on YouTube.
In the summer of 2020 (during the pandemic), Trinity College Dublin held an international conference online, which took the same principle. Anybody from any discipline or inter-discipline was welcome, provided their work was related to Pratchett’s life and/or work in some way.
Since 2021, the Project has been working to attract funding to support its work. We are hoping to digitise the whole collection and place it into a non-consumable database, so that researchers would be able to interrogate it without compromising copyright law. Pratchett was famously fascinated by technology.
Pratchett became one of the most vocal advocates for supporting research into Alzheimer’s Disease after being diagnosed in 2007. He continued this advocacy until his death in 2015. The Pratchett Project has taken up his mantel in this respect.
He was also a passionate advocate for the natural environment and assisted death.
We have attracted funding to cover a PhD candidate working at the forefront of Alzheimer’s Disease research, who has engaged heavily with the Project throughout his project.
We have also been applying for external funding to allow us to support a whole inter-disciplinary team of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers who would aim to dispel the stigma associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.
At this stage, the Project is an umbrella for people with an interest in Pratchett’s life and work to interact irrespective of disciplinary boundaries.
In the future, we intend to take this passive approach and make it active, by driving forward a new conception of doctoral and postdoctoral training which builds on the skill sets that people in diverse disciplines have, but which do not necessarily travel easily across disciplinary boundaries. We have tested this concept recently with the PhD candidate in neuroscience, who has also needed to learn new skills associated with literary interpretation and communication with a general audience.
The Prize
The Pratchett Prize is a new initiative which folds into Create Brain Week, and cements the growing importance of neuroscience and Brain Health more generally to the Pratchett Project. The prize is awarded each year to an individual or group that has had a material effect on challenging the stigma associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, and/or has had a material effect over the lives of people living with the disease.
While a bust of Terry Pratchett is awarded on the night as part of the ceremony, the main prize is symbolic. The winner has done something for the greater good that deserves recognition.
Contributors
Lord Mayor Emma Blain is a Fine Gael councillor representing the Pembroke local electoral area on Dublin City Council. She has been an elected representative since 2016, and served as a councillor on Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council until being elected to Dublin City Council in June 2024.
Lord Mayor Blain values the participation and promotion of sport within our communities, particularly for women and girls. She is also actively engaged in positive ageing planning, care for the elderly within our communities and dementia awareness.
During her term as Lord Mayor, she will prioritise these areas alongside the positive promotion of Dublin City as the richly cultured, inviting and vibrant capital city that it is.
Lord Mayor Blain has been an Irish delegate to the European Committee of the Regions since 2020.
She grew up in Rathmines, where her father Sydney was the Principal of the Church of Ireland College of Education.
She has two children, Hunter (10) and Tilly (9).
After graduating with an MA in Politics from UCD, she worked as a journalist with the Sunday Independent, and is now the editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette.
Facebook @LordMayorofDublin
X @LordMayorDublin
Instagram @lordmayorofdublin
James Hadley’s research is representative of his wide-ranging interests, many of which centre on translation in under-researched cultural contexts, particularly in East Asia. James is active in developing theoretical mechanisms for the analysis of indirect translations. He is also active in Literary Machine Translation and Computer Assisted Literary Translation research, and in integrating Digital Humanities methodologies and empirical research into Translation Studies. James also coordinates the Pratchett Project, which brings together research from all fields which is in some way related to the life and/or work of Terry Pratchett.
Website:
https://www.tcd.ie/literary-translation/people/jhadley.php
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James-Hadley-3
Social Media:
Natasha Duffy is a creative producer and director working across theatre, film, and large-scale live events. As Creative Director of Sofft Productions, she leads a multidisciplinary arts and production company dedicated to contemporary Irish work, overseeing theatre and film development alongside high-end event production.
Natasha produced the critically acclaimed play An Old Song, Half Forgotten, and is currently directing a documentary of the same name, exploring the creative process behind the work and its themes of memory, loss, and care. She is also the creator of Home is Where the Hearth Is, a celebrated documentary series capturing traditional Irish music sessions in rural pubs. The series has screened at festivals worldwide and earned her Best Director at the Berlin Indie Film Awards.
With over 20 years of experience in the arts, Natasha brings a uniquely holistic and collaborative approach to producing, combining dramaturgical insight with bold creative vision. She holds a BA in Film and Theatre from Trinity College Dublin and continues to champion innovative, meaningful projects that connect artists and audiences in powerful ways.
https://www.sofftproductions.com/
https://www.instagram.com/natasha_catriona/
SoFFt Productions is a creative collaborative team, established in 2020 and based in Dublin, Ireland. The SoFFt team develops exceptional and innovative work in the spaces of arts, cultural and creativity for Irish and international audiences. The team is committed to designing, developing and delivering meaningful work in multidisciplinary arts practice from concept development, through programme creation and curation, to production – an end-to-end model of production for both live and online experiences.
Website:
https://www.sofftproductions.com/
Social Media:
X: @SOFFTProd
Facebook: @SOFFTProductions
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/sofftprod