Personal statement
I am an experienced academic with a demonstrated history of working in multi-disciplinary teams in higher education in Ireland, the US and England.
I play a key academic role in achieving the goals of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) and contribute to its success within the University of Strathclyde.
I oversee the development and delivery of research and teaching within the School of Psychological Sciences and Health. I am responsible for securing external research funding, teaching at Undergraduate level, supervision of PhD students and the delivery of meaningful knowledge exchange and community engagement/involvement.
I am increasingly concerned about health inequalities and how my research does, or does not, address or impact them. I am trying to be reflexive about issues related to my assumptions and preconceptions as a researcher.
Currently:
- New staff member (since Jan 2021) at University of Strathclyde, energised by delving straight into undergrad teaching and supervision and developing new research and stakeholder links in Scotland.
- Media friendly. As heard monthly on BBC Radio Leicester Table Talk and seen on ITV Central and BBC East Midlands.
Former:
- Academic lead of the Cities Changing Diabetes global programme in Leicester. I developed the work in collaboration with academic, local government, community and industry stakeholders and partners.
- Chair of Ireland's Report Card for Physical Activity in Children and Youth 2013, member of the working group for 2015 and 2021 Report Cards.
Teaching
Currently teaching at undergraduate level on the B.Sc. in Sport and Physical Activity.
I taught at Masters level (M.Sc. in Diabetes Medicine, University of Leicester).
I have also delivered practical professional development sessions to healthcare professionals.
Research interests
I have worked on the global research platform for 15 years. My research interests have evolved over this time and can be summarised into three themes:
- Prevention of ill-health in the clinical and public health areas of physical activity, obesity, type 2 diabetes.
- Design, evaluation and implementation of school, family and community-based programmes.
- Uniting stakeholders including public health, local authority and key community groups and organisations (e.g. professional sports clubs, faith centres) with academics in tackling prevalent health challenges.
Current topics I am moving forward with include:
- Physical activity and related health behaviour (sleep, screen time, obesity) interventions in pre-schoolers and their families.
- Transport behaviours - sustainable transport (walk, cycle, public transport) and private car use in COVID times. Changes in behaviours, attitudes, benefits for the individual and cities, the future for walking/cycling as transport.
- The outsourcing of PE, physical activity and health promotion to professional sports clubs in schools and the community.
- The future of school-based physical activity research in the COVID-19 recovery. How have PhD students and early career researchers been affected by school closures?
Do get in touch if you are interested in collaborating on these topics.
Professional activities
- External Grant Reviewer - Carnegie Trust
- Examiner
- 12/1/2023
- Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam Public Health research institute, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Visiting researcher
- 11/12/2022
- RSE Saltire award bilateral research workshops
- Organiser
- 11/12/2022
- Scottish-Finnish Health Promotion Network
- Participant
- 9/12/2022
- BMJ Open (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 1/12/2022
- British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences
- Participant
- 16/11/2022
More professional activities
Projects
- Human Behaviour Change as an Engineering Intervention
- Harrington, Deirdre (Academic) MacKinnon, Calum (Academic)
- A Lunch and Learn presentation to Electrical Engineers at the University of Strathclyde about the human component of making energy saving decisions
- 26-Jan-2023
- Scottish Funding Council - Interface Innovation Voucher - Nutrition Scotland
- Harrington, Deirdre (Principal Investigator) Kirk, Alison (Principal Investigator) Mavroeidi, Alexandra (Co-investigator) Russell, Eilidh (Researcher)
- Knowledge exchange/consultancy with Nutrition Scotland (£4,919) to develop novel prevention products for carers of those at risk of type 2 diabetes
- 31-Jan-2022 - 30-Jan-2022
- Development of a Core Outcome Set for school-based childhood obesity interventions: an international consensus study.
- Harrington, Deirdre (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2022
- Links between sport and physical activity with climate change and sustainability
- Harrington, Deirdre (Co-investigator) McMichan, Lauren (Co-investigator)
- A number of activities are taking place within the Physical Activity for Health Group as we reflect on how our research, teaching and knowledge exchange links to climate change and the SDGs.
Initial activities include:
- Development of a news story on how the PAH research supports the achievement of a number of SDGs.
- Creation of an infographic summarising links between sport, physical activity and climate change.
- Planning for the embedding of climate change and sustainability messages into our Sport and Physical Activity B.Sc. - 14-Jan-2021
- NIHR Global Health Research Group on collaborative care for cardiometabolic disease in Africa
- Harrington, Deirdre (Principal Investigator)
- 01-Jan-2021 - 31-Jan-2024
More projects
Address
Physical Activity for Health
Graham Hills
Graham Hills
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