World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Research
Margaret M. Barry, Ph.D. is Professor of Health Promotion and Public Health and Head of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Research at the National University of Ireland Galway. Professor Barry has published widely in health promotion and works closely with policymakers and practitioners on the development, implementation and evaluation of mental health promotion interventions and policies at national and international level.
Professor Barry has established strong international links with the World Health Organization and a number of European organizations and international research partners. Elected as Global Vice President for Capacity Building, Education and Training by the International Union for Health Promotion and Education from 2007-2010, she coordinated international collaborative work on the development of core competencies for health promotion, including a major European Commission funded initiative in the European region.
Professor Barry has served as board member of a number of international and European steering groups, research councils and scientific committees and has acted as expert adviser on mental health promotion policy development in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, UK, New Zealand and Canada. She was appointed in 2013 as one of 12 independent scientific members of the European Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health - 2013-2016.
Appointed as Visiting Healthway Research Fellow at Curtin University, Perth Western Australia in 2013, Visiting Fellow at the Victorian Health Foundation, Australia in 2007 and Visiting Lecturer in 2002 at the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. She is co-author of the international textImplementing Mental Health Promotion (Barry and Jenkins, 2007) published by Elsevier.
She completed her primary degree and doctoral studies in Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, she has held previous posts as Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK; Lecturer in Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, and as Deputy Director of the Health Services Research Unit at University College, North Wales.