Board 2022 - 2024

Catherine (née Toole) graduated from Trinity College Dublin  in 1998. After working for a year in St Vincent’s University Hospital, she travelled to work in the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, Australia and in two small rural hospitals in Griffith and Leeton, New South Wales. She then completed an MSc in Human Factors and  Ergonomics, in Loughborough University, England, and a fieldwork project in a car component manufacturing plant in Coventry, before returning to Ireland and St Vincent’s University Hospital. Catherine held short term senior positions in pain management, rheumatology and musculoskeletal care and was senior in ergonomics and patient handling. She additionally held a part time role in a private practice. Catherine was appointed Physiotherapy Manager at SVUH in 2006. In 2020, she moved to the role of director of health and social care professionals in Stewarts Care, in the disability sector, in CHO7. 

Catherine has held roles on the committees of Chartered Physiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics, Professional Development Standing Committee and International Affairs Standing Committee. She has completed three terms on International Affairs, and held the position of Director of International Affairs for two years. Catherine is a long-standing a member of chartered physiotherapists in management. Catherine is delighted to take on the role of president of the ISCP so that she may continue her involvement with assisting the society to fulfil its aims. With the publication of the new strategy, she feels that the society is well placed to travel into the future as the focus point of profession specific CPD and networking in Ireland and is keen to assist members to actively participate in the shaping of their lifelong careers, within an international context.

You can download Catherine's speech setting out her priorities for her term here

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Lara Bourton Cassidy has been a member of the ISCP since 1996, having returned from the UK where she studied and commenced her career.
Her roles within the society have been:
· Secretary, and then Chairperson, of the Chartered Physiotherapists in Respiratory Care 1996-1999
· Scientific Committee Coordinator for the 2008 ISCP Conference, was on the 2015, 2018, 2019 committees and Co-Chaired the first virtual conference in November 2020
· A member of the Standing Committee for Communications having previously been in the Professional Development standing committee
· Chartered Physiotherapists in Management (CPM) – A member of the Executive Committee for 5 years serving as Communications Officer in 2010 and 2011, Vice Chairperson and then Chairperson 2013-2015.
She was also on the Physiotherapy Managers and Health Business Services National Recruitment Working Group. She now works as an Improvement Lead with the Ireland East Hospital Group, having been a Physiotherapy Manager in Navan for 20 years
Lara is passionate about physiotherapy career development , the progression of the society and securing a HSCP lead in the Department of Health.

Jenny Branigan has been involved with the ISCP throughout her career, holding positions on various clinical interest group committees, promoting Physiotherapy publicly on behalf of the ISCP and in her own capacity, and serving during the challenging period of CORU registration on the Physiotherapists Registrations Board.

An enthusiastic Chartered Physiotherapist with 17 years of experience working in the fast paced environment of team sport, with squads from Irish Hockey, AIL Division 1 Rugby, and the Women’s National Team in the FAI.

Highly trained with a MSc (Sports & Exercise Medicine) from Trinity College Dublin and a BSc (Physiotherapy) from UCD, in addition to certification as a Pilates Instructor, Jenny is the owner of Total Physio, a leading physiotherapy and sports injury clinic in Dublin since 2007.

Jenny has extensive media experience discussing physiotherapy related topics on RTE Radio 1 and Newstalk, as well as many articles for the National Broadsheets. 

Jane Campbell graduated with an honours degree in Physiotherapy, from the University of the West of England. She worked in the UK for a numbers of years before moving to the North island of New Zealand, where she managed a busy private practice for three years.

On returning to Ireland in 2004, Jane began working in a private hospital. From there she moved into the area of orthopaedic research.

She completed her Masters of Clinical research in 2010, from the University of Ulster. She has presented at Orthopaedic research conferences both nationally and internationally. Jane took up the role of Physiotherapy Manager in UPMC Aut Even, a private Hospital in Kilkenny, in 2016

From 2011-2015 Nathan Cardy worked in the acute hospital setting in Singapore, specialising in Sports Medicine & Orthopaedics. He returned to Ireland in 2015 undertaking a PhD at TCD whilst also working at St. James’s hospital and since 2017; running his own private practice in Donnybrook, Dublin.

Since 2015 Nathan has worked in both research and team based sports; notably the Irish Women’s Hockey team (World Cup Silver Medallists), the Irish U20s Rugby Team 2022, Irish Women’s Cricket and multiple age grade teams across Leinster Rugby and the IRFU. At club level, Nathan is lead physio to Old Wesley RFC, Dublin City Exiles (Rugby League) and Rathgar Hockey Club.

Nathan also completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of Limerick and has been a founding and continuing member of the ISCP Research Network since 2017. He is currently a member of the Professional Development Standing Committee and was previously a student president of the ISCP in 2010. 

• Ronan Carolan qualified in physiotherapy (Hons) from Trinity College Dublin in 1996. He completed a Higher Diploma in Acupuncture (UCD) in 2001. He has a special interest in the areas of Musculoskeletal Pain, Occupational Health and Ergonomics, Acupuncture, Care of the elderly and Health Promotion.
• He worked in Adelaide, Meath and Tallaght Hospitals before returning to his home county hospital in Cavan.  
• Ronan is owner of Carolan Chartered Physiotherapy Clinic founded in 2001, a successful private physiotherapy clinic located in Virginia Co Cavan and Kells Co. Meath. He is also resident physiotherapist in Kilmainhamwood Nursing Home, Co. Meath since it opened in 2000.   
• Ronan worked on the CPSEM committee, The GAA Medical Scientific and Welfare Committee (’06-15) and GAA Youth Committee (’15-‘17). He was the GAA Director General’s nominated member of the Player Welfare Research Steering Committee in Croke Park, which produced the first ESRI research on the demands on the modern day intercounty gaelic athlete. He was proactive in organising post graduate continuous professional development courses, meetings and the Annual GAA Medical Conference for the sports medicine professionals for many years.
• Ronan is founder and Chairman of Mullagh Activity Hub, an initiative to promote exercise for everyone in the community regardless of age, ability and background with a special focus on social inclusion, youth and elderly. He works closely with Cavan Sports Partnership in coordinating key local stakeholders, sports clubs, community groups, educational establishments, support services and organisations. He coordinated the hosting of RTE Operation Transformation production in 2022 in Mullagh, Co Cavan. He worked closely with the production team, Healthy Ireland and Cavan Sports Partnership leading to the inclusion of a significant promotion of the ISCP and ‘Ask The Physio’ campaign throughout the series.

Ronan became a member of the ISCP Executive Board at the beginning of 2020

Theresa Flynn qualified from Trinity College Dublin, completed a MApplSc in UCD and is currently completing a professional Diploma in Leadership with HSE Leadership Academy and UCC.

She works as Senior Physiotherapist in Back Care and Ergonomics at St Vincent’s University Hospital. She was Hon Secretary of Executive Board of ISCP 1990-1992.

She was co-founder of Chartered Physiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics. She has represented ISCP on may projects with the HSA including the committee to develop QQI standards in MH and People Handling Instruction and HSA Guidance on MH. She is currently the Chairperson of CPOHE. She is the ISCP rep to the International Federation of Physical Therapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics. She is currently working on the National Strategy for MH risk assessment and revising the HSE MH Policy with the HSE National H&S Function Team. She is a trustee of the ISCP Benevolent fund.

Stuart Garrett is an Irish Healthcare Manager and Physiotherapist. He is the incoming treasurer of the ISCP and he has completed an executive MBA qualification and has experience managing finances with in the public and not for profit sectors.

Stuart currently works as the Business and Operations Manager for the Transplant (National Liver & Pancreas), Hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) and Liver Services Directorate in St. Vincent’s University Hospital. Prior to this Stuart held roles in St. James’s Hospital as a Directorate Services Manager in the Medical Directorate (Ambulatory Care, Outpatients and Clinical Programmes), Business and Operations Manager in the Quality and Safety Improvement Directorate, the Project Team Lead for the Workforce Management Programme in the HR Directorate and he was the former lead senior physiotherapist in heart and lung surgery in the SCOPe Directorate.

Stuart has worked and volunteered in several countries including Uganda, India, Nicaragua and Haiti. He is the co-founder and chairperson of the registered Irish charity 'CHEEERS: Developing Healthcare Together' (RCN: 20153335). The charity is a multidisciplinary (MDT) professional volunteer sending organisation that recruits healthcare professionals to meet the needs of partner organisations in resource poor settings. The charity focuses on rehabilitation, the growing challenge of non-communicable diseases and education. The organisation is entirely voluntary, and their main partner is C.O.U Kisiizi Hospital in south west Uganda.

 Stuart is a former Chairperson of the Chartered Physiotherapists in International Health and Development (CPIHD) a professional network of the ISCP, the former Secretary of ‘ADAPT: Physiotherapists in Global Health’ a CSP professional network, a former member of the ISCP International Affairs Committee and he has been a member of the ISCP Finance and Audit Committee for more than  2 years.

Stuart is keen to see the society develop and evolve to best serve the membership while effectively governing the organisations financial resources.

Tommy Kerr qualified in 1992 from UCD with a BSc in Physiotherapy. Since then he has also completed a MSc in Physiotherapy (UCD) and an MSc in Health Services Management (TCD).  He has worked as a physiotherapist in Donegal Community Services in a number of Community Hospitals and in Letterkenny University Hospital. He also has worked with the Donegal GAA team for over a decade in addition to working as a private practitioner. Currently he is a Physiotherapy manager in Letterkenny University Hospital. He became a member of the ISCP Executive Board at the beginning of 2018. Prior to this he was an ISCP CPM Executive board member from 2006 to 2007 before becoming the ISCP CPM Honorary Treasurer from 2007 to 2011. Tommy also an executive member of the National Physiotherapy Group in IMPACT from 2017 to 2018

Fionnuala King is the Chief Pharmacist for the Acute Hospitals Drugs Management
Programme (AHDMP), the Pharmacy function of the Acute Operations division of the HSE.
The ADHMP focus is on pharmacy innovation and delivery of medicines management
initiatives, safety and cost-effectiveness.
As part of the HSE COVID response, Fionnuala chaired the Medicines Management
Working Group that developed the “National Medicines Management Guidance for
Centralised Vaccination clinics (CVCs)”. She provided expert input into the development of
the TrackVax software for vaccine management in the CVCs.
Fionnuala worked previously on the implementation of the National Cancer Information
System (NCIS) and has over 20 years of clinical experience in oncology and haematology
leading the haem/onc pharmacy team in St. James Hospital for 16 years. Fionnuala has a
strong patient and process focus that is apparent in her particular areas of interest namely
Pharmacy Practice, Process Improvement and Medication Safety

Following graduation from Trinity College Dublin in 2010, Emer McGowan began her career working in a private physiotherapy practice in Belfast before moving to work in New Zealand. During her time in New Zealand she worked as an in-patient physiotherapist in a private hospital in Wellington and then completed rotations at Capital and Coast District Health Board. In 2013 she returned to Ireland to complete her PhD investigating leadership in physiotherapy. While completing her PhD she also worked part-time as a physiotherapist in St Francis Hospice, Raheny, and subsequently as a weekend locum physiotherapist at the Mater Private Hospital.

She was awarded her PhD in 2017 and since then has been completing her postdoc researching leadership and leadership development in healthcare at Trinity College Dublin. Along with her research supervisor, Dr Emma Stokes, she has developed and delivered leadership development programmes for physiotherapists in collaboration with the ISCP. She is also part of a research team consisting of members from Sweden, Norway and the USA which has been awarded funding from Erasmus+. This team will develop an educational programme and educational tools to assist physiotherapists working with refugees.

Dr McGowan has been actively involved in the ISCP since returning from New Zealand. She was the postgraduate student representative on the Professional Development Standing Committee 2013-2015. She served as Education officer for the Eastern Branch Committee 2014-2016 and as an ordinary member of the Eastern Branch Committee 2016-2017. She has served two terms on the ISCP Board (2018-2020, 2020-2022).
She is also an Associated Editor for the journal Physiotherapy Practice and Research.

Emilie gained her B Physio from UCD in 1991 and MSc in Sports Medicine from TCD in 1993. She worked in the UK and the US before returning home in 1996 to set up the Shannonside Physiotherapy Clinic in Newmarket-on-Fergus, where she specialised in  isokinetic evaluation and rehabilitation and sports physiotherapy.

She was awarded  Specialist Membership of the ISCP in 2006 and became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist in 2011.

She joined Bon Secours Hospital Galway in  2017 as Physiotherapy Manager and Clinical Specialist in Musculoskeletal Triage. Her current clinical interest area is strength and conditioning for optimal bone health and she has presented at a number of conferences including Bon Secours Sports Medicine Symposium 2018 and 2019 and  the World Congress of Sports and Exercise Medicine 2018. She is currently studying for a PG Diploma in Clinical Leadership with RCSI.

She has held many roles in the ISCP , including branch representative to Council, CPPP treasurer, Accreditation Working Group member to name a few. Her most recent role has been  chair of the Advanced Practice subcommittee of the Professional Development Standing Committee.

Michelle McNamara graduated with a BSc (Physio ) from Trinity College Dublin in 1997. In 2020 she graduated from UCC with a Master of Public Health (MPH) and subsequently won a PhD scholarship in Implementation Science and the HRB funded SPHeRE programme (Structured Population Health Research and Education) in 2021.

On graduating in 1997, she worked in Cork University Hospital and in Private practice in Bishopstown Physiotherapy Clinic. She has spent the last 20 years working as a Senior Physiotherapist in primary care in Cork. Michelle has recently been appointed Healthy Ireland Primary Care lead for Cork and Kerry. She has vast experience in implementation practice and interagency work in the HSE.

Michelle led a project "Supporting older adults to stay physically active during Covid -19 and beyond” which won a 2021 Health Service National Excellence Award. She developed and delivered the physiotherapy resources of home exercise programmes and videos during Covid-19, to support older adults to maintain their strength and balance while restricting at home. She worked intersectorally with external agencies to fund and to the disseminate the resources with the aim of mitigating the indirect effects of Covid -19. 

The resources gained national and European attention through the ISCP and Cork Healthy Cities. Michelle was interviewed on the TODAY show representing the ISCP, to encourage the older adult population to stay active during lockdown. The second iteration of the exercise resource " Let's Get Moving Again" has been adopted into the National HSE Programme for Older Person's Care called ‘Get up, Get Dressed, Get Moving’.

She has presented at the ISCP conference in 2020 and 2021 in the gerontology stream. She presented a poster at the ICGP public health conference 2020. She is a guest lecturer in the UCC graduate physiotherapy programme, the UCC School of Public Health undergraduate and MPH programmes and on the UCC Exercise and Sports Medicine Masters programme.

Michelle's special interests are older adults, obesity, health promotion, behaviour change and implementation science.  

Formerly a member of the academic staff of the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick, Dr. Bríd Quinn carries out consultancy work in Ireland and abroad for development organisations, state bodies and advocacy groups. Her academic work focusses on public administration reform, local governance and EU territorial policy. She has served as a lay member of national Board of ISCP since 2018 and holds a number of other organisational roles including:

• • Ireland’s representative on CLRAE Group of Independent Experts on Local Government
  • Member of the Expert Advisory Group for the Dublin Citizen’s Assembly
  • Member of Limerick City and County Council Audit Committee
  • Chairperson of Steering Group for AILG/NUI Maynooth research project on the role of the elected councillor in the 21st century
  • Member of the National Advisory Committee for the project designing the Migrant Local Integration Index