Meet the Team

Catriona graduated from Trinity College in 1998, and obtained her PhD in 2009. She worked for Boots for 14 years, and held various positions across the areas of pharmacy, education, research and HR before being appointed as Pharmacy Director and Superintendent for Ireland. She has completed diplomas in Quality Improvement, Legal Studies and Coaching, and is a qualified executive and personal coach. She’s passionate about supporting and enabling pharmacists (and consequently the pharmacy profession) to realise their full potential.

Operations Director

Sonya has been working in the IIOP since May 2014. Prior to that, she worked as a Pharmacy Technician for Boots and Pharmasource. She looks after the Institute’s Finance system and provides administrative support to the IIOP Team.

Alicia is a CPD Quality Assurance Pharmacist for the Irish Institute of Pharmacy. She studied pharmacy in RCSI, and then completed the National Pharmacy Internship Programme, graduating with a Masters in Pharmacy in 2010. She then worked as a community pharmacist with Boots. In 2013 she moved to Sydney, Australia where she worked in the Department of Cardiology in the Prince of Wales hospital, before returning to Ireland in 2018. Alicia’s primary role in the IIOP involves managing the Practice Review process. She has also worked on a range of other IIOP projects such as the accreditation of training programmes.

Frank is the IIOP’s learning technologist. He has worked for the IIOP since February 2015 and looks after the online systems. This includes the Learner Management System (My Courses), the ePortfolio system (including ePortfolio Review) and related training supports. Frank works closely with the institute’s course providers to ensure quality and timely courseware delivery. Frank is also an online learning instructional designer, software developer and software tester. You might want to contact Frank directly if you ever experience any technical difficulties while accessing online course content, or if you need any help with IIOP online systems.

Mary-Claire Kennedy is a CPD Quality Assurance Pharmacist with the Irish Institute of Pharmacy. Mary-Claire was a Peer Support Pharmacist with the IIOP since 2013, supporting Practice Review, the delivery of Introduction to CPD and ePortfolio Review webinars. She has also been responsible for hosting and sourcing a range of subject matter experts to feature on the IIOP “In Conversation With…” webinar series. She studied pharmacy at Trinity College Dublin, and then completed the National Pharmacy Internship Programme, graduating with a Masters in Pharmacy in 2010. She was awarded her PhD from Trinity College Dublin in 2015. Mary-Claire worked as a community pharmacist and also completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Statistics with Trinity College while completing her PhD research. She completed a Masters in Clinical Education with the University of Leeds in 2020, where she spent 7 years working as a Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice and Programme Lead for Independent and Supplementary Prescribing. Mary-Claire's primary role in the IIOP is managing the ePortfolio Review process.

Audrey has been working in the IIOP since March 2020. She has a background as a pharmacy technician and in hospital administration in Dublin. She has also worked in clinical administration for a large audiology and hearing healthcare provider in Brisbane, Australia. She supports a range of projects in the IIOP including the webinar series, the IIOP newsletter and the support helpdesk.

Aine has been working in the IIOP since September 2020 as a CPD Quality Assurance Pharmacist. Aine works on a range of IIOP projects, including the procurement and accreditation of training programmes.

Leon has been working with the IIOP as CPD Quality Assurance Coordinator since February 2023. In addition to working as a Research Administrator for the SPHeRE PHD Programme, Leon has previously worked in the RCSI School of Population Health Data Science Centre.

Grace has been working with the IIOP as CPD Quality Assurance Coordinator since February 2023. Prior to that, she worked as an App & Website designer specialising in UI / UX design for the last 10 years working across a range of projects such as Medical eGuides (MEG), DAA, and The Irish Times.