ProfessorCecily Kelleher

Her research interests are in the contribution of social factors to the development of chronic ill-health, particularly cardiovascular disease. Recent work has focused on this from the perspective of life-course risk, particularly in an Irish context. She is principal investigator of a three generation longitudinal cohort study of a thousand families, funded by the Health Research Board in 1999 and ongoing.  Her work programme includes Fulbright commission funded research on the Irish in the United States, suggesting historical evidence for a particular propensity to heart disease in those of Irish extraction. She has contributed actively to public policy documents and national committees over her career. Professor Kelleher was Chair of the statutory Women's Health Council from 2000 up to September 2009. More recently she served as Dean of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (2021-2025).