Mary Kennedy

Dr Mary Kennedy is an Assistant Professor in Social Work at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice. Before joining the teaching staff at UCD, Mary was an Assistant Lecturer in social care in the Department of Humanities at the South East Technological University Carlow Campus. Mary also has teaching experience in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). In addition to her teaching experience at TCD, she held a number of research positions with the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre and the School of Psychology. Mary completed her PhD in Social Work in the Spring of 2023, and her doctoral research topic centred on a case study examining the use of the Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) survey to inform service development in a social care organisation.


Mary is a UCD social work graduate with extensive post-qualification employment experience in acute adult inpatient and outpatient mental health, crisis intervention child protection, and general medical and palliative social work roles. In addition to completing her PhD and obtaining a Professional Master of Social Science in Social Work, Mary has a Post Graduate Diploma in Child Protection and Welfare and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Degree in Applied Social Studies (Social Care). Alongside her understanding of social issues affecting society from social work and academic perspectives, Mary also has insights from the several social care positions she held before commencing her social work career. These positions included cultural integration, children's residential social care, intellectual disability social care and project worker roles.


In June 2023, Mary joined Ireland's multi-profession health regulator, CORU's Social Work Registration Board and currently holds the position as the person engaged in the State in the education and training of persons in social work practice. As a member of the Social Work Registration Board, Mary, in conjunction with other Board members, is responsible for establishing and maintaining the register of members for the social work profession in Ireland, recognising qualifications gained outside the State, and approving and monitoring education and training programmes for entry to the profession's register.