Katriona grew up in extreme poverty, one of five children in a home shaped by her parents’ heroin addiction.
Her remarkable story is a journey from poverty, teenage pregnancy and homelessness to graduating with a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and becoming an award-winning academic and lecturer whose work challenges barriers to education.
In her talks, Katriona shares her experiences and how courage, resilience, self belief and also crucially help from others can be life-changing. Class inclusion is a topic close to her heart – she believes strongly in the importance of giving everyone hope, practical support and meaningful opportunities.
A psychologist, Katriona documented her life in her first book, Poor, which debuted at #1 on the Irish Non-Fiction bestseller list.
Katriona is Senior Lecturer in the Assisting Living & Learning Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University. She has worked with Irish policy makers to develop policies around education and inclusion. She has published research on equality, gender, education, inclusion and STEM.
Determined to inspire others, Katriona has been invited speaker at the World Education Forum, the European Gender Action Workshop on Women and Digitalization and most recently at the UN gender equality workshop.
The themes of her talks include
- Gender equality
- Social class
- Education equality
- STEM inclusion
- Equality Diversity and Inclusion
- Working-class women and how to empower
- Success
Katriona motivates and inspires audiences with her story of resilience. She can also provide teams with on-site or remote training in equality diversity and inclusion. As someone who comes from a working-class background, who has researched and published in this area, and contributed to national policy,
Topics include microaggressions, ableism, intersectionality, power dynamics and anti-racism. Participants are encouraged to attend these workshops to further their understanding of ED.
