Prof. Sharon Glynn
President
president@irishfulbrightalumni.com
Prof. Sharon Glynn from the University of Galway was a Fulbright Scholar at Houston Methodist Research Institute for 2022/2023 focusing on developing new breast cancer research collaborations. She also worked with the Norte Dame Harper Cancer Research Institute and enjoyed attending the Houston Rodeo! One of her most memorable experiences was exploring the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks at the end of her Fulbright.
Dr Ross Carroll
Vice President
Dr Ross Carroll is an Assistant Professor in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University where he teaches political theory and public policy. His research touches on a range of themes including the place of satire and ridicule in public debate, the political thought of Edmund Burke, and the space occupied by future generations in our thinking about democracy and public policy.
Ross was a Fulbright student in 2005/2006 at Northwestern University in Illinois where he remained until the completion of his doctorate. He returned to Ireland in the summer of 2023, having taught and researched at the College of William and Mary in Virginia and at the University of Exeter in the UK.
Beatrice Monciunskaite
Honorary Secretary
membership@irishfulbrightalumni.com
Beatrice Monciunskaite is an assistant professor at the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University. Her teaching and scholarly interests include comparative constitutional law, European Union law and democratic theory. Beatrice’s Ph.D. research was funded by the Irish Research Council and investigated the status of liberal constitutional democracy in Lithuania and Latvia in light of the current rule of law crisis in Europe. She is currently working on a monograph detailing the trajectory of liberal constitutional democracy in the Baltic States while continuing to research in the area of the rule of law crisis and European Union accession law and policy.
Beatrice was awarded the Fulbright Irish Student award in 2021/2022. As part of her Ph.D. research, she was a visiting scholar at New York University School of Law, where she conducted research on the causes of democratic and rule of law deficiencies as part of her PhD research.
Rita Donnellan
Communications and Data Protection Officer
Rita Donnellan is a graduate of the University of Galway; Griffith College, Dublin; and NUI Maynooth. Rita was the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) in Davidson-Davie Community College, North Carolina teaching Irish language and culture in 2018/19. She loved having the opportunity to share Irish language, songs and culture in the US and travel around the different states.
By day she is a secondary school teacher of English and Irish, and in her free time she enjoys theatre trips, travel and a good book.
Is céimí OÉ Gaillimh, Coláiste Uí Ghríofa agus Ollscoil Má Nuad í Rita Donnellan. Mhúin sí Gaeilge agus cultúr na hÉireann mar Chúntóir Múinteoireachta i dTeanga Iasachta (FLTA) i gColáiste Pobail Davidson-Davie, i gCarolína Thuaidh, í sa bhliain 2018/19.
Is múinteoir Gaeilge agus Bhéarla í sa mheánscoil. Nuair a bhíonn am saor aici is maith léi cuairt a thabhairt ar an amharclann, taisteal agus a bheith tumtha i leabhar maith.
Francesca Federico
Newsletter Editor
Francesca Federico is an Irish-American opera singer and writer, born in Paris and based in New York City. She was a 2020/2021 Fulbright Scholar at the Irish World Academy in Limerick, where she researched the influence of Irish folk music on late 19th and early 20th century art song. She also curated and performed several concerts under the tutelage of Iarla Ó Lionáird and Dr. Sandra Joyce.
Francesca holds a B.A. from New York University in Global Studies, and an M.M. in Classical Voice from the Mannes Conservatory. She performs extensively in the United States and abroad, at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and with Wexford Festival Opera to name a few. She has worked as a writer for the New York Times, Opera America Magazine, and Eighth Blackbird, among others.
Dr Patrick Egan
Web Editor
Patrick Egan (Pádraig Mac Aodhgáin), is one of Ireland’s leading performers on concertina, and has represented Ireland on the world stage on numerous occasions. In 2019, as a Fulbright Tech Impact Scholar and Kluge Fellow in Digital Studies, he researched collections of traditional Irish music located in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, to reveal and unite hidden field recordings through digital visualisation and linked open data.
He is currently leading developments in the area of Research Data Management at Munster Technological University Library. His academic interests centre on the benefits of exploring archives of cultural heritage, and in particular digital transformations within the genre of Irish traditional music. His experience extends through degrees in multimedia, in ethnomusicology and ten years working in the IT industry.
Dr. Tammie Bolling
Ordinary Member
Dr. Tammie Bolling is a tenured professor in the disciplines of Business, Healthcare Management, and Computer Technology at Pellissippi State Community College (PSCC) in Knoxville Tennessee (USA). She teaches in the discipline areas of Cyber Defense, Networking, Programming, Psychology, and Business. Dr. Bolling is a 2022 Fulbright recipient to Atlantic Technological University in Ireland, where she lectured in Cyberpsychology and completed research in other programs. She is also a Fulbright Specialist.
Dr. Bolling consults with various international organizations and conducts research in both Ireland and the United States. She is also a PSCC Mobile Fellow and an avid mobile technology researcher. Dr. Bolling constantly reviews and tests technologies to be used in a wide variety of instructional and business settings.
For fun, she enjoys basket weaving, creating glass sculptures, creating glass beads, crocheting, candle making/carving, soap making, reading, photography, and most of all, traveling. You will be able to spot her because she will be drinking hot coffee through a straw!
Honor O'Hea
Ordinary Member
The Irish pianist Honor O´Hea studied in her native country under Mabel Swainson, John Gibson and Jan Cap. She completed her undergraduate studies in musicology at the University of London. During this period she won many awards including the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship for piano and the piano prize of the Ulster Bank Music Foundation Awards. She earned her master’s degree in piano performance in the United States, having been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study under the international renowned Portuguese/American pianist Sequeira Costa at the University of Kansas. In 1996 Ms. O’Hea had the distinction of being the first non-American to receive the Adell Hancock Scholarship from the U.S. Institute of International Education.
She continued her studies with Dominique Merlet in Paris and has also worked with Pascal Rogé and Paul Badura Skoda. She has performed throughout Europe and the U.S., as a soloist and chamber musician. Her piano duo with Croatian pianist Robert Andres, has, for almost three decades, met with enthusiastic response from critics and audiences alike. They have recently released two CDs of Madeiran piano music and various composers, such as Roger Price, Pedro Macedo Camacho and João Victor Costa, have dedicated works to the duo.
Honor O’Hea has given many masterclasses, most recently for the 13th Washington International Piano Festival in Washington D.C., where she was on the faculty and also on the jury of the 8th Catholic University of America Piano Competition. In August 2024 she will be on the faculty of Chetham’s Piano Summer School in the U.K.
She is a tenured professor of piano at the Madeira Music Conservatory – School of Arts.
In her spare time she enjoys travelling, reading, and spending quality time with her Tibetan terrier, Honey.