Suzanne Smith

Her passion for justice, fairness, and equality has fueled a lifetime of volunteering and an interest in promoting diversity and inclusion in society. After earning a Bachelor of Social Science degree from University College Dublin, Ireland, she traveled to the U.S.A., where she worked in mental health, addictions treatment, and health education for fifteen years. During this time, she also engaged in postgraduate studies in intercultural relations.

Returning home in 1997, she developed an extensive background in intercultural and anti-racism training before completing a Higher Diploma in Business for Small Enterprise Support in 2012, followed by an MSc by research from Dundalk Institute of Technology in 2016.

In addition to teaching Healthcare in the adult education sector, she has worked on a range of ageing and digital health research projects, including Horizon2020 projects ProACT and SEURO, which involved evaluating a digital intervention for use by older persons self-managing multi-morbidity. She has also been part of a European research team exploring Social Innovation in Ageing initiatives. Her research has included examining the experiences of older people with GP out-of-hours services, exploring the vocational challenges of home healthcare assistants, and evaluating stakeholder experiences of online delivery of care activities for community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She currently leads the NetwellCASALA Living Lab at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland, where she supports multiple research initiatives in digital health, wellbeing, and ageing. Her present research interests focus on equality, diversity, and inclusion in the provision of digital health interventions and the experiences of underrepresented groups, including older adults. She is currently undertaking a PhD through the Department of Media and Communications at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, examining factors influencing access to and use of health and wellbeing interventions by older persons.