PhD Scholars

Ellen is a PhD student with the HRB-TMRN based at the HRB Clinical Research Facility University College Cork. Ellen holds a first-class honour bachelor’s degree in Public Health from University College Cork. From 2020 to 2021 Ellen worked as a research assistant for the TRAMS (trials research and methodologies unit) in the HRB Clinical Research Facility Cork and has been involved in various research projects.

Ellen’s doctoral research is focused on the planning and communication of retention in clinical trials. Her research consists of four pieces of work; investigating the cost of retention strategies, how retention is planned and communicated in clinical trial protocols, how retention is communicated in patient information leaflets and conducting interviews with trial team staff and trial participants to get a more in-depth understanding of the planning processes and communication of retention strategies in clinical trials. The overall project aims to investigating how retention is planned and communicated during the lifecycle of a clinical trial.

Ellen is also involved in other trial methods projects and is on the leadership team for the TMRP Trial Conduct Retention Working Group as of 2024.

She is supervised by Dr Frances Shiely (Senior Lecturer and Director of Education, HRB Clinical Research Facility, University College Cork) and Professor Katie Gillies (Director, Health Care Assessment Programme, Health Service Research Unit, University of Aberdeen).

Simone has first class honours degrees in the following: a BSc in biology from the University of South Florida an MSc in biology from Texas A&M University, a BSN from Columbia University in New York and a higher diploma in Midwifery from the National University of Ireland, Galway. She was also an Evidence Synthesis Ireland fellow for a Cochrane Systematic Review update. Simone has clinical experience in high dependency neurology nursing, and intensive care nursing. As a midwife she has practiced in early pregnancy and gynecology and the labour ward. Her research interests include improving clinical trial methodology and its implementation in health care. Simone’s project, The Kid’s Trial, will focus on teaching the power of clinical trials and their methodology by co-creating a trial with children and their parents.

Kathleen is a PhD student with the HRB-TMRN and based in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin. Kathleen obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Culture from the National College of Art and Design in 2016 and a Master of Social Science degree in Cultural Sociology from University College Dublin in 2017. Kathleen has worked as a Research Assistant for several years in TCD’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, focusing on maternal health and maternal health services. Her doctoral research is interested in supporting Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) activities in maternal and neonatal clinical trials.

She is supervised by Professor Valerie Smith (Full Professor of Midwifery, University College Dublin) and Professor Déirdre Daly (Associate Professor in Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin) and supported by External Advisory Committee members Dr Linda Biesty (Senior Lecturer, University of Galway) and Professor Katie Gillies (Professor, University of Aberdeen).

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8125-2960

Parastoo Niloofar graduated from Tehran University of Medical Sciences with an MSc in Biostatistics and also hold BSc in Statistics from the University of Tehran. Her MSc project was about detecting the diagnostic accuracy of different tests without a gold standard. Shortly after graduation, she started working as a Biostatician in different institutes, mainly for North Khorasan University of Medical Science where has been working for the last four years. Her research interest areas include longitudinal data analysis, diagnostic accuracy assessment, Bayesian inference and statistical neuro science. Parastoo will work with Prof John Newell, University of Galway on “Translation statistics in clinical trials”.

Emer is a Health Research Board funded PhD scholar with UCD Clinical Research Centre. Emer completed Graduate Medicine UCD in 2017 and an MSc in Clinical and Translational Research in 2019. She worked as a Research Associate with Children’s Health Ireland receiving the award for Research Paper of the year 2022 for her latest publication “An Estimate of the Cumulative Paediatric Prevalence of Rare Diseases in Ireland and Comment on the Literature”. Emer is studying under the supervision of Prof Peter Doran (University of Galway School of Medicine) and Prof Michael Keane (UCD School of Medicine), her project is on the use of Digital Technologies in Clinical Trials.

Marci Kay Livingston, DNP, MPH, RN, CHPN (she/her) is a HRB-TMRN PhD Scholar at the University of Limerick.  As a Registered Nurse in the United States, Marci Kay specialized in hospice, palliative care, and clinical research.  She is a Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse and a Certified Mobile Research Nurse.  She previously worked as the Director of Patient Care Services at both for- and non-profit hospice organizations in California.  With a passion for meeting people where they are, she enjoys engaging with patients, clinicians, and stakeholders.

With a BSc in Nursing from Louisiana State University – Health Sciences Center; a MPH from the University of Edinburgh, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from California State University – Fresno, Marci Kay has focused her academic journey on understanding how individuals and groups define concepts such as well-being, health, and comfort. Her topic within the HRB-TMRN program will center on exploring the participation of people with lived experience of a condition/intervention in the development of Core Outcome Sets.  She is supervised by Dr Katie Robinson and Dr Elaine Toomey.