Profile

Professor Jane Alexander is Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Irish College of Humanities and Applied Sciences (ICHAS). She joined ICHAS in 2010. Prior to that she was a Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin, Senior Research Fellow, Derby University, UK, Lecturer and Research Assistant City University, London.

As an educator Jane has a continuous record for teaching and is involved in the development of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Her contribution to teaching also includes the supervision of many PhD and Masters’ students to successful completion.

She began her academic career in 1998. Her PhD in Mental Health Studies, funded by the Trustees of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, is a qualitative sociologically based study investigating the experiences of acutely ill parents and staff in two acute mental health hospitals in London. Parts of her studies were completed at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Her MA in Counselling Psychology is in psychodynamic psychotherapy and her thesis investigated the close relationships of depressed men. Her main research interests are in acute mental health care and the relationship between severe life events and depression. She worked on several major research projects at City University, London.

Additionally, her research career included work on NHS funded projects as a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Academic and Workforce Innovation (CCAWI) at Lincoln University. Also at Trinity College, Dublin on the accommodation of diversity in the Irish maternity services.
She held several clinical and managerial posts in the UK. Her main experiences, prior to academia, was in Primary Mental Health Care, working directly with GP’s and liaising with Community Mental Health Teams. She completed major research projects whilst working in this field including an investigation of counselling provision in GP Practices and an evaluation of the placement of community mental health staff in GP Practices for SCMH (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health).