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Home » About Us » Fulbright Program in Ireland » Fulbright Commission Board

Fulbright Commission Board

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The Fulbright Commission’s Board is appointed by the US Ambassador and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Board comprises the following US members and Irish members.

US Members

Mr. Patrick McDermott
Patrick McDermott has been Chief Executive Officer of the Dublin City University Educational Trust since October 2002. In this role, Patrick has overhauled and re-developed the Trust, DCU's philanthropic foundation and alumni office. During his tenure, the DCU Educational Trust has grown and strengthened its Board of Trustees while establishing strategic priorities and evaluating the role of the foundation on campus. Patrick joined the Trust in September 2001 as Special Adviser to the President, with responsibility for building US partnerships across the university.

Prior to joining DCU, Patrick served as White House Liaison and Trip Director for United States Secretary of Education, Mr. Richard W. Riley. As a member of the Secretary's Senior Staff, Patrick worked on a variety of educational issues and policies. He recruited and managed hundreds of Clinton Administration appointees at the US Department of Education and oversaw appointments to over thirty federal Boards and Commissions. In addition, Patrick was responsible for Secretary Riley's visits to schools and campuses across America and around the world, promoting excellence in education and building community partnerships for the betterment of public education. Patrick earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Politics from Washington and Lee University, where he received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award from the faculty.

Mr. John Hennessey-Niland
John Hennessey-Niland is currently Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Dublin. Originally from Chicago, John lived for over a decade in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in his youth.  He received a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Magna Cum Laude, from Tufts University and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School.  He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the International Cycle of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration. Mr. Hennessey-Niland joined the US diplomatic corps in 1988.  His first diplomatic assignment was to Paris, France where he served in the Consular and Economic sections and as a Staff Aide to the Ambassador.  He was acting Consul of the U.S. Consulate in Martinique in the summer of 1989.  In 1990, he returned to Washington DC to be the Staff Aide to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.  In 1991 he was a Desk Officer at the Department of State and was seconded in 1992 to the US Organizing Committee of the 1994 FIFA World Cup.   He was subsequently assigned to the UN International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  In 1997, he was appointed Head of the Political and Economic Section of the US Embassy in Fiji where he organized the evacuation of the American community during the 2000 coup d’état.   In 2001, he returned to the US and was responsible for trade issues in the Bureau of European Affairs at the State Department.  From 2003 to 2005 Mr. Hennessey-Niland was the Desk Officer for Danish and Norwegian Affairs and played a leading role in negotiations to establish a new civilian and military relationship between the US, Denmark and Greenland.  In 2005, Mr. Hennessey-Niland was selected to attend France’s Grand Ecole, the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and served afterwards in the Economic Section of the US Embassy in Paris, where he was responsible for Trade and IPR. Mr. Hennessey-Niland served at the National Security Council at the White House as Director for the G-8 and G-20 Summits.


Ms. Karyn Posner-Mullen
Karyn Posner-Mullen is currently Director of Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Dublin. She holds a BA degree in History and Sociology from Mount Holyoke College and a M.Ed from UCLA. Before joining the US Foreign Service in 1994, Karyn taught at American and International Schools around the world. She also worked in the film industry in Israel, Germany, Mexico and Los Angeles. Her first posting abroad was as Deputy Cultural Attaché in Caracas, Venezuela where she was in charge of the Fulbright Scholarships. From 1998-2002, Karyn was the Deputy Press Attaché in Rome, coordinating the media for four US Ambassadors. While in Budapest, Hungary 2003-2006, she was the Regional Director of the State Department’s European Hub for Environment, Science, Technology and Health, traveling to 12 countries. Karyn was Special Assistant to Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes in Washington, DC 2006-2007. Most recently Karyn was the Director of Public Affairs at the US Embassy in Pristina, Kosovo where she established the first Fulbright Student scholarships in 2009.

Irish Members

Ms. Una Halligan, Chair
Una Halligan is the Commission’s Chair and was appointed to the board of the EGFSN (Expert Group on Future Skills Needs), by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and more recently to the Advisory Board of the Ryan Academy in Dublin City University. Una has been Chair of the Fulbright Commission since February 2007 and a member of the Fulbright Commission Board since 2004.

Professor Geraldine McCarthy
Geraldine McCarthy is Professor, Dean and Head of the Catherine McAuley School of Nursing and Midwifery at the National University of Ireland, Cork. She established the School in 1994 which is now one of 5 Schools in the College of Medicine and Health including Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Therapies. Prior to this she was Research and Development Manager for Nursing at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and held a number of other positions in the UK, USA and Canada. She holds a MEd from TCD, MSN and PhD degree in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. She has been a member of a number of national and EU bodies including the Commission on Nursing, the Nurse Education Forum and the Task Force on Undergraduate Medical Education. She is presently a Ministerial nomination on the Health Information and Quality Authority Board. Her research focuses on Chronic Health Conditions and the Elderly.

Professor Neil Collins
Neil Collins is Head of the Department of Government and Dean of the Commerce Faculty, University College Cork.  Professor Collins is a recognised expert in the study of corruption in Irish politics. He is author of a standard text on the local government management system in Ireland. From 1975-1980 he was Research Fellow, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham. Following that he was Lecturer in Department of Political Theory and Institutions, University of Liverpool.  Subsequently, Lecturer in Department of Public Administration, University of Ulster.  1988-1994 he was Reader in the School of Public Policy, Economics and Law at the University of Ulster and then Professor of Public Policy and Management, University of Ulster until 1998. In 2009 he was elected to the Academy of Social Science.