Meet our staff – Pharmacy

Marita Kinsella

Head of Department

Marita has led the programme development team for the MPharm since June 2024. Marita is a qualified pharmacist who also holds the degree of Barrister at Law from the Honourable Society of Kings Inns in addition to an advanced diploma in legislative drafting. She brings substantial experience in pharmacy and health policy, strategy and regulation to her role in the MPharm programme.

Marita previously held a number of high-profile roles in the Department of Health, notably as Chief Pharmacist where she was responsible for policy and legislation relating to the regulation of medicines, medical devices, cosmetics, narcotics and psychotropic substances, as well as for policy and legislation regulating pharmacists and pharmacies. During this time she also chaired the EU Council Working Party on Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices during the Irish Presidency of the EU. She has also served as Director of the National Patient Safety Office at the Department of Health, and led national health policy development in areas such as patient safety, anti-microbial resistance, clinical effectiveness, acute hospitals policy and performance.

Prior to that, she worked for the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland  across a number of its functions including as Registrar and CEO.  She has extensively contributed as a member of national fora including the HIQA National Care Experience Programme Steering Group, NPHETs for CPE, COVID and H1N1, National Advisory Committee on Drugs & Alcohol and HPRA Advisory Committee for Human Medicines.

Research Interests

Marita is currently undertaking a professional Doctorate in Governance. Her research interests include health policy decision-making, quality and patient safety, open disclosure, health system quality, standardisation in healthcare, patient and public involvement in health professions education.

Dr. Rosemary Smyth

Programme Lead for Pharmacy

Dr Smyth has been part of the MPharm team since September 2023 with particular focus on the development of ATU’s integrated curriculum and integrated assessment strategy.

Dr Smyth is a qualified pharmacist and undertook further studies leading to the award of a PhD in Toxicology. Rosemary brings a wealth of academic experience to the MPharm programme from many years teaching and researching in University College London School of Pharmacy. She has extensive experience of curriculum development and design and programme management for taught postgraduate programmes. She is an experienced PhD supervisor. Dr Smyth’s teaching experience is in pharmacy, toxicology, pharmacology, drug discovery, and pharmaceutical management. While at UCL she also had a significant student pastoral support role and is a qualified mental health first aider.

Research Interests

Dr Smyth has researched and published widely in the areas of toxicology, biomarkers of disease and toxicity, proteomics, metabolomics, preclinical drug development, medical pharmacology, diagnostics, pharmaceutical management research.

Mairéad Casserly

Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy & Pharmacy Practice

Mairéad has been part of the MPharm team since August 2024. She has over twenty years’ experience  as a community and hospital pharmacist. She has worked in Beaumont, the Mater, Mayo and Sligo University Hospitals in clinical, education and managerial roles. Her clinical specialisms include intensive care, ophthalmology, cardiology and perioperative medicine.

She was formerly a Senior Honorary Clinical Lecturer for the MPharm programme in RCSI and a guest lecturer and lead tutor for the TCD MSc in Hospital Pharmacy and National Pharmacy Internship Programme.   She has extensive experience in pharmacy, medical and allied health education and training and was a member of the HPAI education committee organising the successful annual conference for many years. She recently completed a post graduate diploma in Management in Healthcare. She enjoys collaborating with in multidisciplinary teams to improve care quality and has been involved in successful projects to streamline follow-up of cancer patients and improve medication prescribing.

Research Interests

Mairead is currently undertaking a post graduate certificate in teaching learning and assessment.  Mairead’s main areas of research interests are Intensive Care and Perioperative Medicine. She has undertaken research in extemporaneous compounding practice, prescribing safety in ICU and perioperative populations.

Patricia Ging

Lecturer in Pharmacology & Pharmacy

Patricia is a qualified pharmacist with over twenty years’ experience in hospital pharmacy. Her main areas of expertise and interest are respiratory medicine, pulmonary hypertension, thoracic transplant and antimicrobials.

She has considerable experience in teaching and assessment of learning from her time as Honorary Professor of the MPharm programme in RCSI where she was responsible for organising, developing and delivering experiential learning for the MPharm students at hospital sites as well as being involved in setting and assessing scenarios for the national MPharm OSCE. Her clinical and educational roles have given her extensive experience in teaching and supervising research of students and graduates in pharmacy, medicine and allied health disciplines.

She is an advocate for interprofessional practice and enjoys working in interdisciplinary teams most notably with the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplant to develop practice guidelines and educational resources for transplant teams.  She led the standards and guidelines committee of the ISHLT for the past two years.

She is a faculty fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Patricia is currently undertaking a post graduate certificate in teaching learning and assessment.

Research interests

Patricia has undertaken and published research in adverse drug reactions, prescribing safety and practice research in transplantation, particularly in the management of viral and fungal infections and osteoporosis. She has also been the pharmacist contributor for several guidelines in transplant and a core curriculum for transplant pharmacists. She is interested in drug handling in special populations and was an expert contributor for the Pharmaceutical Press book “Critical Illness”.

Professor Martin Henman

MPharm Programme Advisor

Prof Martin Henman is a Programme Advisor to the MPharm programme.

Working with the MPharm team as MPharm Programme Advisor, Prof Henman plays a key role in advising on the design, delivery and assessment of ATU’s new MPharm programme.

A recognised senior academic, with significant expertise in Ireland and internationally, Prof Henman brings his experience to ATU’s team in relation to the delivery, implementation and evolution of the MPharm programme, with a particular focus on the discipline of Pharmacy Practice. 

Prof Henman is a registered pharmacist in Ireland and is a member of the Intellectual Disability Supplement to TILDA (IDS TILDA) and a participant in the Trinity Centre for Excellence in Ageing and Intellectual Disability. In addition, Prof Henman is a member and past Chairperson of Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE). Prof Henman is a fellow of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and president- elect of its Academic Pharmacy Section. He was chair of the 2011 European Society of Clinical Pharmacy ESCP annual symposium in Dublin.

Previously Prof Henman was Associate Professor in the Practice of Pharmacy and Director of Global Initiatives at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Trinity College Dublin. He has served as a visiting professor for a number of pharmacy programmes internationally.

Research Interests

Prof Henman has published research on Pharmaceutical Care, Pharmaceutical Policy, Cancer, Palliative Care, Pharmacoepidemiology, Medicines use in the Elderly and in People with Intellectual Disability and Pharmacy education and competency development. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy. He has supervised 17 PhD students.

Professor Michael Munday

MPharm Programme Advisor

Professor Michael Munday is a Programme Advisor to the MPharm programme.

Working with the MPharm team as MPharm Programme Advisor Prof Munday brings significant experience at senior management level in the design, development, delivery and assessment of MPharm programmes.

Prof Munday previously held the role of MPharm Programme Director and Academic Director of Studies, Associate Director of Education at the School of Pharmacy University College London (UCL) in addition to the role of Vice Dean (Education) for the Faculty of Life Sciences at UCL.

Prof Munday completed his DPhil in the Metabolic Research Laboratory of Professor Sir Hans Krebs in Oxford under the supervision of Dr Derek Williamson, was a post-doctoral fellow in the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit led by Professor Sir Philip Cohen in Dundee and since then has held a variety of leadership roles across a number of programmes in University College London.

Research Interests

Professor Munday has researched, undertaken international collaborations and published widely in the areas of lipid metabolism, proteomic and metabolomic analysis, biomarker identification for diabetes and insulin resistance, markers of skin damage and pharmacy education. He has supervised 17 PhD students.