The Higher Education Authority will hold the third health and wellbeing conference ‘Global Perspectives, Ireland Leadership: Transforming Healthy Campus Policy’ on April 22nd from 9.30 am – 16.30 pm at The Law Society of Ireland, Blackhall Place, Dublin 7.

The conference aims to build on the momentum of Ireland’s global success with the launch the Limerick Framework for Action in 2025 and focus on advancing national policy.

Registration is now open. Please click here to register.

Any questions please email healthycampus@hea.ie

Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers include:

Professor Philip Dodd; Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Principal Mental Health Policy Specialist in the Department of Health. Clinical Professor/Consultant Psychiatrist at Trinity College Dublin

Professor Philip Dodd is currently working as Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, where he is working across a wide range of health policy areas, including health promotion. He is also Principal Mental Health Policy & Clinical Specialist for the Department of Health, supporting the implementation of mental health policy, suicide and self-harm reduction strategy & mental health promotion, under Healthy Ireland.

He was previously Clinical Advisor with HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention and worked as HSE National Clinical Advisor and Clinical Group Lead (Mental Health).

Professor Dodd is a Consultant Psychiatrist and an established clinical researcher and is a full Clinical Professor at Trinity College Dublin

 

Dr Vicki Squires; Associate Dean, Research, Graduate Support and International Initiatives and is a Professor in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan

Dr Vicki Squires serves as the Associate Dean, Research, Graduate Support and International Initiatives and is a Professor in the Department of Educational Administration in the College of Education at the University of Saskatchewan. Her areas of research are post-secondary education and student well-being; supporting mental health and wellbeing requires collaboration among units and a systems approach.

Dr Squires has been the lead of multiple grants exploring the implementation of the Okanagan Charter on campuses in Canada and globally. She has published and presented on the work of health promoting universities and the Okanagan Charter; she is also the lead editor on a co-edited book that includes international co-authored chapters written by researchers involved in health promotion efforts on their campuses.

 

Dr Jennifer Thannhauser; Academic Director, Mental Health & Well-being (Office of Institutional Commitments) and Evaluation & Research Lead (Community Mental Health & Well-being Strategy)

Dr. Jennifer Thannhauser is a Registered Psychologist (Alberta) and Academic Director, Mental Health & Well-being in the University of Calgary’s Office of Institutional Commitments. She also serves as Evaluation & Research Lead for UCalgary’s Community Mental Health & Well-being Strategy and leads the university’s inaugural Post-secondary Mental Health and Well-being Research and Knowledge Hub.

Jennifer is committed to advancing a holistic, upstream, whole-university approach to mental health and well-being. Drawing on 12+ years of experience as a post-secondary counsellor and administrator in Student Wellness Services, her research focuses on strengthening student mental health through strengths-based and systems approaches. She co-developed the Roots of Resiliency program, recognized as a “Promising Practice” by BP-Net and awarded a Taylor Institute Teaching Award for Educational Leadership (Group).

Jennifer has received multiple national tri-council grants to advance understanding of resilience in post-secondary settings and currently leads a national, multi-disciplinary SSHRC-funded study examining students’ perceptions of resilience.

 

Pre-Conference Workshops

The HEA will be hosting two preconference workshops at the Law Society on Tuesday, April 21st. The workshops will be the following:

Workshop 1: ‘Student Wellbeing – Scoping Online Learning Resources‘ with spunout, 09.30 – 12.00pm 

In this session, spunout will be facilitating an introductory scoping session to share an overview of the learning content available through spunout academy, to explore the key wellbeing needs of students in our institutions, and to explore potential formats for a custom resource or collection of resources that spunout can develop to support students in higher education. 

Opportunities for the development of both universal and targeted modules, inclusion of institution-specific supports and services, and potential for the voices of students to be included in the development process through pilot testing will be discussed. 

Workshop 2: ‘Advancing Health – Promoting Campuses: Applying the Limerick Framework’ with the University of Limerick, held 1.00 – 4.00pm 

This workshop introduces the Limerick Framework for Action, a globally co-created roadmap enabling Higher Education Institutions to embed health and wellbeing across campuses. Participants will explore its pillars, principles, and ten actions, applying practical tools to advance whole-campus transformation aligned with international health-promoting agendas.

Registration for Pre-Conference workshops can be found here.

Healthy Campus Case Studies Submissions

We are inviting institutions to submit Healthy Campus Case Studies for display at the conference.

Please find an updated 2026 template here. Please submit your case studies (with the 2026 template only) to healthycampus@hea.ie

Closing date for case study submissions will be Friday April 3^rd.

Lightning Talk Submissions

As part of the conference agenda, April 22^nd, we are inviting expressions of interests for speakers to present lightning talks relating to student and staff health and wellbeing.

The closing date for submissions is Wednesday April 1^st, 2026.

For more information or to submit an expression of interest please click here.

Registration

• Day One, Pre-Conference Workshops, Tuesday, April 21^st , 9.30 – 16.00 pm, please click here.
• Day Two, Conference Day, Wednesday, April 22^nd, 9.30 – 16.30 pm, please click here.