Laura Burke is the Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), appointed in 2011 and served as a Director within the EPA since 2004. 

As Director General she has the responsibility to lead and strategically manage the EPA. Laura was the Chair of the European Environment Agency (EEA) Management Board from 2017 to 2023. Laura is a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) and a member of the High Level Implementation Committee of ‘Food Vision 2030’, the Irish Agri-Food Sector Strategy. Prior to joining the EPA, she worked in the private sector. Laura is a graduate chemical engineer of University College Dublin (UCD), holds an MSc from Trinity College, Dublin, is a Fellow and is President of Engineers Ireland and is a Chartered Director. She is a member of the Board of Genio a non-profit European organisation. In 2016 Laura was awarded the UCD Engineering Graduates Association (EGA) Distinguished Graduate Award.

Prof Seamus O’Reilly BSc MB BCh BAO MD PhD FRCPI- is Consultant Medical Oncologist at Cork- Mercy and South Infirmary Victoria University Hospitals, Hon Associate Professor at University College Cork and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Clinical Lead at Cancer Trials Ireland.

Denise Cahill is the Healthy Cities Coordinator for Cork City and Adjunct Lecturer in the School of Public Health in University College Cork. Denise has a BSc in Sports & Exercise Science, an MA in Health Promotion and a H.Dip in Healthcare Management. Denise has extensive experience in public health promotion, specialising in the social determinants of health, reduction of health inequalities and climate justice. Denise has participated in multiple EU funded research and innovative projects. With a strong and productive commitment to garnering productive inter-agency collaborations to promote public health, Denise is an elected member of the WHO European Healthy Cities Advisory Committee. Denise has a strong personal and professional interest and commitment to climate justice and environmental sustainability; currently leading the development of Cork’s first Sustainable and Healthy Food Strategy. The Irish Examiner listed Denise among 100 Women ‘Blazing a Trail and Changing Ireland Today’ in 2023.

Ian is from Dublin and a graduate of Trinity College. He leads the Pollution and Health unit at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen, with the team addressing a range of health related environmental topics including air quality, noise, chemicals, industrial pollution, One Health and broader work examining the overall environmental burden of disease. Prior to working at EEA Ian worked at the EPA in Ireland and also in the private sector as a consultant.

Wim Meijer is Professor of Microbiology at the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science at University College Dublin. He received his PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands in 1990 and subsequently carried out postdoctoral research at The Ohio State University. He took up a lectureship at the Department of Microbiology at the University of Groningen in 1991 before moving to University College Dublin in 1997.

His research is One Health themed, incorporating two areas: human/animal health and water quality. His water themed research as part of the Acclimatize project funded by the Bathing Water Task Force focuses on water quality of bathing waters, rivers and streams, in relation to faecal contamination, viral and bacterial pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. This research is multidisciplinary in nature encompassing microbiology, molecular biology and hydrodynamic modelling in collaboration with Professor John O’Sullivan at the School of Civil Engineering.

Professor Meijer co-leads the National Wastewater Surveillance Programme, funded by the Health Service Executive, which carries out wastewater-based surveillance monitoring 70% of the Irish population. The programme is carried out in collaboration with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the National Virus Reference Laboratory, and Uisce Éireann. This programme determines the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2, poliovirus, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and norovirus to gain insight in the circulation of these pathogens in the population. His group participates in EU-WISH, a Joint Action under the EU4Health programme, which supports the policy priority of strengthening the European Union's capacity to prevent, prepare for and respond rapidly to serious cross-border health threats.

Ellen Crushell is a Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Irish Department of Health. Ellen’s background is in child health. She graduated from UCC and did her specialist training in Ireland and Canada, she is a consultant paediatrician specialising in inherited metabolic disorders at Children's Health Ireland in Dublin. She is a clinical professor at the School of Medicine at University College Dublin. She served as Dean of the Faculty of Paediatrics at RCPI 2017-2020 and was the National Clinical Lead for Children with the Health Service Executive’s National Clinical Programme for Paediatrics and Neonatology 2020- 2025   

Pat Byrne was recently appointed as the Director of the Office of Radiation Protection and Environmental Monitoring. Pat has responsibility for three programme areas: Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance, Environment & Health, and Water Enforcement.

Pat brings over 28 years of experience in environmental protection, having held a wide range of roles within the EPA. His career has focused particularly on the regulation (licensing and enforcement) of industrial, waste, and wastewater activities, as well as environmental and radiation monitoring. Prior to his current role, Pat served as Programme Manager for Waste and Local Authority Enforcement, and previously Programme Manager for Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance.

Martina Lawless is Director of the ESRI since June 2025. She was previously a Research Professor at the Institute, with a research focus on firm-level dynamics, covering a range of topics such as job turnover, exporting, wage setting and foreign direct investment. Previously, she worked as a research economist at the Central Bank of Ireland and has a doctorate from Trinity College Dublin. She was formerly a member of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and in 2023-2024 was a seconded economic specialist in the Strategic Economic Development Division of the Department of Finance.

Professor Mary Lynch is a highly experienced academic researcher and is the Executive Vice Dean for Research and the strategic lead for research in Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery (FNM) RCSI. She is a Registered General Nurse (RGN), holds a MSc in Sustainable Rural Development and a PhD in Health Economics both from Queens’s University Belfast. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (SFHEA), and a trained Social Return On Investment (SROI) practitioner. She holds honorary visiting professor roles at the University of South Wales, and University of West of Scotland, providing health economic expertise for joint research projects and PhD studentships. Professor Lynch’s methodological expertise is in applying non-market valuation techniques; Stated and Revealed Preference techniques; incorporating Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Social Return on Investment (SROI), in estimation of social value of public health interventions. Her research interests span the areas of public health, environment, behaviour change and valuing public goods and services. As part of her transdisciplinary research her portfolio of research extends to evaluation of nature-based solutions to address mental health and wellbeing, physical activity, use of community assets and rurality. Full list of publication is available at https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0001-6887-3447
She has successfully attracted funding from a range of sources and is joint Principle Investigator (PI) on one of eight NIHR projects (£20M programme) on extreme weather events “Warning system for Extreme weather events, Awareness Technology for Healthcare, Equitable delivery, and Resilience” (WEATHER) project (NIHR £2.29M) https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-awards-over-20-million-for-global-health-research-projects-focused-on-extreme-weather-challenges/35425. This is a collaborative project with University of KwaZulu-Natal that aims to develop an early warning system for extreme weather events such as flooding and heat in two vulnerable districts of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. In addition, Professor Lynch, is project co-lead on the UKRI funded project- Realising the health co-benefits of the transition to net zero funding opportunity (2024). (APP29811; The UK Hub for One Health Systems: Creating Sustainable Health and Social Care Pathways) (UKRI £6.5M) https://www.ukri.org/news/42m-funding-to-ensure-health-is-central-to-net-zero-strategies/. The project aims to develop new health and social care pathways hub by bringing together a range of university and healthcare partners throughout the UK, to tackle the challenge of helping the NHS become environmentally sustainable, and to help meet its legal obligation to become net zero by 2045.

Dr Greg Martin is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine currently working for the HSE as part of the National Health Improvement team. He has a longstanding interest in Global Health that includes working as a Director at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Programme Manager at the World Health Organization and the Head of Science and Research at the World Cancer Research Fund. While living in Ireland he has worked at the National Clinical Lead for Contact Tracing (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and as the Director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

Dr James McGrath is an Assistant Professor at Maynooth University, affiliated with both the ICARUS Climate Research Centre and the Kathleen Lonsdale Institute for Human Health Research. His research focuses on indoor environmental quality, aerosol science, and building ventilation, with recent work addressing the implications of climate adaptation and national retrofit strategies. He is the lead Irish participant in IEA EBC Annes 86 (Energy Efficient Indoor Air Quality Management in Residential Buildings) and represents Ireland on the AIVC Board and EU COST Action Net4CleanAir. He has contributed to national policy and standards development, including the revision of NSAI S.R. 54 (Code of Practice for the Energy-Efficient Retrofit of Dwellings). He has played key roles in high-profile events and regularly contributes to national media, including television programmes, radio interviews, webinars, and print publications, particularly on topics related to indoor air quality and ventilation.

Anne Nolan is a Research Professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), an Adjunct Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and a Research Affiliate at the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at TCD. She is the Programme Coordinator for the joint EPA/ESRI Research Programme in Environmental Economics. Her research focuses on the use of quantitative data analysis techniques to provide evidence for policymakers and practitioners on the role of social determinants in shaping health and wellbeing outcomes across the life course.

Alma Walsh is a Senior Adviser in the Planning Division of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Alma led on the revision of the National Planning Framework, approved in April 2025 and is also responsible for the development of a number of related implementation and policy measures.

Prior to joining the Department, Alma has worked within the local authority planning system where her responsibilities have included the preparation of regional planning guidelines, development plans and local area plans in addition to project based work such as green infrastructure planning, master planning and transport planning. Alma has also previously worked with the Midland Regional Authority and began her career with the private sector.

She holds a degree in Sociology with Politics and Human Geography from the University of Galway and a Masters Degree in Regional and Urban Planning from UCD. Alma is a Board Member of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority (MARA).

Ruth Hunter (PhD) is Professor at Queen’s University Belfast and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for research and training on complex systems and network science for Noncommunicable Disease (NCD) prevention and control. Her work primarily involves investigating how we can improve our urban environment for better population health and planetary health. She is a Director of the UKPRP GroundsWell consortium, a 5-year research programme exploring the impact of green and blue spaces for chronic disease prevention and reducing health inequalities (https://www.groundswelluk.org).

Professor Diarmuid O’Donovan is Director of National Health Improvement with HSE Public Health. His team focuses on addressing health inequalities and developing partnerships for a Health in All Policies approach to improving population health.

He trained in general practice and public health and worked in several countries in Africa. From 2019-2023 he was Professor of Global Health at Queen’s University Belfast. Before that he was Director of Public Health in HSE West and Senior Lecturer in Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Galway.

His research and teaching interests focus on health equity and sustainability, locally and globally.