Dr. Jean Hughes is Director of Strategic Initiatives, in the President’s Office at Dublin City University. Having worked in information systems in banking and manufacturing, Jean has spent most of her career in higher education, in Ireland and the Middle East. Her experience comprises roles across academic, academic management and senior university management. When working for RCSI Bahrain, Jean worked closely with Prof Martin Corbally in establishing the Global Health Initiative to grow a culture of altruism amongst the student population through a strategic focus on a range of aspects of global health. Jean developed a mechanism to map the medicine curriculum to global health opportunities – through curricular, extra and co-curricular activities. Jean was also instrumental in establishing a global health exchange programme with the University of Pennsylvania in the US, which allows students from each campus to spend time in the summer engaging in global health research projects in the other campus.

Jean returned to Ireland in September 2020 and joined the board of Operation ChildLife (OCL) as a non-executive director. Jean manages the development of policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the Irish Charities Regulator and coordinates the strategic development of the charity. In September 2022, Jean delivered a talk about OCL at the UN Science Summit in New York, at their invitation and in October 2022, Jean delivered a similar talk at the launch of the Department of Global Health at the new Irish Children’s Hospital.

Jean holds a BSc. in Computer Science and an MBA from DCU, a Doctorate in Education from Queens University Belfast and a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Management from Harvard University.