Q&Alumni

Dorothy Conaghan’s career has spanned over 30 years, including time as a French and mathematics secondary school teacher, and a music lecturer at TU Dublin. She is also a violinist and conductor. She holds a PhD in Social Justice (2020), an MSc in Equality Studies (2015), and a BMus and BA (1979). Her PhD research focuses on policy, provision and barriers to access to instrumental music education in Ireland and in Europe. Dorothy is also an Affiliate Research Scholar at UCD, a Board Member of the International Music Council and Dublin Choral Foundation, and an Associate Member of the UCD Centre for Human Rights. Finally, she is on the Management Committee of the Patient Voice in Cancer Research (PVCR), based at the Conway Institute at UCD.

Patricia Munatsi graduated from UCD Sutherland School of Law in 2020 with an LLM in International Human Rights Law. She is the Policy Lead for the Irish Network Against Racism. She is also a researcher, speaker, writer, gender activist, equality, diversity & inclusion advocate, and an anti-racism trainer.

RADA member Graham Butler Breen is an actor and theatre maker based in London. He is the co-founder of the new-wave theatre company 'Luna Collective' which has produced a number of original works and an adaptation of the Frank McGuinness short story 'Samovar.' Butler Breen has a BA in English and Drama from UCD and is a former UCD Ad Astra Performing Arts Scholar.

Radwa Khorshid has an MA in Media & International Conflict, graduating in 2014. She currently works as the Director of Sales and Customer Success for BasharSoft, in her home country of Egypt. 

Emre Akyüz, originally from Turkey, has a BA in Economics and an MA in Environmental Sciences from Hacettepe & Ankara University respectively. He graduated from UCD with an MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development. Emre is currently working as a European Union Affairs Expert at the Directorate for European Union Affairs in Turkey. He lives in Ankara with his wife.

Fiona is a landscape architecture graduate who now lives in the US. In 2021, Fiona and her husband sold their home and business to live a more sustainable life. They started an online community called Truthfully Living. The couple, their two-year-old son and their dog have been living a nomadic life out of a tent for the past six months. They are currently based in Northern Minnesota.

IT consultant and tech entrepreneur Dilan Jayasekara has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from UCD’s Colombo Campus in Sri Lanka. He relocated to Australia and has risen rapidly in his industry. In December 2021 he was nominated at the Australian Computer Society’s Digital Disruptor Awards as one of four finalists in the ‘Emerging ICT Professional of the Year’ category. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Tara.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the theme of which is “breaking the bias”, we feature an alumna who has overcome obstacles to obtain an education that has empowered her to become the woman she is today. We are honoured to have Naima Chaudhry as our featured alumna for the month of March. Naima graduated with an MSc in Biotherapeutics in 2019 from the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

Kilian Mallon is a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Classics at Stanford University, California. A Dublin native, he completed a BA in Archaeology and Greek & Roman Civilisation in 2008 and an MA in Classics in 2009 at UCD. He has worked on numerous archaeological research projects in Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey. His research focused on the social and political history of the ancient world through multiple sources including archaeological, legal and historical.

Andrew (AJ) is a joint Economics and Information Social Computing graduate and currently works as a content strategist in Melbourne, Australia.