Dr Niamh Fitzgerald

Niamh Fitzgerald is Lecturer in Alcohol Studies at the Institute for Social Marketing at the University of Stirling, part of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies.  She is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences at the Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen.  Niamh leads teaching and public engagement for alcohol for UKCTAS, delivering an annual ‘Alcohol policy in practice’ CPD course, and co-developing an MSc module with Kings College London.

Niamh’s research focuses on communication about lifestyle change including alcohol brief intervention development, evaluation, training and implementation, and integration of such conversations into wider person-centred approaches.  She is a member of the co-ordinating committee of the International Network for Brief Interventions on Alcohol and Other Drugs (www.inebria.net) since 2010.  Niamh is also currently conducting research into public health efforts to influence alcohol licensing, effectiveness and promotion of novel pharmacotherapy for alcohol dependence, and a gender-based analysis of the impact of population-level alcohol policy interventions.

Niamh’s PhD was on school-based drug education, awarded by RGU in 2003.  She previously ran an independent consultancy business leading training and research on alcohol, brief interventions and substance misuse issues at national and local level.  She is a registered pharmacist.