Dr. Roisin P. Corcoran

Dr. Corcoran is currently Professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston), School of Public Health in the Department of Management, Policy and Community Health. Prior to her appointment at UTHealth Houston, she worked at Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, the University College Dublin (UCD), and the University of Nottingham. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. She was an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. She was an Associate Professor of Education at the School of Education, UCD. She was Full Professor, Chair in Education, at the University of Nottingham (tenured). Dr. Corcoran is a chartered psychologist (CPsychol), and was named a Fellow (FBPsS) of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS).

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Dr. Corcoran’s research interest lies in the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based educational programmes and competency-based tools for children and adults. She has served as the principal investigator of a systematic review of effective programmes for social and emotional learning that is funded by the Jacobs Foundation. She was also the principal investigator of a study titled evidence-based policy and provision for social and emotional learning that is funded by the ESRC impact accelerator award. As the Principal Investigator (PI), she has designed and led a series of multiyear, multisite projects-funded by the U.S. Department of Education I3 and foundations-focusing on school-based interventions and the mechanisms by which they have their impact on social, psychological and academic outcomes (e.g., randomized studies of McGraw-Hill Reading Wonders, Success For All, English Language Literacy Acquisition Validation, National Institute of School leadership Validation). She has served as principal investigator of a $12 million Department of Education validation study addressing literacy, mathematics and science in 300 struggling schools across the United States.

She is the recipient of numerous scholarships, grants and awards for her research. She was the recipient of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s faculty development committee award, the IRC scholarship and the American Psychological Association’s early career award in educational psychology. The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization representing the field of psychology in the United States, and internationally. Each year, the APA presents the Early Career Award in Educational Psychology to three awardees from anywhere in the world who possess extraordinary ability and promise, and contribute to educational psychology. In 2013, Professor Corcoran was one of these three awardees because of her outstanding contributions to the field of education psychology. She was named the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Rising Star in 2016. The APS Rising Star Award recognises outstanding psychological scientists, as nominated by their peers, whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions. Her research in this area has been published nationally and internationally through peer-reviewed articles and books. Dr. Corcoran was Executive Editor for the journal Teaching and Teacher Education An International Journal of Research and Studies (TATE). She is Associate Editor for Frontiers in Psychology and is the founding book series editor of Contemporary perspectives on social and emotional learning by Information Age Publishing (IAP), and serves on the editorial board of the journal Campbell Systematic Reviews.

Dr. Corcoran performs national and international consultancy work. She is currently Co-Chair of the Campbell Collaboration Education Coordinating Group (ECG). As Co-Chair, she is responsible for strategic leadership and fundraising, along with maintaining internal governance and making final decisions regarding policy and implementation related to the ECG. She was appointed to the Government Cross Whitehall What Works Trial Advice Panel. She served on the American Enterprise Institute Future of American K-12 Education Working Group, and the Technical Advisory Committee of Edmentum. She has also advised the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Cabinet Office and the World Bank Education Global Practice of educational issues. She was the elected chair of the American Educational Research Association‘s social and emotional learning special interest group. She has served on the Expert Advisory Research Board for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). She has also served as a member of the University of Nottingham’s Research Committee (Senate Committee), the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s University Strategy External Factors Working Group, and the Faculty of Social Sciences Promotions/Tenure Committee. Dr. Corcoran is Founder of IRINSTITUTES and creator of the Emotional Competencies Program (ECP).

Expertise Summary

  • Social and emotional learning (SEL)
  • Systematic reviews & meta-analysis
  • Program evaluation

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