Roisin P. Corcoran

Roisin P. Corcoran, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in Education at the University of Nottingham (incoming) and founder of IRINSTITUTES. She is a chartered psychologist (CPsychol) and was named a fellow (FBPsS) of the British Psychological Society. Fellow is the highest title, reserved for individuals who demonstrate the highest standards of knowledge and expertise in psychology. Prior to her appointment at the University of Nottingham, she worked at UCD, Johns Hopkins University and Yale University.

Her research interest lies in the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based educational programs and competency-based tools for children and adults. She is principal investigator of a Campbell systematic review of effective programs for social and emotional learning that is funded by the Jacobs Foundation. 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 the 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 recognizes 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. She consults and speaks regularly in corporate, educational and public settings. She serves on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, and is an Associate Editor for Educational Psychology, Frontiers in Psychology. She serves on the Expert Advisory Research Board for the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). CASEL provides research, practice, and policy to support high-quality social and emotional learning in U.S. schools. She is the elected chair-past of the American Educational Research Association's social and emotional learning special interest group. She is creator of the Emotional Competencies Program (ECP).