Michelle Cowley-Cunningham

Chartered Psychologist and Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Centre for Family Business, Dublin City University
Dr Michelle Cowley-Cunningham CPsychol AFPsSI is a chartered and professions-led psychologist. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Centre for Family Business and co-investigator on the Family Business Succession Project. A Royal Statistical Society RSS Fellow and m-level accredited market researcher CMRS, she employs multidisciplinary insights to better inform psychological research. Michelle helped found, and serves as Secretary of, the Psychological Society of Ireland's Special Interest Group in Human Rights & Psychology. Her recent research and policy projects address how sustainable business values promote child and adolescent mental health in the climate crisis context (PSI UN submission, 2023).

Professional activities and research: An Irish Research Council scholar, Michelle completed her PhD in psychology at Trinity College Dublin. Her doctoral thesis was subject of a full article in Nature Publications News and published as a book 'Hypothesis testing: how we foresee falsification in competitive games'. After a year-long lectureship in applied psychology at the University of Southampton, she was awarded a Katzenbach Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Law Faculty University of Oxford to develop research on the psychology of foresight and its connection to human rights (with visiting scholarship to Princeton University, USA). Michelle has published in the leading journals Psychology, Crime & Law, the International Journal of Forensic Science & Criminal Investigation, Irish Studies in International Affairs and Clinical Psychology Forum. Applying psychology and market research to roles held in QS Top 100 universities, FTSE 100 Index, CNBC Top 200 fintech and Irish Times Top1000 companies, her project management is cited in leading international media including the IC Investment & Wealth Management Awards (2019, 2020), Financial Times (2016, 2019, 2020),The Times (2022), PolicyCommons and the NYU Stern NET Institute Series. Michelle has been an Ambassador Facilitator with the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She was a research lead on the SATLE funded Association of Higher Education Careers Services national award-winning Graduate Employability Superfoods Toolkit (2022), featuring in a Quality & Qualifications Ireland QQI Report (2022) and Government of Ireland Human Capital Virtual Labs HC1 P3 Initiative (2023). Michelle also serves on the Editorial Review Board of the Market Research Society's flagship journal International Journal of Market Research.