Dr. Ruth Mc Menamin
Co-lead, PPI Ignite Network @ University of Galway
Dr. Ruth Mc Menamin is a co-lead for the PPI Ignite Network @ University of Galway. She has been a member of the PPI Ignite steering committee and a PPI catalyst @ University of Galway since 2018. Ruth is a lecturer above the bar in the Discipline of Speech and Language Therapy, University of Galway. Ruth’s experience and expertise of connecting and empowering people to develop PPI practice in research and scholarship make her particularly suited to co-lead work package 1 (Building national PPI capacity across communities) with colleagues in DCU and HRCI. In collaboration with PPI contributors and other colleagues, Ruth has co-designed, co-delivered, and co-evaluated PPI training locally, nationally and internationally. This training and the structured PPI PhD module at University of Galway is supporting researchers to embed PPI in their research and become PPI influencers in their own networks. Ruth is a member of the Executive Committee of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs) which includes 253 members from 40 countries, representing 43 languages. As the Early Stage and Junior Stage Research officer Ruth is responsible for offering networking and training opportunities for 140 members. This work and her current role as a guest editor on a special issue in the journal Aphasiology is providing collated resources and good examples related to PPI in aphasia research and scholarship to an international audience.