Dr Derina Johnson

In Botany, I am the Research Project Manager for Connecting Nature, a €12m five-year project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Innovation Action Programme, and coordinated by Dr Marcus Collier. As my Connecting Nature is 0.5fte, I also work in the Equality Office where I act as project manager on the Inclusive Curriculum project – a new initiative in Trinity College Dublin.

I hold a BA in Psychology (University College Dublin) and a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy (Trinity College Dublin). My doctoral studies explored the lives of young migrants and refugees growing up in legal and social marginalisation on the Thailand-Myanmar border, where I lived for three years prior, developing culturally appropriate and sustainable psychosocial care programmes and initiatives for children and youth. Previous to this, I studied Play Therapy and Psychotherapy at the Children's Therapy Centre (CTC), and ran my own play therapy practice working predominately in the inner city and other disadvantaged areas of Dublin. Beyond my main work, I lecture in different universities delivering primarily psychology-related modules, supervise Masters-level dissertation projects, and involve myself in various projects focused on marginalised and refugee children and young people, and their families, including on the Trinity Elective, ‘Displacement: Exploring the Human Experience of Forced Migration’.

See my full TCD profile: https://www.tcd.ie/tricc/people/johnsods