Previously TUS, UCC, MTU (Munster Technological University), Tralee, Country Kerry, Ireland

Dr. Colm O’Doherty began his professional career as a Social Worker in Coventry and developed a family support service in the inner city there. After leaving Coventry Social Services he worked as a Social Worker in West Wales and Cork City and County where he continued his involvement in family support and community development practice. After eighteen years of front line practice in social work, family support and community development he took on a pivotal role in community and social work education at University College Cork. He left UCC in 1998 and established a social science department at the Institute of Technology Tralee (now the Munster Technological University). He held the position of Visiting Research Fellow at AIT / Technological University of the Shannon from 2018- 2024. Since his retirement he has been working for CORU – the Irish Health and Social Care Registration Authority.

He is the author of A New Agenda for Family Support –Providing Services that Create Social Capital (2007) and co-editor (with Dr. Ashling Jackson) of Community Development in Ireland –Theory, Policy and Practice (2012) and Learning on the Job-Parenting in Modern Ireland (2015).