St. Angela’s College appoints a new President
THE Board of Directors of St Angela’s College are delighted to announce the appointment of Amanda McCloat as President (Acting) of St. Angela’s College, Sligo. Amanda Mc Cloat took up the position in January following the retirement of Dr Anne Taheny who was President for the last 14 years. Dr Taheny led the College through a period of significant growth and development with an ever increasing student population.
Aged 39 years, and the youngest Head of a third level institution in the country, Amanda McCloat is a native of Templeboy, Sligo, and comes to the post with extensive academic and management experience. She holds an undergraduate Bachelor of Education (Home Economics and Religious Education) from St. Angela’s College NUI; a Master of Arts in Education from the University Limerick and a Masters in Science (Food Policy) from the University London (City), where she is currently completing her PhD studies. Ms Mc Cloat has over 10 years senior management experience within the College having held the position of Head of the Home Economics Department since 2009. She was initially appointed to the academic staff of the College in 2005 as a Lecturer in Home Economics and prior to that she was a post-primary teacher. Ms Mc Cloat has extensive experience in academic leadership internationally, and is the Vice President of the European Association of Home Economics. She represents Europe on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Home Economics, an organisation which has 1,500 members internationally across 60 countries. At a national level Ms McCloat sat on the inaugural Healthy Ireland Council, a position she was appointed to by the then Minister for Health in May 2014. She was also a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Safefood. She is involved in a wide range of research projects nationally and internationally, and has work collaboratively with, and published with, researchers from Queens University Belfast, University Ulster, IT Sligo, University London (City), South West College and the University Surrey.
Announcing Ms McCloat’s appointment, former Chief Justice Nial Fennelly, Chair of the Board of Directors of St. Angela’s College, stated: “the Board of Directors, students and staff welcomes the appointment of Amanda McCloat as President (Acting) of
St. Angela’s College and wishes her every success in the coming year. We congratulate Dr Anne Taheny for her leadership, as College President, over the past 14 years and wish her well in her retirement”.
St. Angela’s College will be celebrating its 70 th year in Sligo shortly and has a well-deserved reputation for delivering high quality, University accredited undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development programmes in the areas of Nursing; Health Sciences; Disability Studies; Home Economics; Initial Teacher Education (Home Economics; Biology; Irish; Religious Education; Economics); Special Educational Needs, Inclusion and Diversity; Nutrition; Food and Business Management; Leadership and Management; Theology and Religious Education; and Professional Development Programmes for teachers.