Gillian is an Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education and Chair of Postgraduate Studies by Research at DCU Institute of Education.  She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, (FHEA) in the UK.  She was a Primary Teacher in Ireland for many years before first undertaking an MSc in Child Development & Education (University of Oxford), and then a Doctorate of Philosophy in Education (University of Oxford), focusing on Early Childhood Education.  Her research comprised the design, development and evaluation of an oral language intervention targeting vocabulary and narrative development, of children aged three to four years.  She worked for seven years as a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, specialising in Child Development, Language Development and Researching Child Development modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.  She established the Early Years Research Group at Oxford Brookes University and led it as Research Group Lead.  She has an ongoing research interest in, and welcomes applications for, PhD/Masters by Research/EdD in Early Childhood Education, Language Development, Oral language Interventions, Narrative Development, Play, Evaluation Research and Emerging Literacy.