Professor Ronni M. Greenwood

Professor Ronni M. Greenwood is Associate Vice President Student Engagement at the University of Limerick. She has executive oversight of the Glucksman Library, the Centre for Transformative Learning, Student Affairs, the Cooperative Education and Careers Division, and the University’s Ceremonies Office. She also chairs the UL Teaching and Learning Committee and contributes to the development and implementation of institutional strategy across education, student engagement and student success.

Ronni joined the University of Limerick in 2008 and was appointed Professor in 2024. A social and community psychologist, she has almost 30 years’ experience in higher education, beginning her teaching career at the City University of New York in 1996. She completed her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Her institutional work focuses on creating the conditions in which students and staff can contribute meaningfully to university decision-making and educational development. She established the UL Student Engagement Forum and has led or supported initiatives including the redevelopment of the UL Student Charter, the Student Voices in Action Panel, the Commuter Student Working Group, the North Campus Working Group, and UL’s partnership with the JED Foundation.

Ronni chairs the University of Limerick’s University of Sanctuary programme, which supports the University’s commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for refugees, people seeking international protection and others affected by forced displacement. She created UL’s Gaza Sanctuary Scholarships for Displaced Students in Exile pathway, enabling students displaced by the war in Gaza to continue their studies as members of the University community. Across these areas, her work is informed by universal design and inclusive practice, with an emphasis on developing responses that are collaborative, embedded and sustainable.

Ronni’s research addresses social inclusion, homelessness, recovery and relationships between members of differently positioned social groups. She is internationally recognised for her research on Housing First and the effects of homeless-service systems on choice, well-being and recovery. She was a co-investigator on the Horizon 2020-funded HOME_EU project and Principal Investigator for the National Housing First Implementation Evaluation. Before entering academia, she was Assistant Director of Research at Pathways to Housing in New York, where she worked on the original evaluation of the Housing First model.