Professor Katriona O’Sullivan: Honoured for Outstanding Contribution to Wellbeing
At the annual Leading in Wellbeing Lunch, held on 7 May at the Intercontinental Hotel, nearly 300 leaders gathered to honour the organisations making Irish workplaces healthier and more resilient. Alongside the companies celebrated for their KeepWell Mark accreditation and best in class awards, a central highlight of the afternoon was the presentation of the 'Outstanding Contribution to Wellbeing' award.
Professor Katriona O’Sullivan, the recipient of this year’s award, joins a prestigious lineage of past honourees like Dr Brian Pennie and Panti Bliss. Like them, she has used her platform to disrupt the status quo. However, her contribution is unique: she has challenged corporate Ireland to recognise that true workplace wellbeing cannot exist without addressing the 'class ceiling'.
Moving beyond the surface
For many, wellbeing is a set of workplace benefits. For Professor O’Sullivan, it is a matter of social justice. Her selection for this award was driven by her ability to reshape the national conversation around trauma, poverty and psychological health.
Through her bestselling memoir, Poor, Katriona held a mirror up to the business community. She reminded us that while talent is found in every postcode, opportunity is not. For a worker from a marginalised background, wellbeing is not just about stress management - it is about the psychological toll of being 'the only one' in the room. By weaving her personal journey - from a home shaped by her parents’ addiction and experiencing homelessness as a teenager to becoming a PhD graduate from Trinity College Dublin - she has provided a roadmap for leaders to understand the invisible weight of imposter syndrome and early-life trauma.
From advocacy to action
What made Katriona the definitive choice for this honour is that she does not just identify gaps; she builds the bridges to fix them. As a Senior Lecturer at Maynooth University’s Department of Psychology and the ALL Institute, her work is grounded in academic rigour but fuelled by a mission for social mobility.
The award highlighted her extraordinary work with the STEM Passport for Inclusion. This initiative has already empowered 6,000 girls from low-income backgrounds, providing them with tangible pathways into university and corporate careers. By connecting this untapped talent with corporate mentors, Katriona is actively dismantling the barriers she once faced. She is showing the business community that inclusive recruitment and mentoring are not just CSR initiatives - they are essential for a healthy and psychologically safe society.
Accepting the award, Professor O’Sullivan issued a direct challenge to the leaders in the room:
'I have spent the last few years trying to improve conditions for those living on the margins - for those of us not born with privilege. To have that work recognised by industry means a lot. What I would ask now is: what will you do with your privilege? I am using mine to make things fairer so that everyone gets a chance to shine, and so we all have access to mental health supports, housing and education. Now, it is down to you.'
A new standard for leadership
Katriona’s recent appointment to lead the National Centre for Inclusive Higher Education - Ireland’s first hub dedicated to helping students from underserved communities succeed - marks a new chapter in her impact. For the workplace wellbeing community, her recognition serves as a reminder that the most resilient organisations of the future will be those that treat social diversity as a core wellbeing strategy.
The Leading in Wellbeing Lunch was a celebration of progress, but Katriona O’Sullivan’s story is a call to action. Her journey proves that when we build a version of corporate Ireland that is truly inclusive, we do not just improve the workplace; we support the wellbeing of every person, regardless of where their story began. She has taught us that the ultimate measure of a society’s wellbeing is how well it protects and promotes the potential of its most vulnerable members.
Inclusion and belonging form one of the eight pillars of the KeepWell Mark, Ibec’s evidence-based workplace wellbeing accreditation framework. You can find out where your organisation stands on workplace wellbeing by taking the pulse check at www.ibec.ie/workplacewellbeing.
