Rita Melia

Dr Rita Melia is a lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) at GMIT. Rita has Worked in ECEC for over thirty years in practice, research, and policy. A registered nurse, an Irish Research Council Scholar and Fulbright awardee to Harvard Graduate School of Education 2016-2017, Rita’s research interests include education across the life course and social care.

Having owned and managed a full day-care early years service in Galway city, Rita has the knowledge and practical experience of working with children and early years providers to support and enhance quality early learning and care experiences. Rita worked with Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) in a variety of roles over a sixteen-year period, from Regional Support Worker to National Policy Advisor, Director of membership and Director of training and practice. In her roles as a senior manager with ECI Rita was responsible for, research tenders, Erasmus projects, commissioned evaluations, National Pyjama Day, Reggio Children International representative, quality initiatives and adult learning and development both internally and externally.

Rita was the first early years specialist appointed to Tusla Early Years Inspectorate, in this role she led out on the development of the Quality and Regulatory Framework eLearning programme and the development of several documents to support the work of the early years inspectorate.

As a lifelong learner Rita's primary degree was a BA in Community and Family Studies, an MA in Adult Learning and Development and a PhD in Child and Youth Research. Rita has completed Circle of Security Facilitator training and is a certified Leuven Scale Wellbeing and Involvement Observer.

Rita has been an invited keynote speaker at conferences in Ireland, South Africa, United States, Turkey, and Italy, she has also presented papers in Malaysia, Moscow, United States and across Europe. These experiences have resulted in a variety of collaborative projects both nationally and internationally.

Rita is an active member of the following committees:

• Children’s Research Network (ECEC; Special Interest Group)
• Irish Fulbright Alumni Association (Membership Secretary)
• Ireland United States Alumni Association (Board Member)
• PLÉ: (Pedagogy Learning Education) executive committee (GMIT representative)
• Taught Programmes Research Ethics Committee (GMIT Castlebar campus).