Congratulations to our Chief Academic Officer and Head of Paediatric Health Affairs, Susa Benseler, who was given a Trinity Professorial Fellowship

We are so proud and offer huge congratulations to our Chief Academic Officer and Head of Paediatric Health Affairs, Children's Health Ireland (CHI), Susa Benseler, who was given a Trinity Professorial Fellowship this year, related to advances in Child Health.

On Thursday, June 19th Susa gave her inaugural lecture in Trinity College Dublin, and spoke about the largest National Canadian Child Health Research Initiative “One Child Every Child”- a partnership of healthcare, universities and communities aiming to transform outcomes for children and families through research and partnership – led by Susa.

Colleagues across CHI, and beyond, will know Susa is deeply passionate about research and dedicated to advancing child health through evidence-based solutions and compassionate care.

We are lucky to have her expertise and guidance as we look to the new hospital and all the innovative possibilities the opportunity presents.

Susa Benseler completed Medical School at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her university training sparked her life-long passion for immunology and inflammation ignited by the transformational partnership and unique student engagement of the Basel Institute of Immunology, the Clinical and Basic Science Immunologists at the Universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg and the newly established Max Planck Institute of Immunology in Freiburg led by Nobel Laureate and B cell pioneer Prof. George Koehler. She joined the PhD program partnered with the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where she advanced a model of systemic sclerosis focused on the pathways of inflammation resulting in skin fibrosis in a basic science lab for Experimental Pathology.

Susa started her residency training at the University Children’s Hospital in Freiburg, Germany. Her clinical service focus became paediatric emergency and intensive care. She subsequently joined the University Children’s Hospital Bonn, Germany, where she graduated and held an academic appointment before moving to the Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids), Toronto, Canada.

Susa established the international network for inflammatory brain diseases, BrainWork, which includes a virtual international cohort for rare and ultrarare diseases, has decreased variation in care by providing evidence-based protocols for neuroinflammatory diseases and has reduced the dramatic mortality of this life threatening group of diseases. She served as a clinical leader in the Understanding Childhood Arthritis Network (UCAN), a multinational, transdisciplinary partnership with families aiming to decipher the biologic basis of childhood arthritis and guide treatment decisions.

Since early 2024, Susa is serving as the Chief Academic Officer (CAO) and Head of Paediatric Health Affairs enabled by the commitment of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) and four Dublin-based Universities including Trinity College Dublin and guided by the shared clinical and academic mission. Her work includes advancing the new academic campus co-locating the new children’s hospital and the Trinity College Dublin partnering with St James’s Hospital.

Together these will be building a centre piece in the Academic Health Science Systems across the age spectrum - a first in Irish Healthcare. In her CAO role, Susa is serving the passionate and diverse community of child healthcare teams, educators, learners and researchers and is building cross sectoral partnerships across the island and beyond.

She aims to empower the passionate healthcare teams to embrace and advance research and universities to focus discoveries on the unmet needs of children and families. She established impactful leadership committees including the Paediatric Chairs of Ireland, the Paediatric Academic Health Sciences Network (PAHSC/N) Steering committee, the Academic Leadership Committee and several strong partnerships with government, training networks, funders and the private sector.

This first-in-Europe cross-sectoral Irish Academic Child Health partnership is building on the strength of Trinity College in concert with the other Universities across the island, the vision of child health leaders and our shared passion to advance child health outcomes and enable every child to thrive.