Dr. Deborah Brosnan Ph.D. is the president and founder of Deborah Brosnan & Associates, an international scientific consulting company that provides smart solutions to environmental risks and climate change. The company is known for its scientific excellence, integrity, credibility, and ability to find solutions that benefit the environment, community and economic investment. She and her team have successfully implemented innovative solutions on significant national and international environmental projects.

She also has a distinguished career in academia. She is an adjunct professor of biology at Virginia Tech University and has held positions and fellowships at several institutions, including U.C. Davis, Stanford University, the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Washington. She has published in major journals and co-edited two scholarly books. She is a member of several boards including Project AWARE and is president and chair of the Irish America Science Forum Board of Trustees. She is the recipient of a Red Cross humanitarian award for her life-saving efforts for fellow passengers when the 747 jet aircraft they were on crashed on take-off in Asia.

Dr. Brosnan was born in Limerick. She moved to Galway, where she received her B.Sc. honors and M.Sc. before relocating to the U.S. for her Ph.D. at Oregon State University. “My parents and their generation did not have the opportunities for high school education, let alone at university level, but they worked to give me that chance. Irish education fostered my love of learning, exploring the Irish coast sparked my interest in life sciences, and Irish culture fostered my ethic to use knowledge for the betterment of people and our planet.” She has two children, both born in Galway: a son who is a NASA scientist and a daughter who is an anesthesiology resident. ♦