The 2025 recipient of the Leadership Excellence Award for Ireland is Dr Ruth Melia.

In Ireland, research, policy, and practice converge to make mental health care more accessible, inclusive, and impactful. Dr Ruth Melia is bridging disciplines and sectors to ensure that evidence-based innovation translates into tools people can trust and use.

Her work spans national strategies, digital safety planning, and suicide prevention tools such as the SafePlan app and SpunOut Navigator. She helped shape Ireland’s first National Digital Mental Health Strategy, launched the country’s inaugural Digital Mental Health module, and established a national conference and research network to grow future capacity.

With cross-disciplinary expertise in both engineering and psychology, she advises on digital parenting, AI, and ethics, while keeping people’s lived experience at the heart of the work.

Dr Ruth Melia exemplifies leadership in translating research into real-world tools, demonstrating meaningful impact on national mental health care.

Congratulations to Dr Ruth Melia.