Dr Gail Neill

Overview

Dr Gail Neill is a lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University.  Prior to academia she worked for over 20 years as a youth worker in a range of community and voluntary settings across Northern Ireland.  Her practice focused specifically on gender and sexualities programmes; lobbying and campaigning initiatives; and action based research.

Gail is the Programme Director for the Fast Track Community Youth Work degree programme alongside which she teaches and convenes undergraduate modules.  Her teaching interests include critical thinking; support and supervision; reflective practice; and gender and diversity.

Keen to support the critical articulation of youth work and the distinct contribution this makes, while at YouthActionNI, she founded the Critical Youth Research Hub and co-founded the Critical Voice NI website, remaining actively involved in both.  She continues to further support the youth sector through the delivery of mentoring programmes for LGBTQ young women and provides regular training on anti-oppressive practice for youth worker practitioners.

Gail graduated from Ulster University in 2004 with a BSc in Community Youth Work and completed her doctoral research from Queen’s University Belfast in 2016. She is interested in feminist participatory research and the development of innovative public dissemination and engagement tools.