Susan is a Research Fellow at the Educational Research Centre (ERC) in Drumcondra, Dublin, ‎where she has worked since 1995. Susan’s work is mainly focused on educational disadvantage, ‎and she has had responsibility for several evaluations of programmes aimed at addressing ‎disadvantage on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills. The most recent of these is the ‎‎‘DEIS’ (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) programme in primary and post-primary ‎schools. She has also worked for many years on the identification of indicators of educational ‎disadvantage at primary and post-primary level, and on the assessment of levels of disadvantage in ‎schools. The relationship between socioeconomic background and educational outcomes, and in ‎particular how that relationship differs in urban and rural areas, is a major current interest. Susan ‎was awarded both her primary degree and her Ph.D. in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin. ‎