Elizabeth Mc Ardle

Eliz McArdle is a Lecturer in community youth work at Ulster University. She is co-ordinator of Year One BSc Community Youth Work and Placement Co-coordinator across all full-time cohorts.Eliz has been with Ulster University since 2014. Previously she worked for 10 years as Team Leader for the Equality Work with Young Women team in YouthAction Northern Ireland (previously the Gender Equality Unit). This involved managing projects and staff working with young women across themes of mental health; political engagement; sexual orientation; young parenting and equality.Prior to this, she worked as Development Officer at Ulster University developing new pre-vocational training for youth workers working in community relations and peace-building in Northern Ireland.Eliz McArdle’s research interests are in feminist youth work; how youth work practice builds mental health; and the role youth work can play in peace-building.She is currently acting as external examiner for a range of youth work programmes at Dundalk Institute of Technology, co. Louth.Civic EngagementEliz is working in partnership with YouthAction NI’s Critical Youth Research Hub on a new initiative entitled ‘Building a bank of writers’, to invest in practitioners wanting to develop skills and writing on youth work and young people.As placement co-ordinator she works closely with approximately 70 youth work organisations, regionally and internationally to develop and sustain high quality placements through strong professional relationships, training opportunities and informal connections.Eliz is a member of the Executive Committee for Lisburn Cathedral Scouts.Special AchievementsEliz is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2016)