BSc, MSc, MBA

Brendan Staunton is the co-founder and CEO of Amara Therapeutics. Brendan has over a decade of medical device commercialisation experience working with several international medical device companies at senior management level. Brendan studied Neuroscience at University College Dublin (UCD) and holds a Master’s degree in Medical Device Innovation from NUIG and an MBA from Smurfit Business School Dublin.

Brendan is passionate about developing new medical device innovations that can have global impact. He identified to need to provide more effective early-stage treatments for pelvic and bladder health conditions during the Standford-affiliated Bioinnovate fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway back in in 2018. Since then, Brendan has worked tirelessly to develop solutions to these problems and is excited from the impact Amara Therapeutics can have in this field in the coming years.

M.Ps.S.I, BA, H.Dip, MSc, PhD.

Emma Carr is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Amara Therapeutics. Emma is a health psychologist by training, with extensive experience in the development and execution of digital health interventions and clinical trials. Emma has led several digital health implementation projects for both National Research Institutions and industry. Emma is a thought leader in the space and has lectured on multiple programs including the MSc in Digital Health Transformation at UL and the MSc in Health Psychology at NUIG. She has been an invited speaker on the role of psychology in digital health for organisations such as EIT Health and Science Foundation Ireland. She is currently an Executive Committee member of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Division of Health Psychology.

Emma is passionate about creating patient centered, meaningful interventions that have the potential to transform healthcare. Her PhD research, for which she was awarded the PSI DHP Ruth Curtis Postgraduate Excellence in Research/Practice Award, focused on the science of person-based intervention development in digital health. Emma ensures that the patient’s voice is always at the centre of our work at Amara Therapeutics and that the evidence we generate for our products is of the highest quality.

MD, FACOG, FACS, FRCSC

Dr. Geoffrey Cundiff is a co-founder and CMO of Amara Therapeutics. He is also a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of British Columbia, where he is a research scientist at the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences and the Women’s Health Research Institute. He has active trials in urogynaecology, reconstructive surgery, and obstetrics, and has research interests bridging epidemiology of pelvic floor disorders and patient centered outcomes. Dr. Cundiff is a longstanding contributor to the medical literature with more than 10,000 citations. He has published 6 books, and more than 200 peer reviewed publications, and has led several multi-centered randomized trials. He has also advocated for women suffering from pelvic floor disorders through providing leadership of professional organizations, including serving as the President of the American Urogynecologic Society.

Geoff has been a pioneer in patient centred health care and research to support it. This includes advocating for patient-reported outcomes measures, which he has both developed and validated. This focus on the patient comes from his practice in urogynaecology. He has practiced in both the United States and Canada, most recently with a clinical practice dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of pelvic floor disorders, at the Centre for Pelvic Floor, in Vancouver British Columbia.

BBLS, MBS, PhD

Ultan has vast academic and practical experience in business informatics and information systems. His Masters dissertation mapped success factors of traditional information systems to ecommerce platform performance. His Doctoral research developed a novel measurement instrument based on positive psychology theories to measure behavioural intentions within ecommerce software. Ultan's work has been published in the International Journal of Ebusiness Research and he has presented research at numerous conferences. He has lectured in ecommerce strategy, decision systems, business analytics, application programming and lean methodologies. He is also an adjunct lecturer at the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics, National University of Galway Ireland.

Ultan has held commercial roles in consulting, e-learning, and mobile applications along with technical positions in e-learning development, web development, and mobile device support. Through these roles he has developed years of experience with the commercial and technical aspects of software project management.

M.Ps.S.I, BA, MSc.

Katie Dunne is our Quality Assurance Lead at Amara Therapeutics. Katie has over nine years of experience working within large multi-national medical device companies, primarily as a Quality Engineer supporting manufacturing, problem-solving and continuous improvement activity, validations and large scale projects.

Katie has an academic background in Psychology, with a Bachelor’s degree from University College Dublin (UCD) and a Master’s degree in Psychological Science from the University of Limerick (UL). She is a graduate member of the Psychological Society of Ireland. Katie has a strong interest in improving patients' lives through innovative healthcare technologies and approaches.