Board of Directors

Dr. David Crosby joined Merrion Fertility Clinic as CEO and Clinical Director. He is a Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist at the National Maternity Hospital with a special interest in Reproductive Medicine, Surgery & Genetics. He is the Clinical Lead of the Ireland East Regional Fertility Hub and Clinical Lecturer and Assistant Professor at University College Dublin. Dr. Crosby graduated from Trinity College Dublin with first class honours in medicine. Following completion of his ESHRE & EBCOG Accredited Fellowship in Merrion Fertility Clinic and the National Maternity Hospital in Reproductive Medicine and Surgery, he was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine from University College Dublin. For this work, he was granted his own competitive funding from the Clinical Primer Scheme, a UCD and SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust Biomedical Research Partnership. He was awarded the British Fertility Society Young Clinician Award in 2020 and the prestigious RCOG Harold Malkin Prize in 2021. He has over 30 publications in peer reviewed journals and has presented research to national and international learned societies. He developed a keen interest in leadership and quality improvement by becoming a Quality Improvement Scholar and Fellow with the RCPI and the International Society for Quality in Healthcare. He was awarded a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with Distinction in 2020. He has recently undertaken a clinical fellowship in Reproductive Genetics and Genomics at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University, New York and was awarded European Certification in Medical Genetics and Genomics and an MSc in Genomic Medicine with Distinction in 2021.

Having graduated from University College Cork, Professor Higgins, MRCOG, FRANZCOG, MPH (Melb), undertook his postgraduate training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the West of Scotland Deanery. He subsequently undertook subspecialty training in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Upon completing his fellowship, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Consultant in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at The Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne. Professor Higgins returned to Ireland in 2004 to a Consultant position in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda and subsequently to the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in 2009. Professor Higgins is Associate Professor at University College Dublin, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and is the current Master of the National Maternity Hospital, having commenced his seven year tenure as Master on 1^st January, 2019. As a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist with a special interest in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Professor Higgins has a broad range of clinical and management experience gained within Ireland, Scotland and Australia.

Professor Declan Keane, MD, FRCPI, FRCOG, has been a Consultant Obstetrician since 1995 and is a former Master of the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street. He has worked in the UK and the USA and was recently appointed as a Professor to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Professor Keane has considerable administrative experience and was a former member of the National Women’s Council. He was the obstetrician advising the Citizen’s Assembly on the 8th Amendment.

Dr. Orla Sheil, MD, FRCOG, FRCPI, graduated from University College Dublin. She trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in both Dublin, Ireland and Oxford, United Kingdom. She has been a Consultant at the National Maternity Hospital since 1994 and has a broad clinical experience with special interests in fetal care in labour and paediatric/adolescent gynaecology. Dr. Sheil has gained considerable administrative experience through work with the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, where she was previously Associate Professor. She holds a Diploma in Management for Medical Doctors (RCSI/IPA). Currently, she is the National Maternity Hospital Clinical Lead for the planned co-location of NMH with St Vincent's University Hospital at Elm Park.

Fiona Duffy studied at University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and the Law Society of Ireland. She was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1980 and in England and Wales in 2010. She is a member and former Chair of the Litigation Committee of the Law Society in Ireland, a member of the Circuit Court Rules Committee and a member of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. Fiona is also a member of the UK and Ireland LGBT Family Law Institute. She has extensive legal experience in the area of Assisted Human Reproduction, fertility treatment and surrogacy.

Buncrana-born Mary Doherty still runs Red Dog which she founded in 1993, nurturing the company and maintaining its position as one of Ireland’s leading and respected creative agencies. Her vision and steadfast demand for excellent design has helped drive the creative team forward to becoming an internationally recognised, award-winning creative agency. Mary holds a Hons B.A. in Visual Communications from NCAD and is a Fellow of the Institute of Designers in Ireland. Mary has a significant level of expertise in developing brands that are now ready to move on, re-invent themselves or have found that they have simply ‘outgrown’ their current visual and verbal brand identity. Mary is a qualified designer herself but now spends her time leading projects, working directly with clients and managing multiple stakeholders, running presentations and keeping a high level eye across the whole project from beginning to end – as well as running a successful company. Mary has never worked anywhere else as Red Dog was established the morning after she graduated from college and still lives to their mantra of ‘We are good at what we do because good is never good enough’.  

Dr. Peter Joyce, MB, BCh, BAO, MICGP, graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2010. He trained in General Practice on the Trinity College Dublin GP Specialist Training Programme, completing this in 2016. He worked in several GP surgeries in Dublin before joining Newlands Cross Medical Centre as a partner in 2018. He has a keen interest in medical education and was appointed as a GP Trainer with the same Trinity College Dublin GP Specialist Training programme in 2021. Since 2018, he has served on a voluntary basis at a local level as a committee member on the Tallaght-Clondalkin Local Integrated Care Committee (TC LInCC). He was appointed as a CHO 7 GP Lead in 2023. He was also appointed to the Board of the Merrion Fertility Clinic in 2023.