Malcolm MacLachlan


Malcolm "Mac" MacLachlan is Professor of Psychology and Social Inclusion at Maynooth University, Ireland..
He has published over twenty books and three hundred academic papers and chapters and delivered over 30 Keynote presentations at international conferences and high-level meetings. His interests are in Social Inclusion, Disability, Assistive Technology, and Policy, Systems & Organisation Design. He also works in the areas of International Development, Humanitarian Work Psychology and Maritime Psychology.
He is the Director of the Assisting Living & Learning Institute, a cross-disciplinary initiative with over 50 academics and researchers, established in 2017, at Maynooth University: https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/all-institute
He is a clinical psychologist, Fellow of the Psychological Society of Ireland and of the British Psychological Society, and Member of the Royal Irish Academ; and has worked in Ireland and throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. He is the Research and Innovation Lead for the World Health Organisation’s Global Cooperation on Assistive Technology programme and the Knowledge Management Lead for the United Nations Partnership for the Rights of People with Disabilities. He has worked extensively with civil society organisations and especially Disabled People’s Organisations. He is a recipient of the American Psychological Association’s International Humanitarian Award, the British Psychological Society’s Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity, and the Royal Irish Academy’s Gold Medal for Social Science.
Prof MacLachlan is also Extraordinary Professor of Rehabilitation at Stellenbosch University, South Africa and Visiting Professor at Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic. He previously held a Personal Chair as Professor of Global Health at Trinity College Dublin, and has been a visiting professor at Harvard University and the University of Malawi; where he was previously head of the Department of Psychology in the 1990s.
Professor MacLachlan has chaired a number of consensus meetings and summits, including:
Chair of WHO Expert Consensus Meeting on the Development of Guidelines in Prosthetics and Orthotics 
Chair of WHO Consensus Meeting for the development of the priority Assistive Products List
Co-chair of the GREAT Summit, WHO Headquarters.
Prof MacLachlan has also led a number of consortia that have produced WHO Commissioned reports, including:
Malcolm MacLachlan, Hea Young Cho, Mike Clarke, Hasheem Mannan, Bonnix Kayabu, Ramona Ludolph and Eilish McAuliffe. Report of the systematic review on potential benefits of accessible home environments for people with functional impairments.. WHO Housing & Health Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organisation.
and two WHO Commissioned realist reviews related to disability and rehabilitation services globally:
see:
Gilmore, B., MacLachlan, M., McVeigh, J., McClean, C., Carr, S.C., Duttine, A., Mannan, H., McAuliffe, E., Mji, G., Eide, A.H., Hem, K.G., & Gupta, N. A study of human resource competencies required to implement community rehabilitation in less resourced settings Human Resources for Health, 15:70 DOI: 10.1186/s12960-017-0240-1 and
McVeigh, J., MacLachlan, M., Gilmore, B., McClean, C., Eide, A.H., Mannan, H., Geiser, P., Duttine, A., Mji, M., McAuliffe, E., Sprunt, B., Amin, M. & Normand, C. Promoting good policy for leadership and governance of health-related rehabilitation: a realist synthesis. Globalization & Health, 12:49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-016-0182-8
Prof MacLachlan's work has impacted practice and policy and has been presented to leading decisions makers; e.g. at the Global Ministerial Forum for Research on Health, to the OECD’s Development Advisory Committee, to the UN’s Commission on Social Development and to the African Union’s meeting of Social Welfare Ministers.

Authored or co-authored books/monographs/manuals

Gloss, Johannes Haushofer, Ariel Kalil, Maureen E. Kenny, Saliha Kozan, Sebastian J. Lipina, Malcolm MacLachlan, Eilish McAuliffe, Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington, Laura Smith, Lori Foster Thompson, Hirokazu Yoshikawa and Kathleen Ziol-Guest. Barriers and Opportunities at the Base of the Pyramid: The Role of the Private Sector in Inclusive Development. Istanbul: UNDP.