About the Commissioner

Dr Melissa McCullough was appointed as the Pan-Island Commissioner for Standards in March 2023.

Melissa moved to Belfast from the United States in 1994 and obtained her PhD from Queen’s University Belfast, Faculty of Medicine in 1997. She also has a Master’s degree in Bioethics and Applied Ethics, a Bachelor of Laws degree and a primary degree in Biology.

Dr McCullough was appointed as the Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards in 2020. Since 2005, she has worked as an academic in law, ethics and professionalism in the UK and Ireland. She served as ministerial appointed non-executive director on the Health and Social Care Board in Northern Ireland from 2009 until 2020. She is currently an assessor for undergraduate medical programmes for the Medical Council Ireland and a member of the BMJ Ethics Committee.

Melissa’s published work and research interests include professionalism, organisational ethics, applied ethics, equality and justice in policy and practice, diversity and inclusion, ethics education, and the ethics of artificial intelligence. She has appeared regularly on the broadcast media as a specialist in these subjects.

She is married with three grown children.