Dr. Mc Cartney is a Full Researcher at the University of California, Irvine and a Consultant for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where she works at the intersection of bioinformatics, bioethics and policy across human and non-human species.

Dr. Mc Cartney completed her PhD in Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution from Dublin City University. After this she carried out a Genomics Aotearoa Postdoctoral Research Fellowship where she created culturally respectful genomic informatics pipelines for the project that were responsive to the needs and rights of Māori. She then moved Stateside and carried out a second Visiting Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Genome Informatics Section at the NHGRI. During this time, she also conducted a detail in the NIH Office of Science Policy.

Dr. Mc Cartney then transitioned to the University of California, Santa Cruz’s Genomics Institute as an Assistant Researcher where she worked at the forefront of genomic sequencing technologies to develop more just genomic data infrastructures, policies and frameworks for engagement.

She became an elected member of the Executive Council of the Earth BioGenome Project, the Vice-chair of the European Reference Genome Atlas, and the Director of International Partnerships for the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium. She also acted as a “technical expert” for many international science policy initiatives including the DSI Scientific Network, Native Biodata Consortium and the Informal Advisory Group on DSI for the Convention on Biological Diversity. Additionally, Dr. Mc Cartney was part of the team to build the first NIH-funded Tribal Data Repository for American Indian and Alaska Natives.