A Laois sustainable fashion educator, advocate, and designer, Miriam Keegan, receives the Mary Immaculate Alumni Award for her outstanding work in promoting sustainability in fashion.

Miriam's Educational Background

Miriam graduated from MIC in 2016 with a Bachelor of Education, specializing in Visual Art Education. She was deeply inspired by her grandmother's sewing and dressmaking skills, fostering her keen interest and talent in sewing.

Awards and Recognition

During her time at MIC, Miriam was awarded the Carmel Naughton Foundation scholarship to study at Notre Dame University, USA. She spent five years teaching in Laois and Kildare, earning the Highly Commended Award at the 'Someone Like Me' Awards in 2016 for a whole-school collaborative art project.

Contributions to Sustainable Fashion

In 2018, Miriam began studying Fashion Design and set up a sewing club in her school for children to learn the basics of sewing. During the pandemic in 2020, she created the first-of-its-kind EPV teacher online summer course on sustainable fashion in the classroom, with over 350 teachers completing the course.

Recent Achievements

In 2021, Miriam was one of the select recipients of the Fulbright-EPA award, completing her Master of Science in Fashion and Apparel Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Social Responsibility and Sustainable Fashion Business at the University of Delaware. She now works for the Fair Labor Association, advocating for garment workers’ rights.

In October, Miriam led the fashion brand Aoife McNamara to become the first fashion brand in Ireland to achieve BCorp certification, one of the most rigorous and respected sustainability certifications in the world.

Current Endeavors

Miriam is currently studying for a Graduate Diploma in Carbon Footprinting and Life Cycle Analysis at UCD, alongside her work. Her mission is to bring awareness, education, and solutions for sustainability in fashion for teachers, consumers, children through sewing, and businesses through innovation and transparency.