Dr Sweeney moved to UPEI in August 1997, after a short stint as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Physiology, University of Saskatchewan, and Principal Investigator in the Saskatchewan Stroke Research Center, Royal University Hospital, Saskatoon.  Previously, she completed a Ph. D. in Pharmacology at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS), and an MRC-funded  post-doctoral research fellowship at the University of London (St. George’s Hospital and Royal Free Hospital Schools of Medicine, UK).

Dr Sweeney is a member of the Atlantic Canada Network on Bioactive Compounds (ACNBC; Team lead, Blueberry Research Project) and holds a 3 year Research Professorship in Nutrisciences and Health from the Louis Levesque Foundation (2005-2008). She studies health effects of bioactives from Vaccinium species (blueberries and cranberries) or other foods (e.g. pomegranate).