People

Dr. Neil Kenny 

Is an Assistant Professor at the School of Inclusive and Special Education at DCU and Programme Chair of the Master of Education in Autism . Neil is a 2022 Irish Research Council Research Ally award recipient with interests in autism research, inclusive education, accessible qualitative and participatory research. More information  is available in his profile. 

He is  a coordinator of the network. 

E: neil.kenny@dcu.ie

Tw: @NeilKenny0

Dr. Jane O'Kelly

An Assistant Professor at the School of Policy and Practice at DCU and Programme Chair of the BSc in Education and Training. She has research interests in Autism, adult education, educational inequality, inclusive qualitative research and participatory research. More information is available in her profile.

Dr. Teresa Shiels

is a researcher and scholar whose research has explored her experience of Traumatic Brain Injury and her successful progression through higher education. She has authored a number of academic articles exploring her experience as a TBI survivor and the experience of post-graduate neurodivergent learners in higher education. 

Dr. Alison Doyle

Alison has practiced as a teacher, School Principal, and Educational Psychologist across primary, secondary, and higher education contexts internationally for almost 40 years. She has a particular practice and research interest in the transition from school to college and employment for young people with disabilities, and the experience of autism, demand avoidance, inertia, and anxiety . She is a member of the Association of Educational Psychologists (UK), the British Psychological Society, the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, and the Psychological Society of Ireland.

More information about Dr. Doyle can be seen HERE 

Dr. Stuart Neilson

Stuart Neilson lectures and writes about the autism spectrum as a health statistician and from his personal perspective of an Asperger syndrome diagnosis in 2009, at the age of 45. He has a degree in computer science and a doctorate in mathematical modelling of inherent susceptibility to fatal disease. He uses video to produce images of motion in the shared public space in his home city of Cork, in Ireland. He uses computer processing and statistical techniques to combine multiple frames to display the locus of motion of individuals, and of crowds. These images convey his sense of how the "completed action" appears as a memory or pattern of how space is shared, the "hot-spots" of high intensity shared (or contested) space, and the distracting or attracting elements of an environment.

Finbar Horgan

Finbar is Education Officer at AsIAm coordinating AsIAms Autism Friendly Schools Project. He is a registered nurse (intellectual disability) and since qualifying in 2015 has working in a variety of settings supporting autistic people and people with intellectual disabilities including residential services for adults and children, an autism aware service and a summer camp for autistic young people based in New York, USA. 

Finbar is currently working towards his Ph.D with DCU’s Institute of Education. Finbar’s research entitled ‘Voices of Inclusion’, focuses on the lived experiences of autistic young people enrolled in secondary schools in Ireland.  

Claire O'Neill

Is Deputy Head and SENCO of a Primary National School in Cork. She is also Head of Training at Thriving Autistic, a global team of autistic and neurodivergent psychologists, therapists and coaches providing neurodiverse affirmative training services. 

She is author of the recently published book "The Strengths Based Guide to Supporting Autistic Children"

Dr. Craig Goodall

Dr. Craig Goodall taught young people in an Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) provision in Northern Ireland for 13 years where he worked closely with many autistic young people for whom mainstream education was not suitable to support their needs. Craig is an Autism Advisory Teacher, advising and supporting a range of Primary and Special school settings. He is also an Associate Lecturer and MEd dissertation supervisor at St Mary’s University College, Belfast and MEd Autism dissertation supervisor at Dublin City University. 

He is the author of the book, Understanding the Voices and Experiences of Autistic Young People and a number of academic articles on listening to and supporting inclusion of Autistic young people. 

Maggie Green

Maggie is a Lecturer in Education at Hibernia College and prior to this was a practising primary school teacher for almost twenty years. She spent several years on secondment with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) as an advisor in the area of autism. Maggie lectured part time for ATU Donegal where she was involved in course design, development and delivery and she has also worked as a tutor with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST).  She is a current EdD student at Dublin City University (DCU) and was the recipient of the John Smith Doctoral Scholarship award in 2022. Maggie’s current research is a phenomenological study of the lived school experiences of the autistic trans and non-binary community in the Republic of Ireland.