Michelle has a background in Occupational Therapy (OT), research and programme management. She holds a BSc in Occupational Therapy and a MSc in Diabetes. She has a wide range of clinical experience as an Occupational Therapist both at home and overseas across both public and private health care systems with a variety of client populations.

Michelle’s clinical and research interests include the psychosocial aspects of chronic disease management, and she is passionate about advocating for the potential value and contribution of Occupational Therapy in this area. You can listen to a podcast interview Michelle did with the Irish Occupational Therapy Podcast on this here.

Michelle has joined the CanWork team as an Occupational Therapist-Researcher and she is currently facilitating the 6-week CanWork programme with participants of the study. At the end of each group programme, Michelle supports each participant to co-develop an individually tailored return to work action plan which are designed to support a successful transition back to work.

Before joining the CanWork team, in addition to her previous clinical OT roles, Michelle worked as a Project & Change Management Specialist where her team supported the implementation of Sharing the Vision – Ireland's National mental health policy. One of the core questions Michelle tackled in her work was how we can close the implementation gap between policy and practice. Michelle has also worked as a mental health promotion manager for a national youth mental health organisation, leading a team and programme of work which focussed on promoting the mental health of young people across Further and Higher education.

Outside of her day job Michelle remains actively involved in research and advocacy and is currently also a member of the Irish “Language Matters” working group, which is a global initiative designed to promote respectful, person-centred language in diabetes care.