Dr Sally Whelan is a Research Fellow in the Irish Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Research (ICAN). She coordinates the Irish branch of the EU Horizon 2020 GEMMA project and co-supervises undergraduate and postgraduate research conducted in ICAN. Sally has a long-standing professional and personal interest in autism and she is committed to research that increases understanding how the gut microbiome impacts the well-being of autistic people and how assistive technologies can be used to promote wellbeing and resilience.Sally has many years experience working as a registered nurse and nurse tutor in hospital and community healthcare settings. She has a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Science with Health Visiting, an MSC in Social Sciences, an MA in Nurse Education, and a PhD in Nursing. Her doctoral studies focused on how assistive technologies can promote the resilience and well-being of people with dementia.

My research focuses on autism, dementia, and neurodevelopmental conditions. I am interested in how technology can beused by individuals to support well-being, quality of life,and resilience.

2015 2021. Tutor Clinical Education Post Graduate Diploma. Dept. of General Practice University ofGalway. Responsible for curriculum development, online teaching, workshop facilitation, student assessment, and administration of two modules: Clinical Teaching Methods and Foundations of Assessment.