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Harnessing Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace - Thursday 27th March

27/03/2025 13:00 - 14:00
Event date: 27/03/2025 13:00 - 14:00 Export to calendar

Autism Acceptance Festival

DCU, NCI and ATU Sligo are, respectively, the first, second and third HEIs in Ireland to receive AsIAm designation as Autism Friendly HEIs. In 2024, CCT and DkIT both received their designations. NCAD are continuing the work in preparation for application.

In 2025, we six higher education institutes are proud to work together again to host the Autism Acceptance Festival. Now in it's 4th year, this festival hosts a series of public-facing events that centre autistic people and promote autism acceptance.

Learn more about the speakers in this event and find more events in this series by visiting our Festival Hub.

Harnessing Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace

Time: 1-2pm
Date: Thursday 27th March

NCI’s Dave Cormack, programme director of the new Certificate in Harnessing Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace microcredential programme at NCI, will explore how both employers and employees, typical and neurodivergent people, can work together to fully realise the potential of neurodivergent people in the workplace. He will be joined by Colm McNamee, Cuimsiú (Inclusion) Employability Mentor with Fastrack into Information Technology (FIT), Gwen Doyle, Strategic HR Partner at Solas and Adam O'Brien, Events Manager. 

Our Panelists

Speakers at Harnessing Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace event

Bios for our panelists can be found at the end of the page.

Other Autism Acceptance Festival Events

If you are interested in finding out more about our other events, please visit our Festival Hub to check out what is happening.

More information on our panelists

Colm McNamee

Colm McNamee is both Disabled (Autistic, Dyslexic & an ADHDer) whilst also being Intellectually gifted. As someone who has seen first-hand how society can treat people who are different, he also knows the power of education in restoring dignity to an individual and allowing them the chance to reach their full potential, whatever that might be.

He has worked in both the Community and Corporate sectors for over twenty-five years, and in that time, he has seen how a small group of dedicated individuals can come together and change the world.

Gwen Doyle

Gwen is currently a Strategic HR Partner in SOLAS where she has worked as part of the People Engagement Team for the past five years. People Engagement is responsible for the following functions in SOLAS - Learning & Development, Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, Employee Engagement, Values, Performance & Development Process, Wellbeing, SOLAS Internal Apprenticeship Programme and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Her role in SOLAS focused on supporting SOLAS staff to be the best they can be, both professionally and personally.

Prior to that her career has been mainly focused in the world of youth and community work. She was a centre based and outreach youth worker in various communities across Dublin for many years and was involved in the development of a Quality Standards process for the youth work sector.

Her passion for the work that she does is rooted in the belief that each of us has the power to make a difference - whether it be to people, organisations, systems or society.

Dave Cormack

Dave Cormack is a lecturer in the school of business and also programme director for both the BA (Hons) in Business Management part time degree and the Certificate in Harnessing Neurodiversity in the Modern Workplace microcredential programme. Dave completed his MBA at the Open University Business School in 1996 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management and a long-standing Member of the Marketing Institute in Ireland.

Prior to joining NCI Dave spent over thirty years in the technology industry most recently with the EMC Corporation and prior to that with Telecom Éireann, holding senior positions at both. While working in industry Dave also served as an associate lecturer at NCI and a number of other third level institutions.

Dave’s enthusiasm for learning combined with his ability to use real world examples to illustrate key concepts and his belief in his students ability makes him an engaging lecturer who works with students to enable them to achieve their potential.