IRELAND

Professor Wells was born in London and educated in the UK. He qualified as a Registered Mental Health Nurse in 1988 and worked in a number of London based clinical services before transitioning to an academic career. He holds a PhD from King's College London. He is Dean of the School of Health Science at Waterford Institute of Technology, where he also sits on the Executive Board as part of the Institute's senior management team. Professor Wells has served on various Irish national advisory committees in the health and nursing arena, including as a board member of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland; the undergraduate review of nurse education; the national research strategy for nursing and the national advisory panel on drugs (training subcommittee). In addition he was chairperson of the nursing panel for the Undergraduate Awards in 2011 and 2012.Professor Wells is a visiting Professor in Nursing at King's College London, a visiting Professor in Mental Health and Social Integration at Lincoln University and a visiting Professor at the University of Maribor in Slovenia. He is a Senior Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, an Ad Eundem Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland editorial and an International Ambassador Vision 20/20 initiative, Drexel University, USA.An active researcher and writer, Professor has expertise in Policy and Systems Analysis; Quality Improvement in clinical services; Work Related Stress, Work Engagement and Student mental health. Methods expertise includes Case Study Design; Soft Systems Analysis, Participatory Research and Frameworks Analysis. Since 1995 Professor Wells has been awarded grants either as Principal Investigator or a Co-investigator to the value of over €8,000,000. He has authored 80 peer reviewed papers, 9 book chapters and 1 book.