Professor Helen Whelton BDS PhD MDPH DTLHE FFD FFPHM

Professor Helen Whelton is Head of the College of Medicine and Health in UCC and Chief Academic Officer to the HSE Southwest region in the Irish Health Service.

As Head of College, she works with the Deans of six schools; Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Midwifery, Clinical Therapies, Pharmacy and Public Health; and the heads of the Research Centres to ensure the delivery of the highest quality of education and training to underpin all aspects of health care including clinical service, population health and social care, research and innovation, healthcare leadership, management and planning. In her role she is also the Chief Academic Officer for the HSE Southwest Region which incorporates ten  acute hospitals and the community health services. Colleagues in the health service are an integral part of the teaching, training, research and innovation remit for health care and in this role, she provides a formal interface, bridging between the academic and health service sectors.

Prior to this she was Dean of the School of Dentistry, University of Leeds, UK. Much of Prof Whelton’s research has been focused on providing information for oral health policy. She has directed a number of national surveys of adult and children’s oral health. She has also led EU funded research projects, the most recent of which was an H 2020 grant to explore the use of Big Data in dentistry, involving eight national and private insurers in six EU countries. In addition to leading research projects in Ireland she is currently collaborating on research grants with colleagues in the UK and Australia. She chairs the management committee of the UCC/HRB Clinical Research Facility and is leading the development of a joint research governance infrastructure between the South South-West Hospital Group and UCC.

Previously, in UCC she was Vice Head of the College, Dean of the Graduate School in the College of Medicine and Health, Professor of Dental Public Health and Director of the Oral Health Services Research Centre. She is a past president of the International Association for Dental Research and is the Association’s representative on the Federation Dentaire International Science Committee. Outside of dentistry Helen has served on the board of the Irish Health Research Board, the National Obesity Task Force and the Irish Women’s Health Council. She has expertise in a number of areas including Epidemiology, particularly National Surveys and Clinical Trials, Health Services Research, Fluoride, Caries, saliva and