Niall is Deputy Dean of Norwich Medical School and holds the Chair in Clinical Psychology at the University of East Anglia.  He is also Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Therapies (CPPT) and Director of Postgraduate Studies.

Niall has a First-Class Honours Degree in Psychology, a PhD in Psychology and a Practitioner Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (ClinPsyD).  He is a member of the BPS Divisions of Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council UK and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Before coming to UEA in 2018, Niall held clinical academic appointments in Scotland.  On gaining his clinical doctorate in 2001, Niall worked as a Research Fellow on the CBT Sleep Clinic trial at University of Glasgow.  He then became a Clinical Lecturer at Glasgow, joining the ClinPsyD programme team whilst working clinically with older adults in NHS community mental health teams and with adults in primary care.

From 2008-2018, Niall was Consultant Lead for the largest NHS stroke clinical psychology service in the UK, hosted by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.  In 2012 he was the first Consultant Clinical Psychologist to be awarded the prestigious NHS Research Scotland (NRS) Career Grade Clinical Fellowship.  Laterally, he became an NRS Senior Clinical Fellow. In 2017 he was elected National Lead for Stroke Psychology in Scotland, representing the profession of clinical psychology on the National Advisory Committee, which coordinates implementation of the Stroke Improvement Plan with the Scottish government.

Niall remains a clinician and clinical academic at heart and currently, in recognition of his excellence in stroke research and education work, he holds an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at University of Glasgow Medical School.

Niall’s principal research interests are: [i] the neuropsychological (mood and cognition) consequences of stroke, modelling and treating post-stroke emotionalism and improving understanding of psychological adjustment to stroke, and [ii] behavioural sleep medicine, determining putative mechanisms of cognitive behavioural therapeutics for insomnia disorder.  Niall has published widely on these topics, including original peer reviewed articles in Stroke, International Journal of Stroke, Journal of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Reviews.  

Niall has a clear, ambitious yet sustainable plan and academic agenda focused on delivering high quality post-graduate psychological programmes to grow the regional NHS workforce whilst leading NHS based translational research in stroke and sleep. He is Chief Investigator on the TEARS (Testing Emotionalism After Recent Stroke) cohort study funded by the Stroke Association.  He recently co-founded SINEA: Sleep and Insomnia Network East Anglia with colleagues at UEA.  He has a sustained record of effective postgraduate doctoral research supervision (ClinPsyD, PhD).  He oversees all postgraduate taught provision in the Medical School at UEA.  And he has active teaching, supervisory, staff mentoring and advisory commitments on the ClinPsyD programme he directs, and across CPPT, alongside his clinical research work.