Sheelah Connolly

Sheelah Connolly is a Senior Research Officer in the Social Research division and joint Research Area Coordinator for Health and Quality of life research at the ESRI. She is also an adjunct associate professor at the Department of Economics at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and teaches Health Economics at TCD. She is a member of the Health Research Consent and Declaration Committee (HRCDC). 

Sheelah’s research interests include the social and economic determinants of health, the economics of ageing and health system reform. Since joining the ESRI in 2014, much of her research has addressed issues of healthcare financing and access in the Irish context. Sheelah currently manages the Department of Health/ESRI Research Programme on healthcare reform as well as working on a range of other projects and programmes. 

Sheelah has authored/co-authored over 70 outputs in a range of outlets including academic journals (including Health Economics, Policy and Law, European Journal of Public Health, Health Policy, The Lancet Neurology and Social Science & Medicine), book chapters, ESRI reports and opinion pieces. 

Sheelah has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York (England) and a PhD in Epidemiology from Queens University Belfast.

Prior to joining the ESRI in 2014, she held positions in Trinity College Dublin and the University of Galway.