Nessa Hill is a founding member, and CEO of Neurodiversity Ireland, national charity supporting neurodivergent children and their families. Nessa is a practising barrister, specialising in civil litigation and public law and is late-identified AuDHD and PDA. Nessa is mother of 2 AuDHD PDA girls.
Driven by lived experience, Nessa is dedicated to dismantling the deficits-based model of children's disability services, including by leading Neurodiversity Ireland's development of Ireland's first Centre of Excellence for Neurodiversity. Set to open in early 2026, this centre will deliver neuroaffirmative children's disability supports that wrap around the child and their family, based within their local community and most importantly that are fun! This centre will provide a blueprint for such vital services to be replicated throughout Ireland.
In line with the charity's goal of breaking the societal stigma associated with being neurodivergent, Nessa hosted Ireland's first Neurodiversity Summit in 2025, attracting high profile international speakers and bringing together parents, teachers, health professionals and community allies. This event continued Neurodiversity Ireland's information sharing programme, which connects parents and carers to neurodiversity-affirming experts, against the current backdrop of chronic waiting times across Ireland, for accessing such support.
Nessa sits on the Autism Innovation Strategy Oversight Board and is an active member of the Children's Rights Alliance, with a particular interest in child protection, the justice and care systems and intersectionality of marginalisation. Nessa sits on the DPO Monitoring Group with focus upon the Inclusive Education Pillar of the National Strategy for Human Rights of Disabled Persons
Nessa is passionate about pursuing educational reform, advocating for the practical, systems-level change that is needed to bring about an education system that is inclusive of all types of learners.
