Maria is also the Co-Chair of the Health and Social Care Professions Alliance(HSCPA), an umbrella organisation of professional bodies, representing over 21,000 HSCPs. She is a Chartered Physiotherapist, having worked clinically for 27 years, the majority of which was spent in CHI, Crumlin, where she developed the first national Paediatric Orthopaedic Triage Clinic, delivered by physiotherapists. She was awarded a PhD from UCD in 2019 for her research on Advanced Practice Physiotherapy in Paediatric Orthopaedics.
Marie has worked previously with the HSCP Office in the HSE to publish the Advanced Practice Competency Framework for HSCPs, and is currently a member of the Expert Working Group set up by the Department of Health to develop x-ray referral rights for physiotherapists, encompassing education and governance frameworks and legislative changes.
She regularly lectures on paediatric orthopaedics and advanced practice and has presented her research both nationally and internationally including at the World Congress of Physical Therapists in Singapore 2015, in Cape Town in July 2017 and in Geneva in 2019 and Dubai 2023.