Who they are
Nancy Doyle is a chartered organisational psychologist, social entrepreneur, and one of the most influential voices on neurodiversity in the workplace. She is Visiting Professor at Birkbeck, University of London, where she co-founded the Centre for Neurodiversity at Work. She founded Genius Within CIC — a majority neurodivergent-staffed social enterprise providing assessment, coaching, and consultancy — and led it as CEO for over a decade before moving to Chief Research Officer. She holds a PhD in organisational psychology from City, University of London, is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a member of the American Psychological Association.
She is neurodivergent herself, which she is open about, and this grounds her work in lived experience as well as research and professional practice.
Key contributions
Neurodiversity in employment
Doyle’s central contribution is bridging the gap between neurodiversity research and the practicalities of working life. Where Chapman provides the philosophical framework and Milton the research paradigm, Doyle provides the employer-facing tools: how to design recruitment processes that do not inadvertently filter out neurodivergent candidates, how to provide workplace adjustments that actually work, how to build neuroinclusive teams. Her work is distinctive because it is simultaneously evidence-based and commercially pragmatic — she speaks to HR directors and line managers, not just academics.
Genius Within CIC
Genius Within is a social enterprise rather than a charity or a commercial consultancy. It provides workplace needs assessments, coaching, and neurodiversity training, and is notable for being staffed and led by neurodivergent people. The organisation created the Genius Finder, an online assessment tool designed to identify working preferences, strengths, and cognitive styles without requiring a diagnostic label — a needs-led rather than diagnosis-led approach.
The needs-led model
Doyle has been a consistent advocate for moving beyond diagnosis-gated support towards needs-based models. Her argument: waiting for a clinical diagnosis before providing workplace adjustments is slow, expensive, and excludes people who are neurodivergent but undiagnosed. A needs-led approach asks “what do you need to work well?” rather than “what is your diagnosis?” This has influenced UK policy discussions around disability employment and the Access to Work scheme.
Media and public engagement
Doyle appeared in A&E’s The Employables (US broadcast), has written the BPS’s guide to neurodiversity at work, and is a regular presence in media discussions about neuroinclusion. She is effective at translating complex research into practical advice without oversimplifying it.
Critical assessment
- Workplace focus is a narrow lens. Doyle’s work is primarily about employment and professional life. The wider experience of neurodivergent people — in education, healthcare, relationships, leisure, aging — is outside her scope. This is not a criticism of her work so much as a reminder that workplace neuroinclusion, while important, is one piece of a larger puzzle.
- The “business case” framing has limits. Doyle often makes the argument that neuroinclusion is good for business (diverse teams perform better, neurodivergent employees bring distinctive strengths). This is strategically effective with employers, but some within the neurodiversity movement worry that it instrumentalises neurodivergent people — their inclusion becomes contingent on their economic value, which is a conditional rather than rights-based argument.
- “Genius” branding. The name “Genius Within” has been noted as potentially reinforcing the savant stereotype — the idea that neurodivergent people must demonstrate exceptional talent to deserve accommodation. Doyle has addressed this, arguing the name refers to everyone’s untapped potential, but the tension between inspirational branding and structural advocacy is real.
Selected works
- Doyle, N., & McDowall, A. (2022). Neurodiversity Coaching: A Psychological Approach to Supporting Neurodivergent Talent and Career Potential. Routledge. — The core practitioner text.
- Doyle, N. (2020). “Neurodiversity at work: a biopsychosocial model and the impact on working adults.” British Medical Bulletin, 135(1), 108–125. — The academic anchor for the workplace neurodiversity model.
- Doyle, N. (n.d.). “Neurodiversity at work.” British Psychological Society guide. — The widely-used BPS practitioner resource.
Last reviewed
2026-04-12.
Related pages
- Robert Chapman — the philosophical foundations that underpin the shift from diagnosis-led to needs-led thinking
- Damian Milton — another autistic researcher whose work has shifted the paradigm from deficit to difference