Aileen qualified as a pharmacist in 2006 after receiving her degree from Liverpool John Moores' University and completing her pre-registration year in community pharmacy. She then worked as the pharmacist for a clinical trials research company in Belfast before moving to Birmingham City Hospital in 2007 as a clinical pharmacist. From there, she moved to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust as a clinical pharmacist, gaining her postgraduate clinical diploma with Keele University (2009) and her independent prescribing certificate at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen (2011), specializing in rheumatology.

Whilst at UHCW she also developed and delivered the Therapeutics and Safe Prescribing course for final year medical students at Warwick University and co-created and delivered the Independent Prescribing course at Aston University as well as interprofessional education modules between both.

Aileen returned to Northern Ireland in 2015 and took up a surgical post at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust before joining QUB as the assistant manager for distance learning in the School of Pharmacy in January 2017 and then as a lecturer (education) for postgraduate pharmacy practice in June 2023.

Aileen is currently completing her PhD in technology enhanced learning with Lancaster University and is interested in the role of failure as a learning tool in postgraduate pharmacy practice, and the role of arts and humanities in postgraduate pharmacy education.