Professor Sheppard is head of the CRY Cardiovascular Pathology Unit at St George’s Medical School. She has established a national cardiac referral centre to investigate all sudden young cardiac deaths in the UK.

She qualified in medicine from University College Cork, Ireland. She was trained in cardiac pathology by Professor Michael Davies at St George’s Medical School London and followed him in being appointed to Chair in the same medical school in 2013. She has published 450 peer reviewed papers, 30 book chapters, and has been on writing group for 9 international guidelines.

She has published the third edition of her book on Cardiovascular Pathology in 2022. She works closely with her cardiologist colleagues at St Georges Hospital in clinical and genetic follow up of families who have suffered a sudden death.

She is member of pathology review panel for Sudden Unexpected death in children (SUDIC) UK. She is the lead pathologist on the Executive Board of the National Pilot Study for investigation of Sudden cardiac death formed in 2020 in UK. She runs an international annual cardiovascular pathology course.

She is a board member and was President of European Association of Cardiovascular Pathology. She is on several international panels responsible for writing guidelines in cardiovascular pathology. She has a recognised international training programme for pathologists in cardiovascular pathology with trainees from Malaysia, Italy, Austria and Denmark.

She is on the international grant awarding panel for Canadian and Danish Cardiovascular Academy. She mentors cardiac pathologists and cardiovascular researchers internationally. She was awarded Stokes Medal for research by Irish Cardiovascular Society in 2012. She was awarded alumnus of Year at University College Cork, Ireland in 2018. She was awarded honorary Professor of St Mary University of London in recognition of her work in Forensic Pathology in 2017.

She was made an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2018 in recognition of her research work and was awarded honorary doctorate at University of Copenhagen for her collaborative research work in 2021.