recognising the contribution our members make in the profession - and out.

Our members are highly motivated over-achievers. Not only do they provide committed, innovative care for their clients, they are active member of the community and achieve just as much personally as they do professionally!

Dimity Dornan - Queenslander of the Year 2010

Dimity Dornan is a speech pathologist and founded the Hear and Say Centre in 1990. The centre teaches children with hearing impairments to communicate by learning to listen and to speak. Dimity has dedicated her life to changing the lives of deaf children, overcoming traditional and entrenched beliefs that deaf children could not learn to hear, listen and speak well enough to be clearly understood.

We are extremely proud Dimity was named Queenslander of the Year in 2010!

Alison Clarke- Mayor of Yarra

It was with great excitement that we heard the news that Alison Clarke (SPA member and private practitioner) had been elected unanimously as Mayor of Yarra (Melbourne) in December 2010. The enormity and responsibilities of the mayoral positi

on are when one considers the municipality is home to a diverse community of around 78, 000 people and has an annual expenditure of $112 million.

Shopping opportunities abound with Bridge Rd, Richmond and Brunswick St, Fitzroy two of the more famous shopping strips. For AFL tragics it is also the home of the Collingwood Football Club.

Alison’s work as a speech pathologist has no doubt influenced her commitment to supporting people in the Yarra community particularly those living with disability. Her warmth and openness to people from all walks of life will be qualities that she will be able to draw on as she performs her mayoral duties. 

Kylie Martin – Mooloolaba’s friendliest face 2010

Sunshine Coast speech pathologist Kylie Martin recently received Mooloolaba’s business service awards for her development of the Sunshine Coast Children’s Development Centre – congratulations Kylie!

 
Janella Christie and Liz Pryor – National Prevocational Medical Educational Forum winners

In November 2010, Janella and Liz submitted a poster to the 15^th National Prevocational Medical Education Forum, entitled “Broadening the scope of International Medical Graduate Communication Support – A Collaborative Approach” and describing their work supporting overseas trained doctors in the areas of language and communication – they were awarded first prize! To see their prize winning poster, click here.

 

Sharynne McLeod, Linda Harrison, Lindy McAllister & Jane McCormack - a nod from the Australian Research Council

For their ground-breaking research into the prevalence of speechimpairment in four to five year olds, these dynamic ladiesrated a whole page mention in the Australian Research Council's 2009-2010 Annual Report. Click here to see the full article (it's on page 116).

 

Marie Atherton -Setting up the first even speech pathology course in Vietnam

Our very own Marie Atherton (who was once the Association's Senior Advisor Professional Issues) has been beavering away in Vietnam for the past eight months, organising and co-ordinating the first ever post graduate speech pathology training course in Vietnam at Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University (PNTU).  A special mention goes to all our members who have volunteered their time and effort to the Trinh Foundation and this project.

To find out more about the project, click here for the Trinh Foundation's newsletter.