A/Prof Dana Wong
Dana is an Associate Professor and Clinical Neuropsychologist in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, with active roles in research, teaching and clinical practice. She leads the eNACT (Neurorehabilitation And Clinical Translation) Research Group, which focuses on innovative neurorehabilitation techniques to improve the lives of brain injury survivors, and enhancing clinical implementation of and clinician competence in these evidence-based interventions. Dana has over 100 peer reviewed publications with >$18.4 million in grant funding. She was awarded La Trobe's 2020 Research Engagement and Impact Award, the 2021 Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Clinical Neuropsychologists Award of Distinction, and 4 teaching awards. Dana is Past-President of the Australasian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI), co-Chair of the Neuropsychological Intervention Special Interest Group of the International Neuropsychological Society, a committee member for the Organisation for Psychological Research into Stroke (OPsyRIS), and an Editorial Board member for the journal Brain Impairment.
Dr John Pierce
John is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at La Trobe University’s Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation. A qualified speech pathologist, his work focuses on improving communication outcomes for people with aphasia after stroke, particularly through the development of innovative, technology-enabled therapies. His research explores the use of telehealth, multilingual resources, and artificial intelligence to make therapy more accessible and personalised. John has published widely and secured significant competitive funding to support this work. He also contributes to national clinical guidelines and is active in international stroke and aphasia research networks. His freely available therapy website is used globally and reflects his commitment to equity and accessibility in rehabilitation.
A/Prof Robyn O'Halloran
Equitable health outcomes for people with aphasia: Now and tomorrow.
Healthcare systems and services have been designed by the communicatively able for the communicatively able, resulting in poorer patient experience, safety and health outcomes for people with communication disability. But healthcare systems and services are changing. In this presentation, we’ll review the latest developments in the redesign of healthcare systems and services to improve equity for people with communication disability and consider the question: what does this mean for speech pathology practice with people with aphasia?
Associate Professor Robyn O'Halloran, is a teaching and research academic at La Trobe University. She is the first author of the book Inpatient Functional Communication Interview: Screening, Assessment, and Interventionwhich includes a range of resources to identify hospital patients with communication support needs and enhance patient provider healthcare conversations. She is currently leading a Quality Use of Medicines grant to develop online learning modules for pharmacists to have more successful conversations with patients with communication disability or difference about safe medicine use.
Associate Professor Robyn O'Halloran
Lauren Fletcher
HealthTalk Connect – Collaboration is the Key to Clinical Research
This presentation will explore HealthTalk Connect, a research trial designed to improve patient-provider communication through the use of technology in the hospital setting. Beyond the findings, the focus will be on the clinician’s perspective of conducting research within a busy healthcare environment. Key themes include the value of clinically embedded research, the tension between clinical duties and research demands, the importance of strong interdisciplinary relationships, and the critical role of team dynamics. This session offers practical insights and reflections for clinicians navigating research - highlighting how the right people, partnerships, and perseverance can drive meaningful change.
Lauren is a speech pathologist with over 16 years of clinical experience in adult neurological rehabilitation. She is currently a senior clinician at the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne. Her primary area of professional interest is in aphasia awareness, advocacy and rehabilitation.
Alongside her clinical work, Laurens also volunteers on the professional committee for Aphasia Victoria, a not-for-profit charity which exists to support people who have aphasia living in Victoria.
Lauren Fletcher
Emma Beesley
How to successfully collaborate with lived experience expertise in research.
As a stroke survivor of 8 years living with moderate aphasia, Emma has readily offered her lived experience of aphasia to researchers. She believes it is important for people with aphasia not to be excluded from research. Emma shares how to help create a successful co-design collaboration throughout the research process.
Emma Beesley was a lawyer working in the Family Court of Australia when she unexpectedly suffered a stroke at the age of 33 in 2016. For the following 10 months she had no name for her communication and language problems. Finding out that her condition was called aphasiaprompted Emma to make it her mission to educate more people in the community about it. By sharing her experiences, she has tried to inspire other aphasia sufferers and help educate the wider public about living with aphasia.
Unfortunately, stroke research often excludes people with aphasia because of their language difficulties. Emma, however, is determined not to accept this exclusion. She has been a Research Partner with the Aphasia CRE and contributed to the Young Stroke Project with the Stroke Foundation. This publicity led to opportunities to be more than just a research participant but to be included in projects from inception. Her latest project was a collaboration with Dr Claire Bennington on the design of an International Aphasia Awareness campaign, which they co-presented at IARC 24 in Brisbane.
Emma also values being a member of an aphasia community group. She is immensely proud to be the President of the Maitland Aphasia Communication Group, as well as a member of the Australian Aphasia Association.
Emma Beesley
More Speaker Announcements coming soon
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