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agm overview and awards

Associate Professor Sue McAllister Associate Professor Sue McAllister has brought about positive innovation and change in the speech pathology profession. She has shown outstanding leadership in the development and implementation of curriculum and

Elinor Wray Instituted in 1981 to honour the founder of the speech pathology profession in Australia, the Elinor Wray Award is granted for outstanding contribution to the profession. The contribution of the nominee is clinical or project oriented and encompasses: innovations in diagnostic, assessment or treatment procedures; promotion of speech pathology to the government, the community or other professionals; and research or student training. The Board was pleased to recognise an outstanding recipient of this award in Professor Linda Worrall.

assessment of students’ professional practice in the workplace, in a range of allied health disciplines.

Sue has contributed to Speech Pathology Australia throughout her career. Her research and development of applications of competency based student performance assessment have made major contributions to Speech Pathology Australia’s process for the accreditation of education providers. Sue played a major leadership role in the development and implementation of COMPASS ® , COMPASS ® Online and COMPASS ® 2. Throughout the development of COMPASS ® and its associated projects and clinical/academic interfaces, Sue has maintained the importance of nesting these developments firmly within the professional association rather than with a publisher or university. The result of her commitment to the work and role of the Association in establishing and maintaining professional standards has been the creation and maintenance of a very high degree of consensus and cooperation amongst competing stakeholders. Sue has provided consultancies to other professional associations, both within and across professions, and nationally and internationally. This provides evidence of her standing in the health professions and has also established recognition of the Association’s role in relation to competency based education for clinical practice. In addition to supervising multiple higher degree students, Sue is an external examiner for honours research from a university. Sue has published three book chapters, 13 refereed papers, four refereed conference papers, 11 commissioned reports and has presented 37 conference papers since 2002. Sue is recognised as being a highly worthy candidate for transfer to Fellowship.

Linda Worrall Linda is a founding proponent of the functional approach to assessment and treatment for individuals with neurogenic communication disorders. The aim of her work is to develop a portfolio of functional communication assessments

and interventions for a range of health care settings. Linda’s work also evaluated the effectiveness of various forms of intervention stemming from the functional assessment. This led to the publication of The Functional Communication Therapy Planner (1999) which translated her PhD results into an assessment process for therapy planning process that is still being used today throughout the world. Having led the writing of the most downloaded paper in the journal Aphasiology , this led to the basis of a successful NHMRC Clinical Centre of Research Excellence in Aphasia Rehabilitation, a five-year $2.5 million research program. This centre comprises researchers, students and a community of practice which consists of over 200 clinicians. The community of practice is a collaborative enterprise whereby clinicians engage with the process of developing the Australian Aphasia Rehabilitation Pathway (AARP). The AARP is a person-centred, outcome-focused and evidence-based pathway which is freely accessible online for clinicians, people with aphasia and their families. The AARP documents evidence-based best practice recommendations, research, clinical tools and resources for clinicians, consumers, students and researchers who seek information regarding the assessment and management of aphasia in the community. Linda’s work has had a profound effect on the work in clinical practice and research. She has also facilitated health promotion practices, supervised students and postdoctoral researchers, and provided leadership to the profession. Fellowship Fellowship of Speech Pathology Australia is a public professional honour awarded to a person with considerable experience, responsibility and standing within the speech pathology profession. The Board was pleased to recognise four outstanding recipients for this award.

Debra Phyland Debra Phyland is a passionate and committed speech pathologist who has made a significant and well- recognised contribution to the field of speech pathology. Debra is a quintessential clinician but also a true scientist practitioner.

Debra has made a significant contribution to the Association over the years, including having authored many Clinical Guidelines (Position Papers) and has been an active member of the Victorian Branch, providing representation on several Portfolios. She has also acted as a media spokesperson in her area of expertise.

12 Speak Out August 2014

Speech Pathology Australia