Outcomes of Children
Staff Profiles
Nic Mahler-Thompson
Research Speech Pathologist
Nic graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology (Hons) from Curtin University, Western Australia and completed a PhD in Speech Pathology at the University of Queensland. For the last ten years, she has been involved in paediatric research investigating language development, with research foci including hearing impairment, auditory word recognition and real-time methodologies. She joined the LOCHI study as a research speech pathologist based in Brisbane in 2007. Currently, she coordinates the study in Queensland, which includes tasks such as liaising with families of children with Hearing Impairment as well as their providers of early intervention services, coordinating and conducting speech and language assessments and disseminating results from the study to interested parties
Helen-Louise Usher
Research Speech Pathologist
Helen-Louise graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Speech Pathology. She has extensive experience working as a paediatric speech pathologist, including seven years on the Cochlear Implant Team at the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane. She spends time working both as a research speech pathologist for NAL on the LOCHI study and as a clinician in private practice.
Chris Flynn
Paediatric Audiologist
Graduating with a Bachelor of Speech Pathology with Honours in Audiology from the University of Queensland, Chris first worked with Australian Hearing in Townsville in 1998, after which time he spent 2 years at Newcomen Centre in London (paediatric diagnostic & habilitation centre). 2003 saw him back to Brisbane working mostly with adults at a few centres until he transferred mid 2006 to work as a Paediatric Audiologist at Mt Gravatt Australian Hearing centre. When he's not spending time at work or with his wife (also a Speech Pathologist), their 2 boys under 5, and another due in Feb 2009, Chris manages to squeeze in some gardening, golf or beach volleyball.
Karen McGhie
Paediatric Audiologist
Karen joined Australian Hearing after completing an Arts degree in psychology (1986) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Audiology (1991) from the University of Queensland. She has specialised as a paediatric audiologist since 1994 and currently divides her time between working on the NAL outcomes project and clinical work at Mt Gravatt Hearing Centre. She also has an interest in indigenous ear health and spends some time working with local school communities.
Jo Ashwdown
Research Speech Pathologist
Jo graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Speech Pathology from the University of Queensland. Since then, she has worked with both adults and children in a range of settings, including rural, community health and in education.
Most recently, Jo commenced part-time work with the NAL team on the LOCHI project. She now splits her working week between this job, and working within a Child Development team in Community Health.
Iva Djula
Research Audiologist