AHH Members Committee
The Australian Hearing Hub Members Committee drives the governance for and sets the strategic direction of collaborative activities in the Australian Hearing Hub.
Professor Sakkie Pretorius (Chair)
Macquarie University
Pretorius is Deputy Vice Chancellor Research at Macquarie University. He has a background in synthetic biology. Sakkie began his career in South Africa. At Stellenbosch University, he became the founding Director of South Africa’s Institute for Wine Biotechnology. In the US and Europe, he conducted research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Germany, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium.
Professor Patrick McNeil
Macquarie University
McNeil is Macquarie University’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Medicine and Health, a role that provides leadership of both the clinical and academic components of MQ Health – the Macquarie University Health Sciences Centre, which represents Australia’s first fully integrated academic health sciences enterprise under a university’s leadership. Patrick joined Macquarie in November 2014 as its inaugural Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, now the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences.
Dr Zachary
Smith
Cochlear
Zachary is Director of Algorithms and Applications at Cochlear Limited, where he leads global research programs in sound processing and surgical tools and facilitates external research collaborations in Australia. He has worked in the cochlear implant research field for over 20 years and has a passion for improving access, effectiveness, and usability of hearing implants. Dr. Smith relocated to Australia from the United States in 2018 and before his industry career was trained and conducted research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ravin
Nand
Cochlear ANZ
Ravin Nand is the Associate General Manager of Australia & New Zealand at Cochlear.
Professor Catherine McMahon
Macquarie University Hearing
McMahon is Head of Department for Linguistics at Macquarie University and Director of HEAR (Hearing, Education, Application, Research) Centre. She is a commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss. She contributed to the World Report on Hearing (published by WHO), and was on the committee that developed the Roadmap of Hearing Health, endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). She is the lead investigator for two projects seeking to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal children with hearing loss.
Kim
Terrell
Hearing Australia
Mr. Terrell was appointed Acting Managing Director of Hearing Australia on 1 March 2018 and appointed Managing Director on 1 September 2018. His extensive career includes working with and advising various Ministers, Prime Ministers and their offices, to initiate significant improvements across various government programs. He played a key role in establishing three agencies: the Digital Transformation Office (DTO), the Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority (ASADA) and the CrimTrac Agency, and is highly experienced in
building innovative, high performing teams. He was instrumental in creating myGov and driving digital transformation across the Department of Human Services and the government.
Dr Brent
Edwards
National Acoustic Laboratories
Brent Edwards, Ph.D., is the Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), where he is currently leading new innovation initiatives that focus on transforming hearing healthcare. For over 22 years he headed research at major hearing aid companies and at Silicon Valley startups that have developed innovative technologies and clinical tools used worldwide. Dr. Edwards founded and ran the Starkey Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, California that was a leading site for research in hearing impairment and cognition.
Professor Greg Leigh AO
NextSense
Director of NextSense Institute and conjointly Professor of Education and at Macquarie University. Greg has served on numerous Australian Government consultative committees and is Chair of the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee. He is a former National President of the Education Commission for the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and Chair of the International Congress on Education of the Deaf. He is active in research and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the field.
Dr Aleisha
Davis
The Shepherd Centre
Aleisha took on the CEO role at The Shepherd Centre after 20 years in the organisation, most recently heading up the clinical and research teams. She has a clinical background in Speech Pathology and as a Certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialist, and has an active research interest in supporting outcomes to create a brighter better future for children and young people with hearing loss and their families. She is passionate about driving clinical innovation, sector collaboration, partnerships and designing services to address all communication needs including listening skills, social skills, executive function, literacy, family centred models and digital resources to support professionals in their work.
Professor David McAlpine
Macquarie University Hearing
McAlpine is Professor of Hearing, Language and the Brain, Academic Director at Macquarie University Hearing, and an ARC Laureate Fellow. He is an acknowledged global leader in the field of auditory neuroscience and was recently awarded a prestigious Einstein Foundation Fellowship for a project to explore how auditory memories are formed in the listening brain. Previously, as Director of the UCL Ear Institute, he oversaw the Institute’s development into a world-class centre for discovery science and translational research.
Louise
Dodd
Australian Hearing Hub
Louise provides the executive support for the Australian Hearing Hub Research and Collaborative Committee.
AHH Research & Innovation Committee
The Australian Hearing Hub Research and Innovation Committee identifies the research priorities in hearing and communication, develops strategies to enhance collaborative research and knowledge sharing within the AHH community and beyond, and promotes AHH and its members organisations as world leaders in research and innovation.
Professor David McAlpine (Chair)
Macquarie University Hearing
McAlpine is Professor of Hearing, Language and the Brain, Academic Director at Macquarie University Hearing, and an ARC Laureate Fellow. He is an acknowledged global leader in the field of auditory neuroscience and was recently awarded a prestigious Einstein Foundation Fellowship for a project to explore how auditory memories are formed in the listening brain. Previously, as Director of the UCL Ear Institute, he oversaw the Institute’s development into a world-class centre for discovery science and translational research.
Emma
Scanlan
Hearing Australia
Emma is Principal Audiologist for Adults at Hearing Australia, mainly responsible for service delivery and quality for adults with complex needs. She has delivered clinical services in the paediatric and adult areas for many years, and manages policy and practice for clients who have severe and profound hearing loss, have poor communication ability, or have other impairments in addition to hearing loss.
Patricia
Van Buynder
Hearing Australia
Trish is the Clinical Leader, Paediatrics with Hearing Australia, a role that includes the oversight of paediatric clinical quality and training. She is a highly experienced paediatric audiologist and has also worked as a senior research audiologist with the National Acoustic Laboratories. This included key roles on the Long-Term Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) and Children with Unilateral hearing Loss (CUHL) studies. She has a passion for improving children’s outcomes with research and data.
Dr Viji
Easwar
National Acoustic Laboratories
Viji Easwar is the head of Communication Sciences at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) where she leads NAL’s paediatric hearing research program. Viji joined NAL in March 2022 prior to which she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA. Her research interests include predicting outcomes in children with hearing loss particularly using neural measures.
Professor Greg Leigh AO
NextSense
Director of NextSense Institute and conjointly Professor of Education and at Macquarie University. Greg has served on numerous Australian Government consultative committees and is Chair of the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee. He is a former National President of the Education Commission for the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and Chair of the International Congress on Education of the Deaf. He is active in research and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the field.
Dr Aleisha
Davis
The Shepherd Centre
Aleisha took on the CEO role at The Shepherd Centre after 20 years in the organisation, most recently heading up the clinical and research teams. She has a clinical background in Speech Pathology and as a Certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialist, and has an active research interest in supporting outcomes to create a brighter better future for children and young people with hearing loss and their families. She is passionate about driving clinical innovation, sector collaboration, partnerships and designing services to address all communication needs including listening skills, social skills, executive function, literacy, family centred models and digital resources to support professionals in their work.
Dr Zachary
Smith
Cochlear
Zachary is Director of Algorithms and Applications at Cochlear Limited, where he leads global research programs in sound processing and surgical tools and facilitates external research collaborations in Australia. He has worked in the cochlear implant research field for over 20 years and has a passion for improving access, effectiveness, and usability of hearing implants. Dr. Smith relocated to Australia from the United States in 2018 and before his industry career was trained and conducted research at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Professor Bamini Gopinath
Macquarie University Hearing
Bamini Gopinath is the inaugural Cochlear Chair in Hearing and Health. She leads the Public Health and Policy Pillar of MU Hearing. She is an epidemiologist who has been actively involved in developing and conducting numerous population health studies. She has co-authored over 240 peer-reviewed papers, several of which have been in high-ranking medical and health journals (with over 5800 citations to her name). Using large population datasets Bamini has provided novel community-based evidence on the health determinants and health outcomes associated with a sensory loss and disability. Her ongoing research in the public health field aims to translate key study findings into health policy and practice.
Dr Rom Bouveret
Macquarie University Hearing
Rom Bouveret is the Director Strategy & Operations at Macquarie University Hearing. He has a unique blend of expertise in Scientific Research and Business Administration. With a PhD in Natural Sciences and over 11 years of experience in Medical Research, coupled with an MBA and 4 years as a Business Strategy Manager in complex and large organizations, he has successfully led diverse teams and projects at the intersection of research, business and innovation.
Distinguished Professor Katherine Demuth
Macquarie University, Department of Linguistics
Katherine Demuth is the founding Director of the Child Language Lab and the Director of the Centre for Language Sciences (CLaS) at Macquarie University. Demuth’s research focuses on Language Acquisition, including studies of both perception and production. She is especially interested in the development of phonological, morphological and syntactic representations, in both typically developing and language-impaired children and L2 learners.
Professor Paul Sowman
Macquarie University, School of Psychological Sciences
Paul Sowman is the Director of Research in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University. He trained as a Physiotherapist at Otago University and later graduated with a PhD in Physiology from the University of Adelaide. He subsequently held fellowships with the NHMRC and ARC in the area of speech motor neuroscience. His research uses magnetoencephalography (MEG) and non-invasive brain stimulation methods to understand neural processes underpinning normal and abnormal cognitive development.
Professor Rebecca Bull
Macquarie University, Macquarie School of Education
Rebecca Bull is a developmental cognitive psychologist whose research focuses on numerical cognition, mathematics, and executive functioning / self-regulation in diverse populations. Her research also looks at the environments in which children are learning and developing – this has included a focus on the informal numeracy interactions that may happen between children and parents, the pedagogical approaches to numeracy that educators use in early years learning environments, and the quality of educator-child interactions. Prior to her move to Australia in 2019, Rebecca was the Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Research in Child Development, National Institute of Education (Singapore).
Louise
Dodd
Australian Hearing Hub
Louise provides the executive support for the Australian Hearing Hub Research and Collaborative Committee.
AHH Education & Practice Committee
The AHH Education and Practice Committee identifies key education and workforce opportunities and set the strategic direction of and implement collaborative activities to address these and promotes the AHH and its members organisations as world leaders in education and practice.
Professor Catherine McMahon (Chair)
Macquarie University Hearing
McMahon is Head of Department for Linguistics at Macquarie University and Director of HEAR (Hearing, Education, Application, Research) Centre. She is a commissioner for the Lancet Commission on Hearing Loss. She contributed to the World Report on Hearing (published by WHO), and was on the committee that developed the Roadmap of Hearing Health, endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG). She is the lead investigator for two projects seeking to improve health outcomes for Aboriginal children with hearing loss.
Professor Greg Leigh AO
NextSense
Director of NextSense Institute and conjointly Professor of Education and at Macquarie University. Greg has served on numerous Australian Government consultative committees and is Chair of the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee. He is a former National President of the Education Commission for the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and Chair of the International Congress on Education of the Deaf. He is active in research and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the field.
Trudy
Smith
NextSense
Trudy is the Manager of Continuing Professional Education at the NextSense Institute. A teacher of the Deaf for 25 years, Trudy serves on a range of executive committees including the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf, Educators of Deaf Students Association of NSW, and the Family Centred Early Intervention International Executive Committee. She has worked in schools in north west Queensland and Western Sydney, supported families and infants through telepractice as a Certified Listening and Spoken Language Specialist, and coached teachers, therapists and families in early intervention around the world.
Patricia
Van Buynder
Hearing Australia
Trish is the Clinical Leader, Paediatrics with Hearing Australia, a role that includes the oversight of paediatric clinical quality and training. She is a highly experienced paediatric audiologist and has also worked as a senior research audiologist with the National Acoustic Laboratories. This included key roles on the Long-Term Outcomes of Children with Hearing Impairment (LOCHI) and Children with Unilateral hearing Loss (CUHL) studies. She has a passion for improving children’s outcomes with research and data.
Dr Pia
Watkins
The Shepherd Centre
Pia is the Manager of Research, Learning and Development at TSC supporting evidence-based practice and innovation internally and externally. Pia has a Bachelor of Speech Pathology and a Masters and PhD in Audiology. Prior to joining The Shepherd Centre 5 years ago Pia undertook international postdoctoral and clinical work with a focus on the implementation of research standards and good clinical practice. This experience has enhanced Pia’s understanding of and interest in equitable access and service provision.
Catherine
Hart
Hearing Australia
Catherine is the Clinical Leader, Adult Specialist, at Hearing Australia. Catherine is responsible for overseeing clinical quality and training, and supporting service delivery, protocols, and outcomes for adult clients with complex hearing and communication needs. Her primary areas of interest include clinical quality and governance, aural rehabilitation for clients with significant hearing loss, poor communication, and other disabilities, clinical learning and development, tinnitus and hyperacusis management, and designing individual communication training programs based on client goals.
Michelle
Nicholls
Cochlear
Michelle is a member of Cochlear Limited’s Australian leadership team, holding the role of Clinical Director for Australia and New Zealand. In Michelle’s current role, she is responsible for clinical leadership and delivering audiological services to 17,000+ implant recipients. Michelle holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology with First Class Honours and Masters of Audiology Studies from the University of Queensland. Over her career, Michelle has worked as a Speech Pathology and Audiologist across Australia, and has been an active member of Audiology Australia since 2007.
Louise
Dodd
Australian Hearing Hub
Louise provides the executive support for the Australian Hearing Hub Education and Practice Committee.