| Sheena Reilly, Distinguished Professor in the Health Group at Griffith University, has held a number of senior leadership roles at Griffith including Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor Research (August 2021 - March 2022) following the completion of a 5-year term as Pro-Vice Chancellor (Health). She is an Honorary Fellow with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Melbourne. She holds a B.App.Sc (Speech Pathology) from Curtin University and a PhD from the University of London, UK. Professor Reilly was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours, for her significant service to tertiary education, to medical research, and to paediatric speech pathology. After completing her postdoctoral career at the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and the Institute of Child Health, University College London, Sheena returned to Australia (1999), where she held key leadership appointments at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, and was the Inaugural Director of the Menzies Health Institute Queensland. She was the first Speech Pathologist to be awarded a Fellowship with the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2011), and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015) and is a Fellow of Speech Pathology Australia, and the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists UK. Sheena's research contributions span more than 30 years. She is among the most highly-cited in her discipline; over 200 publications including articles in a broad range of High Impact journals. She has received over $60M in competitive research grants including being a Senior Scientist on the Commonwealth funded HEARing CRC ($28M) and has led and participated in several NHMRC Centres for Research Excellence. Over her career she has led multidisciplinary research teams in a series of landmark research studies (The Early Language in Victoria Study: ELVS) that have transformed our current-day understanding of the epidemiological and natural history of common and debilitating speech, language and literacy problems in children. She was a key investigator on the team that conducted one of the world's first RCT language prevention intervention in community cohort of toddlers and pre-schoolers. Contributing extensively to research service and mentorship, Sheenahas produced a substantial body of original research and have contributed extensively towards understanding speech, language and literacy development in children. |
