QARC People

Director

Professor David Copland, Director

David is a Speech Pathologist and Professorial Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. David’s research seeks to improve outcomes for people with aphasia through the development of new assessments and treatments and identifying better predictors of recovery and treatment response. His research also aims to improve aphasia management through testing principles of neuroplasticity and understanding the neurobiological basis of language recovery and treatment using neuroimaging.

David received the inaugural NHMRC Research Excellence Award as Australia’s top-ranked NHMRC Clinical Career Development Fellow. He currently leads three NHMRC trials on aphasia recovery and is Co-Director of the NHMRC Aphasia CRE where he leads the Neurobiological and Psychosocial Predictors of the Recovery Program. David and Emerita Professor Linda Worrall developed the Aphasia LIFT program that is the basis for the new CHAT program which is a key priority of QARC.

Researchers

Dr Sarah Wallace - Postdoctoral Researcher

Sarah is a Speech Pathologist and National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leadership Research Fellow. Sarah’s research themes include: (1) Enabling meaningful change through an understanding of the patient perspective, and development and evaluation of interventions which seek to produce meaningful outcomes for people living with aphasia; and (2) Measuring meaningful outcomes and improving outcome measurement methods and practices in research and clinical settings.

Within QARC, Sarah leads research to develop a minimum datasetfor aphasia services, the co-design of the QARC, and the implementation of the CommuniCATE program.

Dr Lauren Fothergill - Research Fellow

Lauren is a Research Fellow at QARC, within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. She holds degrees in Public Health and Gerontology, with research interests in ageing, digital health, and evaluation methods. Her doctoral research assessed a digital intervention designed to support independence among older adults in the United Kingdom. At QARC, Lauren contributes to the Better Conversations about Care project, coordinating the co-design of a tool aimed at identifying the communication needs and preferences of older adults accessing aged care services.

Dr Jade Dignam - Postdoctoral Researcher

Jade is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist who graduated from Speech Pathology at UQ in 2008. She has worked clinically across acute and rehabilitation health services in Queensland and New South Wales. Jade completed her PhD at The University of Queensland in 2016 and her research investigated the efficacy of an intensive, comprehensive aphasia program. Her research interests include intensity and dose of aphasia rehabilitation, comprehensive aphasia therapy programs and cognition and aphasia rehabilitation. Jade enjoys conducting clinically-based research with meaningful outcomes for people with aphasia and speech pathologists. Jade is currently leading a feasibility study for the implementation of the Comprehensive High-Dose Aphasia Treatment (CHAT) program.

Dr Kirstine Shrubsole - Research Fellow

Kirstine is an implementation scientist and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Research Fellow. Kirstine’s research aims to improve implementation of evidence into practice in aphasia services. Within QARC, Kirstine is currently leading a research program to develop an implementation toolkit for speech pathologists. She collaborates with the QARC team to evaluate implementation on several projects including: the Comprehensive High-Dose Aphasia Treatment (CHAT) program; the Better Conversations about Care project, and The Right Treatment for the Right Person at the Right Time project. Kirstine is also the co-founder and Deputy Lead of the Collaboration of Aphasia Triallists’ Implementation Science in Aphasia working group.

Michelle King - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Michelle is a sociologist and lawyer: her research focuses on decision-making and the operation of law and regulation in practice for people with disabilities and other impairments to communication and legal capacity. Her work examines decision-making in practice in a range of areas, including health and aged care, banking and finance, income support, voting, and the NDIS.

At QARC, Michelle works on the Better Conversations about Care project, coordinating the lived experience and co-design of the research. Michelle is also a health consumer and disability advocate, with experience in strategic policy development, implementation, and evaluation, including the co-design of Queensland Health’s strategy for transition to adulthood health care, and Australia's National Living Evidence Guidelines for Covid-19 and Monkeypox.

Dr Jennifer Lee - Postdoctoral research fellow

Jen is a Research Officer. She has completed degrees in science and neuroscience from the University of Sydney, and is experienced with neuroimaging, psychology, and ageing research. Jen’s doctoral research investigated changes in music and language processing in healthy ageing adults. She has also worked on an NHMRC research trial which investigated the benefits of music listening in people with aphasia after having a stroke. In her current role with QARC, Jen will support research aiming to improve digital access for people with communication disability.

Dr Sam Harvey - Postdoctoral research fellow

Sam Harvey is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre (QARC), The University of Queensland, and a research affiliate with the CRE Aphasia Recovery and Rehabilitation. His research focuses on improving the effectiveness, quality and equity of aphasia services. He current leading and contributes to multiple projects across Australia and internationally that address aphasia treatment, service evaluation and emergency preparedness for people with communication disabilities.

Sam was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Postdoctoral Scholarship in 2024 and is a Chief Investigator on several nationally and internationally funded projects, including an MRFF Cardiovascular Mission grant to trial a novel aphasia telerehabilitation program. His work has contributed to clinical practice guideline updates and international implementation tools such as the Aphasia Therapy Finder.

Sam is a member of the Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists and the International Collaborative Network of N-of-1 Trials and Single-Case Designs. He previously served as an open science ambassador with CSDisseminate and a Catalyst Ambassador with the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and continues to play an active role in researcher development and student supervision.

Kyla Hudson

Kyla is a speech-language pathologist and Research Fellow within the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Her main research interests are in aphasia rehabilitation, communication within aged care and qualitative health consumer research/ co-design. Her research focuses on understanding the lived experiences of individuals with communication disability to inform and develop meaningful interventions that focus on real-life outcomes.

She is an advocate for designing research processes that are communicatively accessible and inclusive of individuals with communication disability.

Dr Sally Zingelman - Postdoctoral Researcher

Sally is a postdoctoral research fellow and speech pathologist. Sally has clinical and research experience working with people with communication support needs across the lifespan in health, private practice, and education settings. She completed her PhD at QARC exploring the interpretation of aphasia outcome measures for use in clinical care and economic evaluations.
 
Within the QARC team, Sally contributes to research projects that establish interpretive values for key outcome measures used in post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation. She also supports the development of a co-designed communication partner training programme for people working in aged care. Sally’s research interests include the use of patient-reported outcome measures and community participation for people with communication support needs living outside of metropolitan areas. 

Savita Datta - Research assistant

Savita is a research assistant with a Bachelor of Engineering (Software) (Honours) and Bachelor of Arts (Linguistics, German). She has worked on several projects as a software developer, with an emphasis on frontend development and UI accessibility.

Research affiliates

Dr Lisa Anemaat - Postdoctoral researcher

Lisa is a speech pathologist and conjoint research fellow with Metro North Health and The University of Queensland and works with the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre (QARC). Her research focuses on examining experiences, determining priorities, co-designing meaningful solutions with lived-experience experts, and improving consumer partnerships. Lisa’s PhD research used a novel application of Experience-Based Co-Design, to co-design aphasia services for QARC. Her research explored the unmet needs and priorities of stroke survivors to inform service development across remote, regional and metropolitan areas of Queensland. As the Consumer and Community Involvement (CCI) conjoint research fellow, she leads a program of research focussed on CCI in research approaches and exploring ways to improve these partnerships.

Associate Professor Tony Angwin - Head of Speech Pathology, SHRS, UQ

Anthony Angwin is a speech pathologist and associate professor in the School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Anthony’s research themes include: (1) understanding the brain mechanisms that underpin language processing and learning, and (2) developing technology to support communication and therapy outcomes for people living with aphasia.

Dr Claire Bennington - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Claire graduated as a speech and language therapist (speech pathologist) from City University, London, in 1990. She has extensive experience working with adults with acquired communication and swallowing disorders in a range of clinical settings in the UK and Australia but has a particular interest in aphasia. She completed her MSc in Human Communication, again at City University in 1997.

Claire is the current Chairperson of the Australian Aphasia Association (AAA), having been the Deputy Chair for three years, Secretary for 16 months and general board member for 11 months. She is passionate about working with people with lived experience and this was a core component of her PhD completed through The University of Queensland in 2025. Claire’s PhD research involved international surveys and consensus methods to codesign a unified aphasia awareness campaign. Her goal now is to make that campaign a reality through extensive national and international collaborations and bring about a much-needed societal response to improve the lives of the millions of people living with aphasia world-wide.

Dr Sonia Brownsett - Postdoctoral researcher

Sonia is a Speech Pathologist and Neuroscience researcher. Sonia has worked across hyperacute, acute and rehabilitation services in the UK’s National Health Service. She completed her PhD at Imperial College London where she investigated the contribution of cognitive brain networks to language recovery after stroke. As a postdoctoral fellow at UCL, she co-developed, alongside people with aphasia, ListenIn, an evidence-based therapy app that uses gamification techniques to deliver a high dose.

Her current research interests include the neurobiology of language and language recovery, the dose of aphasia rehabilitation, the use of neuromodulation techniques to support language recovery. Sonia’s research includes people with all types of aphasia and currently focuses on language difficulties after stroke, epilepsy, and brain tumours. Sonia is currently leading the neurobiological predictors project within QARC.

Penni Burfein - Advanced Speech Pathologist and Team leader (Neurorehabilitation), RBWH

Penni is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist within the Metro North Hospital and Health Service (MNHHS). She completed her degree in Speech Pathology at The University of Queensland (UQ) in 1996 and has worked across Queensland in acute hospital, rehabilitation and community roles since graduation. She has specialised in working with people who have acquired communication and swallowing disorders in a rehabilitation context and has a passion for the support and implementation of aphasia research into the clinical environment with UQ research partners. Penni is currently enrolled in a research higher degree at UQ investigating return to work following post stroke aphasia concurrently with her clinical role.

Dr Megan Isaacs - Postdoctora Researcher

Megan is a post-doctoral research fellow who graduated with a Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Honours Class I with University Medal) from The University of Queensland in 2012. Megan’s PhD was awarded in 2017, and explored the neural substrates of language processing in Parkinson’s disease using a combination of behavioural tasks and fMRI. She has supported multiple projects within the UQ Centre for Clinical Research, UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and Southern Cross University in the capacity of research officer / assistant, including exercise-enhanced language learning in health ageing, technology-enhanced treatment for aphasia in student clinics (CommuniCATE), clinical implementation of Communication Partner Training for aphasia, and development of minimum reporting standards for aphasia research (DESCRIBE). Megan is currently a post-doctoral research fellow on an MRFF-funded study that aims to develop a novel smartphone application to allow people with aphasia to self-manage their communication therapy (LifeCHAT).

Dr Asmita Manchha - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Asmita Manchha is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. At the heart of Asmita’s research is her passion for developing resources to empower aged care employees and promote a greater recognition of the aged care sector. Asmita’s doctoral research examined the nature and consequences of the stigma of working in aged care. 

At QARC, Asmita works on the Conversations about Care (an Aged Care research project), leading a work stream that focuses on exploring ways in which we can identify and support older adults’ communication needs.

Dr Marie-Pier McSween

Marie is a research development advisor and speech-language pathologist from Canada. Her research interests include novel word learning across the lifespan and post-stroke aphasia rehabilitation. To date, Marie's research has focused on examining the acute effects of exercise and the influence of white noise and dopamine modulation (using Levodopa) on new word learning in healthy adults using neuroimaging. Marie's research has also focused on evaluating the implementation of the Comprehensive High-dose Aphasia Treatment (CHAT) program and the use of animal-assisted services to enhance outcomes of people with aphasia and their family members. As a research development advisor in Canada, Marie plays a strategic and supportive role in helping researchers secure funding, build collaborations and enhance the impact of their research.

Dr Zheng Yen Ng - Postdoctoral Researcher

Zheng is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at QARC, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland. He previously worked in the United Kingdom as Research Coordinator and supported family social events at a charity for people with hearing loss. His PhD research investigated family-centred care in healthcare services for families of young children with hearing loss and diverse language and cultural backgrounds. Within the QARC team, Zheng conducts research on care and experiences of people living with aphasia and people living with dementia. He aims to support individuals and families navigating healthcare services, particularly culturally diverse communities, through evidence-based qualitative research and resource development.

Dr Annette Rotherham

Dr Annette Rotherham is a New Zealand-based researcher whose PhD at The University of Queensland explores the nuanced dynamics of communication in couples where one partner has aphasia—a language disorder often resulting from stroke or brain injury. Her work bridges aphasia outcome measurement development, relationship psychology, and rehabilitation science, with a strong emphasis on community engagement in Aotearoa.

Dr Rotherham’s doctoral research investigates how “successful conversation” is defined and measured in close relationships affected by aphasia. Her research aims to develop an ecologically valid, dyadic patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) that reflects the lived experience of couples and family members navigating aphasia together.

Dr Peter Worthy - Postdoctoral researcher

Peter is an interaction designer with a specific focus on the design of technology using human-centred and co-design approaches. Peter worked as a lawyer for over 15 years before completing a Master of Interaction Design at UQ. His PhD research looked at the socio-technical nature of internet of things technology (such as smart homes) and methods to understand how the design of that technology relates to human values. Recently, Peter has been working on the Florence Project funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. The Florence Project worked with people living with dementia to design technology to support communication needs. His research interests include the design of technology to better meet people’s needs and expectations as well as working with co-design methodologies to support technology design. Peter is involved in the LifeCHAT project focused on the design of the technology to support LifeCHAT.

The University of Queensland

• Professor Emerita Linda Worrall
• Professor Katie McMahon
• Dr Rachelle Pitt
• Dr Tracy Roxbury