She commenced her career as a speech pathologist in 1982, working with inpatients and non admitted clients across the entire age and diagnostic spectrum. As her career progressed, Sue rose through the management structures, retaining a passion for patient centred holistic care. Across her career she has held numerous leadership roles within speech pathology and allied health. In 2011, Sue was appointed to the SWS Director Allied Health role along with her professional leadership role in speech pathology. In 2019, Sue transitioned to full time management. Sue completed her Bachelor of Health Sciences (Speech Pathology), 1981 and the Executive Masters in Public Administration (ANZSOG) in 2012.
Sue has a strong history of promoting research and service development in Allied Health across SWSLHD and has been given and Honorary Appointment as Senior Lecturer to University Sydney. Sue’s research has focused on multidisciplinary approaches to health promotion, early identification and ‘Team Around the Child’ approaches to care and patient/ carer experience as well as service evaluation and building research capacity in staff. She lead or has been involved in successfully attaining multiple grants aimed at improving care and patient experience.
Sue chaired the NSW Health Speech Pathology Network for over ten years. This group was responsible for the development of data sets, clinical competencies, models of care, better practice guidelines, benchmarking activities and performance indicators across the profession.
As an Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS) surveyor Sue has been an advocate of safe, quality, comprehensive care. Sue is passionate about improving the care and patient/ carer experience for people with cognitive deficits and has supported many bodies of work focused on this.
