Presenters

Emma Webb | Primary Presenter, Author

emma.webb@mcri.edu.au;
Audiologist and PhD candidate

---

Jan Hodgson | Co-Author

hodgson@unimelb.edu.au;
Professor at the University of Melbourne and Program Director for the Master of Genetic Counselling and the Master of Genomics and Health.

---

Cheryl A. Jones | Co-Author

cheryl.jones1@unsw.edu.au ;
Professor Cheryl Jones is a world-renowned paediatric infectious diseases physician clinician-scientist and health and medical educator. She is Dean of Medicine and Health at UNSW. A Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences, she has secured over $35 million in peer-reviewed funding and published more than 170 peer reviewed publications. Her research, particularly on childhood encephalitis, vaccination and mother to child transmission of infections, has significantly influenced global health policy. Professor Jones has held senior executive positions at leading University and Health and Medical research institutions, professional societies and statutory authorities and actively contributes to government policy and clinical practice guidelines. She is a Director of the Australian Medical Council, an Executive Member of the AAHMS Council and a Director of the Ramsay Health Care Research Foundation. Prof Jones co-leads the ACMVR with Prof Asha Bowen and A/Prof Hayley Smithers-Sheedy.

---

Alanna N. Gillespie | Co-Author

alanna.gillespie@mcri.edu.au ;
Senior research assistant

---

Zeffie Poulakis | Author, Co-Author

zeffie.poulakis@rch.org.au;
Clinical psychologist with expertise in working with children, adolescents and families. Researcher in the field of psychosocial outcomes (psychological, language and learning) amongst children with hearing loss.

---

Gary Rance | Co-Author

grance@unimelb.edu.au;
Audiologist, clinical researcher and Professor at the University of Melbourne where he holds the Graeme Clark Chair in Audiology and Speech Science. His research areas include auditory evoked potentials, auditory neuroscience and the perceptual effects of permanent and transient hearing loss. He is a leader in the field of auditory neuropathy (AN) and was responsible for the first publications to describe this form of hearing abnormality in newborn babies

---

Valerie Sung | Author, Co-Author

valerie.sung@rch.org.au;
Associate Professor Valerie Sung is a consultant paediatrician at The Royal Children's Hospital, Senior Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne. A/Prof Sung’s research program on child deafness uses a health services framework focussing on ethically-sound and consumer-accepted ways to enable use of (i) routine clinical and health services data for quality improvement and research, and (ii) large-scale registries as a platform to answer important research questions and facilitate intervention trials. Specifically, A/Prof Sung’s research aims to (i) identify early predictors of child outcomes for precision medicine, (ii) establish evidence-based management through interventional trials, and (iii) discover ways to prevent or reduce adverse challenges faced by deaf and hard of hearing children and their families. Her deafness research program was recognised by a 2019 L'Oréal-UNESCO Australia For Women in Science Fellowship.