ProfessorKirrie Ballard

BSpThy University of Queensland 1983 MA Northwestern University, USA 1994 PhD Northwestern University, USA 1997

Professor Ballard completed her undergraduate degree at University of Queensland in 1983 and worked primarily as a paediatric speech pathologist in Queensland and New South Wales until moving to the USA in 1992. She completed a Master of Arts in Speech-Language Pathology (1994) and PhD (1997) at Northwestern University in Illinois and went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Voice and Speech at University of Iowa. Professor Ballard has held academic positions in the Speech Pathology departments of Indiana University and the University of Iowa. Since 2006, she has been at the University of Sydney where she served as Head of Speech Pathology and Director of the Graduate Entry Masters program until July 2012. She was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship (2012-17) and since then has returned to a teaching and research position.

Professor Ballard has published on diagnostic approaches and procedures for acquired and childhood speech and language disorders (particularly apraxia of speech) and on application of the principles of motor learning framework to treatment of motor speech disorders in adults and children. Her work is currently focusing on the use of real-time MRI to better understand speech articulation in healthy and apraxia speakers. She is al Co-founder of a digital tech start-up designing engaging apps for screening and high intensity treatment of speech sound disorders that incorporate automated speech analysis designed for Australians.

Professor Ballard's research has attracted funding from the National Institutes of Health in the USA, the NH&MRC and ARC in Australia, Qatar National Research Foundation in Qatar, as well as professional groups such as the American Speech Language and Hearing Association and the Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia.