Elizabeth (Liz) Ward

Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Ward is the director of the Centre for Functioning and Health Research (CFAHR) in Metro South Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health, and a professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland, Australia. She is a leading international clinical researcher with more than 350 publications and is one of the highest-publishing authors worldwide in the field of speech pathology. In 2014, she received the highest honor of Fellow of Speech Pathology Australia, recognizing her contributions to the profession. Liz is an experienced presenter and has been a keynote/invited speaker in more than 20 countries. Since 1999, she has lectured for undergraduate and postgraduate speech pathology students at The University of Queensland and has been awarded multiple university teaching awards. Professor Ward has research interests across a range of areas, including dysphagia and the management of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). She became involved in telehealth in the early 2000s and, over the past two decades, has had experience researching and developing telehealth models for speech pathology management of dysphagia, dysarthria, voice, aphasia, and HNC care. She has also assisted in designing and validating telehealth models with teams from other professions, including pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and social work. She is recognized as one of the leading speech pathology researchers in the field of telehealth.