Professor Liz Ward

Director, Centre for Functioning and Health Research, and Professor (conjoint) Metro South Hospital and Health Service, Queensland Health and School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland.

Prof Ward, BSpThy(hons), Grad Cert Ed, PhD, FSPAA, is the Director of the Centre for Functioning and Health Research (CFAHR) in Queensland Health and Professor in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. She is a leading international researcher with over 350 publications, and has been a keynote/invited speaker in more than 20 countries. Her research interests primarily centre on the practice area of dysphagia, with particular interest in acute care populations and patients receiving management for head and neck cancer. She has had extensive experience in health services research: building evidence for clinical practice areas, evaluating new models of care and addressing undergraduate/workforce clinical training issues. In 2014, Professor Ward was made “Fellow” of Speech Pathology Australia in recognition of the standing of her contributions to the profession.

In her >20 years working at The University of Queensland, Professor Ward received multiple University awards for the high quality of her undergraduate teaching. Prof Ward is also a highly sought after research higher degree supervisor, and has supervised over 30 students in research higher degrees. In 2017 she was awarded the prestigious University of Queensland Award for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision.

Since 2010, Prof Ward has been with the Centre for Functioning and Health Research (CFAHR). In this role she has had the responsibility of building research capacity and stimulating clinical research within the allied health workforce of the public health service of Queensland. Through her leadership role within CFAHR, Prof Ward has assisted numerous clinical teams to implement and evaluate new models of care. She is passionate about improving health services for patients and reducing the “research-to-practice” gap in evidence implementation. Her work has led to many health service enhancements and has validated multiple new and expanded clinical roles in both speech pathology and other allied health professions. Recent examples of this work can be found in the “Our Research” section of this website.

Key words/phrases describing her research interests and experiences: dysphagia, head and neck cancer, telepractice, models of care, implementation

View Professor Liz Ward's full research profile or contact on Twitter: @ProfLizWard1