StrokeEd Presenters
Dr Annie McCluskey
Annie is an occupational therapist, a health services researcher and educator. She has 30+ years’ experience in stroke and brain injury rehabilitation, in Australia and the UK.
Annie has provided private occupational therapy and stroke rehabilitation services for over 30 years, consultations and mentoring for graduates. Until recently, she was also an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, and Adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University.
Research and publications: Annie has published over 70 peer reviewed journal articles and been awarded over $4 million in competitive grant funding focussing on: translating evidence into practice particularly in stroke rehabilitation; adult handwriting and upper limb retraining; improving community participation and outdoor mobility; sexuality and intimacy after stroke.
Dr Liana Cahill
Liana is an occupational therapist, researcher and lecturer specialising in adult neurological rehabilitation. She has 15+ years’ experience in neurorehabilitation in Australia, UK and South Africa. Liana completed her PhD on knowledge translation and upper limb sensory rehabilitation after stroke. She led the first Cochrane review on implementation strategies in stroke rehabilitation and has published and presented in international journals and forums. Liana is a senior lecturer at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, and Implementation Lead in the Neurorehabilitation and Recovery Group, Florey Institute of Neuroscience.
Karl
Schurr
Karl is a physiotherapy clinician, researcher and educator. He has over 30+ years’ experience in stroke, brain injury and aged care rehabilitation in Australia and the UK.
Research and publications: Karl has published 29 peer reviewed journal articles and been awarded over $1 million in research funding. His research focuses on methods to increase exercise intensity, dosage, and evaluating the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions for stroke survivors and older people.
Dr Lauren Christie
Lauren is an occupational therapist and implementation scientist with 15+ years clinical experience in neurological rehabilitation. She has held clinical leadership roles in Australia and the UK. Based in Sydney, Lauren is the Senior Implementation Science Research Fellow- Allied Health at St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney and continues to work clinically as an occupational therapist.
She has published many peer-reviewed journal articles and been awarded over $1.8 million AUD in research funding. Her research focuses on translating rehabilitation evidence into practice including the implementation and sustainability of constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) programs, the experiences and preferences of stroke and brain injury survivors in relation to rehabilitation service delivery, and health economics.
Dr Simone Dorsch
Simone is a physiotherapy clinician, researcher and educator. She has 20+ years experience in stroke, brain injury and aged care rehabilitation. Simone is an associate professor at the Australian Catholic University in North Sydney.
Research and publications: Simone has published many peer reviewed journal articles. Her research focuses on the relationship between loss of strength and activity limitations and strategies to increase amounts of practice in rehabilitation.
Dr Emma Schneider
Emma is an occupational therapist, clinician researcher and educator at Swinburne University of Technology. She has over 15 years of experience in stroke and brain injury rehabilitation in Australia and the United States.
Based in Melbourne, Emma has published many peer-reviewed journal articles about increasing the amount of rehabilitation to improve upper limb activity after stroke. Emma is a member of the Stroke Foundation’s living stroke guidelines working party.
Dr Kate Scrivener
Kate is a physiotherapy educator, clinician and researcher.
She has more than 15 years’ experience in stroke, brain injury and aged care rehabilitation.
Kate is a senior lecturer at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and also works part-time in private practice.
Kate has published 11 peer reviewed journal articles. Her research focuses on the dosage of rehabilitation practice, and strategies to increase practice outside of therapy including technology-supported independent practice, group sessions and semi-supervised practice.
Sarah Fitzhenry
Sarah is a physiotherapist with over 18 years of clinical experience. Based across Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, she is a Neurological Specialist Physiotherapist with the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Sarah is the advanced physiotherapist for a subacute rehabilitation hospital and has a small neurological physiotherapy consultancy practice.
Research and publications: Sarah has been involved in research into patients access through rehabilitation services and experiences of Allied Health professionals supporting enriched environments for stroke survivors. She is currently doing a Masters by Research at Monash University