Our
Board of Directors

Barbra Timmer, PhD, MBA, is Senior Scientist for Sonova AG and Lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia. Prior to starting her academic career, Barbra worked in clinical audiology in Australia and The Netherlands and gained hearing care industry experience in Switzerland.

Her current research interests include the real-world challenges and audiological outcomes for adults with hearing impairment, the implementation of family-centred care in audiological practice, vestibular function in older adults with hearing impairment, and mHealth/teleaudiology.

Yetta is a hearing care professional and leading audiologist with more than 20 years experience in the field of hearing implants. She is currently the Director of Education, Professional Engagement and Technical Services for Cochlear Asia Pacific, with a team supporting education, training and complex case management across the Asia Pacific region. Yetta has held previous roles with The Shepherd Centre, University of Sydney, Hearing Implants Australia, the Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre and Sydney Children’s Hospital.

Yetta’s interests lie in leadership and innovation in the clinical arena. She has worked closely and collaboratively with teams of audiologists, surgeons, speech pathologists and researchers to challenge current thinking and embrace the integration of person-centred care and evidence-based practice. She is inspired by clinicians from around the world who share the goal of delivering the best possible services for the best possible outcomes.

Yetta is also the past Chair of the board of Hear for You, prior to its integration with The Shepherd Centre.

The focus of her career continues to be innovation and advocacy for people of all ages so that hearing differences are not a barrier in any part of their lives.

Emma has been a proud member of Audiology Australia since 2003. Over her 20+ year career, Emma worked in Australia and internationally as a Speech Pathologist and Audiologist. Emma is a member of Cochlear Limited’s Australian leadership team, holding the role of Clinical Director for Australia and New Zealand. In this role, she is responsible for clinical leadership and delivering services to 17,000+ recipients.

Emma has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Speech Pathology and a Masters in Clinical Audiology. Emma has a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and participated in a Leading Innovative Change Leadership program through UC Berkeley Center for Executive Education. To supplement her clinical knowledge, Emma has taken select leadership courses, particularly in the field of Customer Service and Communications.

Emma began her career at Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre (SCIC). This was followed by an appointment with United Kingdom’s renowned Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, where Emma held the position of Chief Audiologist. Emma joined Cochlear Ltd in 2008, where she has held positions in the Asia Pacific clinical education team and marketing team. Emma has extensively travelled Asia Pacific supporting, presenting to and training hearing health care professionals on clinical best practice.

Bec is a clinical and research audiologist from the Ear Science Institute Australia. Her current research focuses on improving outcomes for older adults with hearing loss, specifically successful hearing aid and cochlear implant use.

Bec completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia in 2018, where her PhD work developed and translated clinical tools to enhance audiological clinical practices.

Sam works in research at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander hearing and communication. She has led the development of primary health ear check recommendations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and helped establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Leadership Group, which guides and advises on research NAL undertakes with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

She has a Postgraduate Diploma of Audiology, and completed a Master of Public Health with a specialisation in Aboriginal health and wellbeing in 2018.

Catherine is an audiologist with more than 25 years’ experience in the hearing care and rehabilitation of adults and children, including clinic management and clinical quality and compliance roles

As the Adult Specialist Clinical Leader at Hearing Australia, she is responsible for supporting clinical training, service delivery, practice standards and outcomes for adults with complex hearing and communication needs, including those with poor communication ability or other disabilities in addition to hearing loss.

Her primary areas of interest include aural rehabilitation for adults with significant hearing loss, clinical quality and governance, tinnitus and hyperacusis management, clinical learning and development, NDIS services and supports, supporting clients living with dementia, and designing individual communication training programs based on client needs.

Cleon is an Area Manager for the Northern Region at NextSense managing four Cochlear Implant/Early Intervention Centres across NSW, QLD, and the NT to ensure clinics deliver best practice to clients on their cochlear implant journey.

With a Masters of Clinical Audiology from the University of Queensland, Cleon has worked as a clinical audiologist for over 20 years in Australia and the UK including as a Cochlear Implant Audiologist for Next Sense, and in roles for Remote Area Health Corp and Western Australia Country Health Service, Victorian Hearing, Phonak and Australian Hearing.

Lia has 30 years’ experience as an audiologist, having graduated from the University of Queensland in 1992, with most of those years spent in paediatric audiology and cochlear implants.

She is the Director Audiology at Children’s Health Queensland, managing a large and diverse team, and various audiology services including paediatric ENT, infant diagnostics, targeted surveillance, hearing screening, inpatient and outpatient diagnostics, and hearing implants. Lia also sits on a range of state-wide Audiology and Allied Health Committees and National Audiology Working Groups.

She has a keen interest in digital health and the use of outcomes data to drive both quality and service improvement.

Dr Jessica Vitkovic, PhD, MBA, is the Better Hearing Experience Lead at Better Hearing Australia Victoria Inc and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

Jessica is a hearing healthcare professional and an audiologist with more than 19 years experience as one of Australia’s leading researchers in vestibular audiology, responsible for setting up one of Melbourne’s first public vestibular physiotherapy services. She has an accomplished research background with strong clinical applications focussing on vestibular migraine and vestibular physiotherapy outcomes and more recently, the contribution of hearing to balance control.

Her current role at Better Hearing Australia Victoria utilizes human centred design approaches to design contemporary and bold new ‘whole-person’ services for those impacted by hearing conditions.