Dr Hayley Smithers-Sheedy
Researcher biography
Dr Hayley Smithers-Sheedy is the Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Epidemiology for the CRE and a member of three themes: Clinical Trials; Knowledge Translation and Implementation; Engagement and Health Policy.
Hayley worked as a Speech Pathologist with children with cerebral palsy (CP) in Australia and the United Kingdom for 13 years. In 2006 she completed a Masters of Public Health (Dist) then in 2016 she completed her PhD which examined congenital cytomegalovirus as an attributable cause of CP. This study utilised state and national CP register data and infrastructure. Hayley is now a research fellow with the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and the Marie Bashir Institute, both with The University of Sydney. Her primary role is with the Australian Cerebral Palsy Register (ACPR) the largest single country CP register in existence. An important part of her work is to support and coordinate new epidemiological research from the ACPR. Hayley is also working with teams in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to support the establishment of these CP registers in low and middle income countries (LMIC). Hayley‘s research interests include the epidemiology of CP, congenital and perinatal infections as preventable causes of neurodevelopmental disability, opportunities for prevention of disability in LMICs and assistive technology. She has 24 publications to date: 16 original research articles (7 first author), 1 commentary, 1 book chapter and 6 commissioned reports. Hayley has given 28 international conference presentations (1 plenary, 1 keynote address, 4 as invited speaker) and 5 national conference presentations. She has secured >$1 million in grant funding (CI on 4 national grants from peer reviewed philanthropic or government agencies (4 as CI-A/sole CI)).