Dr Katherine Benfer

DR KATHERINE BENFER, PhD, BSc, Speech Pathology, Masters in Public Health (La Trobe University, 2011) and PhD in Paediatrics and Child Health (UQ, 2015) is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre at UQ. Dr Benfer leads the LEAP-CP program (Indigenous Australian and Indian trials), a novel service delivery model provided by peer trainers to deliver a multi-domain best practice intervention in contexts with poor allied health service access funded by NHRMC and philanthropic funds. Dr Benfer’s current research includes the first Indigenous cohort study of infants at risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, and the first RCT for Indigenous infants at risk of CP. Dr Benfer’s PhD thesis on oropharyngeal dysphagia in a population-based cohort of preschool children with CP, included a unique comparison of two cohorts between Australia and Bangladesh. In the CRE Dr Benfer will lead the Indigenous research program (cohort study, RCT of early intervention with 2 PhD scholars).