Associate Professor Valerie Swift

A/Prof Swift is the Co-Director for the of the Djaalinj Waakinj Centre for Ear and Hearing Health and is the Aboriginal Cultural Governance Advisor for the Telethon Kids Institute’s Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases in Perth, Western Australia. She is a qualified Aboriginal Health Worker, Adjunct Associate Professor at Curtin University, Aboriginal researcher with over 20 years of experience and Board Member of Moorditj Koort Aboriginal Wellbeing Centre and of Babbingur Mia Aboriginal Family Support Program and Yarramoup Aboriginal Corporation. Previously the Manager, Aboriginal Health for the South Metropolitan Health Services in Western Australia CI Swift has had a distinguished career in health services management driving new initiatives and striving for change to improve effectiveness of Aboriginal health programs.

Val has been working in the Ear Health team for 7 years, initially as part of the Djaalinj Waakinj birth cohort study. Currently, Val is the Co-Director of the Djaalinj Waakinj Centre for Ear and Hearing Care, which provides fast-tracked ear and hearing care for urban Aboriginal children. Val has received over 10 competitive research grants as an Associate or Chief Investigator totalling >$2M in funding, including: NHMRC CRE extension project (CIB), NHMRC Targeted Call (CIB, $1.1M), Perron Foundation, WA DOH Research Translation Project Funding. Val has been first and co-author on 7 peer-reviewed journal articles.