Felipe Retamal Walter

Dr. Felipe Retamal-Walter is a bilingual speech pathologist, audiologist, and Lecturer in Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. He holds a Bachelor (Honours) of Speech Pathology from Universidad de Valparaíso, a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from Universidad de Viña del Mar, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Speech Pathology from The University of Queensland (2022). With over 15 years of clinical and research experience across Chile and Australia, he is an early career academic leading international research projects funded nationally and internationally.

His research specializes in person- and family-centred care, developing and validating tools to enhance engagement and shared decision-making for individuals with communication and feeding difficulties, including hearing loss. Key areas include co-designing m-health screening and service delivery models for equitable access across the lifespan, particularly in diverse and underserved contexts in Australia, Chile, and Latin America. He employs mixed methods, implementation science, and participatory approaches in partnerships with families, clinicians, educators, and policymakers. Notable publications include "Identifying critical behaviours for building engagement in telepractice early intervention: An international e-Delphi study" (2022), "Development and validation of an observational tool to measure engagement in telepractice early intervention" (2024), his PhD thesis "Exploring the nature of engagement in telepractice early intervention for families of young children with communication difficulties" (2022), and recent works such as "Telepractice during school closures: strategies of support professionals to sustain educational continuity for students with special educational needs in Chile" (2025) and "A low-cost device for measuring non-nutritive sucking in newborns" (2025). He has received multiple academic recognitions, including top-cited article awards, international fellowships, and holds an invention patent for neonatal care technology. Felipe serves as a member of the World Health Organization’s World Hearing Forum, The University of Queensland’s Cultural Inclusion Council, and several research engagement themes at The University of Queensland. His contributions have informed national policy, clinical training programs, and service delivery innovations across Australia and global settings.

Professional Email: f.retamalwalter@uq.edu.au