Rate My Professor Gregory Leigh

Gregory Leigh is Conjoint Professor of Education and Disability Studies in the Macquarie School of Education at Macquarie University and Director of NextSense Institute, a centre for research and professional education operated by NextSense in affiliation with Macquarie University. He earned his PhD in Psychology and Special Education from Monash University in 1996, MSc in Speech and Hearing Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 1985, and BEd in Special Education from Griffith University in 1981. His career began with various roles in educating deaf children in Queensland, followed by coordinating the deaf education program at Deakin University from 1987. In 1993, he joined as Senior Lecturer and foundation Head of RIDBC Renwick Centre (now NextSense Institute). He served as International Visiting Scholar at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, in 2003, and currently leads NextSense Institute as part of its Senior Leadership Team.

Professor Leigh's research specializations encompass newborn hearing screening, early hearing detection and intervention, language and speech outcomes for children and adults with hearing impairment, social skills development, mental health issues such as anxiety and depression in deaf adolescents, cultural diversity in services, and longitudinal studies of outcomes for hearing-impaired children. Notable publications include “Language, speech production, functional performance, and social skills of 3-year-old children with congenital unilateral hearing loss: a randomized controlled trial of hearing intervention” (2026), “Anxiety and depression in adolescents with prelingual hearing loss: prevalence and risk factors” (2025), “Cultural diversity in early hearing detection and intervention: service provider perspectives” (2025), and “Early intervention influences 9-year speech, language, cognitive, and quality-of-life outcomes in deaf or hard-of-hearing children” (2025). He has received the Fellow of the Australian College of Educators (2001), Officer in the Order of Australia (AO, 2014) for distinguished service to the deaf and hard of hearing community, and the Peter Howson Medal (2011). Professor Leigh contributes to the field through editorial roles on The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education and Phonetics and Speech Sciences, and leadership as Chairman of the Australasian Newborn Hearing Screening Committee. He previously held positions such as National President of the Education Commission for the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and Chair of international steering committees for the Asia-Pacific Congress on Deafness and the International Congress on Education of the Deaf.