Rate My Professor Sarah Wallace

Associate Professor Sarah Wallace is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist and two-time NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland. She holds a Bachelor of Speech Pathology from the University of Queensland, a Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from La Trobe University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland. Wallace leads the Living Experience (Lex) Lab, the Qualitative Collective, and the Communication Research and Engagement Theme (CommRET) within her school. She also serves as a UQ Research Integrity Advisor and is an affiliate of the Queensland Aphasia Research Centre and the University of Queensland Centre for Hearing Research.

Her research focuses on aphasia rehabilitation, core outcome set development for aphasia research, outcome measurement standardization, ageing and aged care communication support needs, and technology-enhanced interventions for self-management of communication disabilities. Wallace leads transdisciplinary teams of more than 20 researchers partnering with consumers, clinicians, communities, government, and industry to co-produce interventions, technologies, systems, and standards. She has secured extensive funding, including NHMRC MRFF grants such as 'The Right Treatment for the Right Person at the Right Time. Driving High-Value Aphasia Care through Meaningful Health System Monitoring' (2022-2026), 'Unspoken, Unheard, Unmet: Improving Access to Preventative Health Care through Better Conversations about Care' (2022-2027), 'Lost Voices: Improving Outcomes for Older Australians with Communication Disability' (2025-2029), and 'Aphasia Treatment TranslAtIon Network (ATTAIN)' (2024-2029). Key publications include 'A core outcome set for aphasia treatment research: the ROMA consensus statement' (2019, International Journal of Stroke), 'Measuring communication as a core outcome in aphasia trials: Results of the ROMA-2 international core outcome set development meeting' (2022, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders), 'Quality and outcomes of acute stroke care for people with and without aphasia' (2026, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation), and 'Development of an mHealth application for self-management of post-stroke aphasia: protocol for experience-based co-design' (2025, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders). Her contributions advance aphasia services quality improvement, research standards, and equitable access to communication support.