Sulekha Gunasekaran

Sulekha is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist and Research Assistant for the Screen-Clean-Hydrate project within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. She obtained a First-Class Honours degree in the Bachelor of Speech Pathology (Flinders University, 2019), which investigated the clinical reasoning and decision-making of novice speech pathologists during clinical swallowing examinations in acute care settings. 

Much of her clinical work focuses on working in a multidisciplinary setting, managing speech, language, social communication and dysphagia (swallowing difficulties) challenges arising from developmental conditions. Sulekha has provided clinical education to speech pathology placement students and mentored past Honours students with their research projects within the areas of clinical reasoning and stroke care processes. She has also assisted in case studies and workshops for the Swallowing and Voice topics. 

Sulekha has a keen interest in linking the gap between theoretical education and clinical practice within the area of dysphagia, while improving clinical practice of students and professional speech pathologists to facilitate high quality clinical care and positive patient outcomes.