Associate Professor Catherine Sinclair MBBS (Hons), FRACS
Catherine Sinclair is a dual board-certified, dual fellowship-trained surgeon specialising in laryngology and head and neck surgery. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery with Honours at Flinders University, receiving the Dean’s Prize for Medicine, the Staff Prize for Surgery and the AMA (SA) Medal. She subsequently completed Basic Surgical Training in Victoria, where she was awarded the Gordon-Gordon Taylor Medal and the Clinical Committee Prize, before entering Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery training.
Catherine completed her specialist Otolaryngology training in Melbourne in 2009 before travelling to the United States for two one-year fellowships: Laryngology at the New York Center for Voice and Swallowing and Head and Neck (Thyroid) Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During her laryngology fellowship she trained under Professors Andrew Blitzer and Marshall Strome.
Following completion of her fellowships, Catherine was invited to remain in New York. From 2010 to 2021, she worked with the New York Center for Voice and Swallowing and the Mount Sinai Health System, where she served as Director of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery at Mount Sinai West Hospital and Associate Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During this time, she worked extensively with professional voice users and performers, including artists from Broadway and Lincoln Center, as well as patients with complex laryngeal and head and neck disorders.
Catherine’s clinical and research interests span laryngology, professional voice, swallowing, thyroid and head and neck surgery, laryngeal neurophysiology and the preservation of laryngeal nerve function. Her research into the laryngeal adductor reflex has received international recognition, including the American Laryngological Association Young Faculty/Practitioner Award in 2018. Her research has continued to develop the understanding of laryngeal neurophysiology and nerve function, with recent work including the identification of a new component of the laryngeal auditory startle response.
In 2016, Catherine led a team that developed a novel technique for continuous laryngeal nerve monitoring during surgery in which the recurrent laryngeal nerves are at risk of injury. Continuous laryngeal adductor reflex neuromonitoring has subsequently been adopted internationally to assist in protecting laryngeal nerve function during surgery. She also introduced thyroid nodule radiofrequency ablation to Australia in 2021, having previously performed the first thyroid ablation in New York in 2019. She chaired the American Thyroid Association Statement on Safety Principles for Ablation Techniques in 2024 and is a founding member of the North American Society for Interventional Thyroidology.
Catherine is an active clinical researcher and has published extensively, with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, as well as book chapters, consensus statements and invited reviews. Her research encompasses thyroid disease and ablation, laryngeal nerve monitoring, voice preservation during thyroid and parathyroid surgery, laryngeal neurophysiology and complex laryngeal disorders. Her publication record continues to expand, including several peer-reviewed publications in 2025 and 2026.
She is Editor-in-Chief of VideoEndocrinology, one of the official journals of the American Thyroid Association, and remains actively involved in international professional organisations and research collaborations. Catherine is frequently invited to lecture and moderate at international conferences and health-system Grand Rounds, and regularly presents nationally and internationally on laryngology, thyroid disease, laryngeal nerve monitoring, voice preservation and thyroid nodule ablation.
Catherine returned to Australia in January 2021 and holds appointments at Monash Health and Cabrini Health, in addition to her work with Melbourne Voice Analysis Centre. She brings extensive international experience in complex laryngology, professional voice and head and neck surgery to the MVAC multidisciplinary team.
Catherine has a longstanding connection with the Melbourne Voice Centre, having spent many afternoons there during her training observing one of her early mentors, Neil Vallance. She is delighted to have returned to the Centre more than a decade later to work alongside the MVAC team.
Outside medicine, Catherine is an avid musician and holds an Associate Diploma of Music (AMusA) in Piano.