BSpPath (Hons), BMus (Perf), CPSP. Nicole has been working for over 18 years as a speech pathologist after graduating from La Trobe University in 2004 with first class Honours; completing research in the area of voice for which she won the Winston Rickards medal for ‘Best thesis of therapeutic principle and application in the field of communication disorders’. Over this time, she has primarily worked in acute medical settings and in laryngology, in addition to inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation for patients with neurological disorders. She has an international speech pathology perspective on a range of speech, language and swallowing disorders having worked in Australia, England (2007-2008) and USA (2014-2015). Nicole has also worked as a clinical educator and lecturer for speech pathology students, and other allied health and education students across several universities. In addition, she is an accomplished singer who enjoys singing across a range of genres in both solo and choral contexts. She completed her Bachelor of Music Performance (Classical Voice) in 2011 during which time she earned the 2009 Deans Recognition Award for Academic Excellence.
Nicole started working with our associated speech pathology practice Voice Medicine Australia in 2008 regularly consulting for the Melbourne Voice Analysis from 2010. In 2013, she relocated to the USA and gained her ASHA credentialling and license to practice in New York State where she spent two years working as a Speech Pathologist in NYC, at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Nicole worked with Laryngologist Dr Melin Tan servicing patients with a range of voice, upper airway and swallowing disorders. She also gained invaluable clinical research experience working with prominent Speech Pathologist Dr Linda Carrol, and co-authored several papers for presentation at international laryngology conferences. We were extremely fortunate that she returned to join us again in 2015 working as a lead speech pathologist in Voice Medicine Australia and to continue consulting for Melbourne Voice Analysis Centre.
Nicole has a keen interest in working with singers and performers with voice problems. In addition, she enjoys working with transgender voice and people with neurogenic voice disorders, such as Parkinson’s Disease, vocal tremor and spasmodic dysphonia. In 2022, Nicole completed her PhD at Monash University within the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences supervised by Dr Debbie Phyland, Professor Julian Smith and Professor Joseph Stemple. Her research topic was ‘The impact of voice load and voice therapy on benign vocal fold lesions’
