Clinical Care Expert Driving Team

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Dr Salma Charania - Chair

Dr. Salma Charania is a dedicated speech pathologist and researcher with a PhD from the University of Queensland, where her thesis examined the impact of dysarthria in individuals with motor neurone disease (MND). She also holds a Master of Speech Pathology and a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Psychology. Currently a Lecturer at Central Queensland University, Dr. Charania has made educating her students on MND a priority and continues to actively contribute to research in the field. She recently served as Assistant Guest Editor for the MDPI Health Care journal’s special issue, Improving Care for People Living with ALS/MND, and has been an active member of the MND Collective Clinical Care Expert Driving Team (CCDT) since its inception. Now serving as Chair of the CCDT, Dr. Charania leads a national team of MND care experts, driving collaboration and innovation to advance best practice care for people living with MND. She is also a member of the Research and Policy Maker Advisory Group for the Australian MND Guidelines project. Her relevant clinical experience includes developing and establishing the MND Queensland Speech Pathology Service and Voice Banking Clinic, as well as working within the aged care sector. Dr. Charania is passionate about improving the quality of care for people living with MND and their loved ones, with a strong commitment to promoting holistic, person-centred approaches to care.

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Dr Sarah El-Wahsh

Dr. El-Wahsh is a certified practicing speech pathologist and lecturer at The University of Sydney (USYD) and has worked as a senior speech pathologist in a specialist MND clinic. Dr. El-Wahsh completed her Bachelor of Applied Science (Speech Pathology) Honours degree at USYD in 2017, graduating with Honours I, the University Medal, and the Dean’s Scholar Award. She was awarded a Research Training Program scholarship and completed her PhD in 2022. She has a strong passion for progressive neurological diseases, aged care, rehabilitation, and palliative care. With expertise in MND, she frequently advises clinicians across Australia and has conducted workshops in this field. Dr. El-Wahsh also contributes her expertise as the speech pathology representative on the National MND Guidelines Advisory Panel. Dr. El-Wahsh is passionate about ensuring people living with MND receive skilled, compassionate, and timely care, as well as building clinician confidence in supporting people living with MND. Dr. El-Wahsh sees great value in being a clinician-researcher, ensuring her research is person-centred and her clinical care and teaching are grounded in evidence-based practice.

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Dr Rebecca Francis

Dr. Rebecca Francis is a certified practicing speech pathologist and Flinders University speech pathology lecturer, teaching in the areas of motor speech disorders and anatomy and physiology of communication and swallowing. Rebecca completed her Bachelor of Speech Pathology Honours degree in 2018. In 2025, she completed her PhD which focussed on cognitive and behavioral changes in MND and the interaction with dysphagia (impaired swallowing) management. Her aim is to improve care for families affected by MND, and her interests are in health care research, implementation science and the lived experience. 

Rebecca is currently leading a research study funded by MND Australia and MND SA, partnering with people with lived experience of MND to determine their preferences for learning about and managing cognitive and behavioural changes in MND. She is also a member of the Australian MND Guidelines Clinical and Content Advisory Group and Research and Policymaker Advisory Group. 
 

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Dr Karen Hutchinson

Dr Karen Hutchinson is a Research Fellow with the Centre for Healthcare Research and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation at Macquarie University, and an Honorary Conjoint Scholar at Central Coast Local Health District. She was awarded her PhD (University of Sydney) in 2018 which explored family experiences living with younger onset dementia. Her clinical and research interests focus on lived experiences, implementation science and practice and integrated models of health care specific to individuals and families living with chronic and complex neurological conditions. She has 33 years of clinical experience working as a physiotherapist, in the UK and Australia, with adults and their families living with complex and chronic neurological conditions.

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Associate Professor Susan Mathers

Susan Mathers is a neurologist at Monash Health, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University and Clinical Director of Neurology at Calvary Health Care Bethlehem, Melbourne. Her clinical and research interests focus on the management of progressive neurological diseases, clinical trials and models of care. She is a member of the scientific committee of Motor Neurone Disease Research Australia, the Fight MND CURE Sub-Committee and a chief investigator on the MiNDAUS project: Motor Neurone Disease: Patient centred care for a progressive neurological disease— evidence driving policy.

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Sally Neville

Sally is a versatile health researcher with formal qualifications in allied health (podiatry), public health, and biomedical science. She brings over 20 years of clinical experience in podiatry, with a research focus spanning health systems, access to care, and mixed-method research approaches. Within the field of motor neurone disease (MND), Sally’s expertise centres on promoting safe, sustained functional mobility and embedding lived experience from individuals and the MND community into responsive models of care.

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Dr Bec Sheean

Bec is the Director of Cure Research and Programs at FightMND and has been with the Foundation for 7 years. She has a PhD in Neuroscience, specialising in MND and a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Research. Bec oversees all FightMND’s Cure Research portfolio, which supports pre-clinical and clinical MND research projects throughout Australia and internationally, as well as FightMND funded Clinical Trials. Through her role she liaises with all aspects of the research sector including researchers, clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, and Government to develop large scale, collaborative MND research projects. As part of her role, Bec really enjoys communicating about MND research and progress to FightMND supporters and people with lived experience of MND.

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Dr Nicole Sheers

Dr Nicole Sheers was the first Chair of the MND Collective Clinical Care Driving Team, stepping down from this role in 2025. She has 25 years of clinical experience working with people living with neuromuscular conditions, and has worked as a respiratory physiotherapist with the Victorian Respiratory Support Service - the specialist state-wide home ventilation team - for the past 17 years. Nicole's research aims to improve sleep, breathing and cough function for people living with a neuromuscular disease, and she conducted a clinical trial that tested the effect of a particular breathing exercise as part her PhD; completed in 2021. She is an early career researcher and postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Melbourne and Institute for Breathing and Sleep at Austin Health.

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Dr. Brooke-Mai Whelan

Dr. Brooke-Mai Whelan is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist with over 20 years of clinical and research experience in the management of adult neurogenic communication disorders. Brooke-Mai is currently a Lecturer in Speech Pathology within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland. She is leading a program of research to identify speech biomarkers of disease progression and treatment responsiveness in MND.