Congratulations to Dr. Kerry Britt and Dr. Jacinta Pennacchia on graduating with their PhDs! What an incredible achievement and the culmination of years of dedication, curiosity, persistence, and hard work.

Dr. Kerry Britt’s PhD research was titled Exploring, and creating opportunities to change how service providers think, talk about, and approach childhood disability. She investigated attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of professionals working with children with a disability and their families to understand their perspectives on embedding and sustaining collaborative partnerships in practice. She also co-designed and evaluated a professional development program with parents, therapists, and researchers. She showed that the program provides knowledge, tools, and resources for professionals to work effectively in wholistic, strengths-based family-centred ways.

Dr. Jacinta Pennacchia’s PhD thesis titled Assessing mental health in young people with complex communication needs investigated assessment of mental wellbeing in young people with complex communication needs, particularly AAC users aged 10–25 years. Using multiple methods across three studies, she found no suitable existing measures for this group and that practitioners lacked confidence and knowledge to identify wellbeing concerns. Her research led to a person-centred “collage” approach to wellbeing assessment and contributed practical resources to support accessible research practices for people with communication disability.

Together, their research has made a significant contribution to childhood and youth disability research, helping to inform and improve practice in these important areas. We are incredibly proud to celebrate this milestone with Kerry and Jacinta and look forward to seeing the continued impact of their work in the years ahead.

>> Read more about Kerry’s research here

>> Read more about Jacinta’s research here