Jacinta (she/her) is a PhD candidate and speech pathologist living and working on Wurundjeri country. Her clinical experience is in a specialist school setting for children and adolescents with disabilities. She is driven by a desire to promote communication access and to support students to develop their self-advocacy skills.

Jacinta is excited to be working towards her PhD in promoting the mental health of young people with complex communication needs. Jacinta loves to collaborate with different groups of people, and she is involved with the research groups CP-Achieve and CHILD. Jacinta’s PhD has at its foundation “consumer engagement”, which means people with lived experience of disability are directly involved in shaping the projects. She recognises that this engagement will help the research outcomes be useful and practical to the people it matters to.

When Jacinta is not working, you can find her reading a book in the sun or making pasta.