Professor Amanda J Leach

Professor Amanda Leach AM is leader of the Ear Health Research Program, Child Health Division. Prof Leach led the 6-year NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to 2021. Over 30 small grants were provided to researchers across Australia. Prof Leach also led the 2020 update of the 2010 OM Guidelines including an OM app using the highest quality international GRADE approach, also endorsed as a Guideline by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She was NHMRC lead investigator for two ground breaking vaccine trials (PREVIX_COMBO and PREVIX_BOOST), a study of school readiness (VOICES), and is co-investigator of five additional trials of prevention and treatment of ear disease, hearing loss, and developmental delay in First Nations children living in remote NT communities. Prof Leach is Joint Chair with Professor Kelvin Kong, for the 5-year Hearing for Learning Initiative – a funding partnership between The Balnaves Foundation, the Northern Territory Government, and the Australian Government. The goal of this stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial of accredited and skills training and employment in 20 communities is to establish local, sustainable, clinical and education expertise to support elimination of social and educational disadvantage caused by ear disease and hearing loss. In 2011 she won a 6-year NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship which was awarded the inaugural Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship for top ranking female applicant in the clinical category. In 2019 Prof Leach won the Telstra NT Business Woman of the Year, and in 2020, Prof Leach was made a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for significant service to ear disease research, and to Indigenous child health. Prof Leach was awarded a 5-year NHMRC Investigator Grant, to 2029, providing opportunities for post-doctoral and PhD positions.

Research Interests:

• Child health
• Indigenous health
• Remote area health services
• Infectious diseases
• Evidence-based clinical guidelines
• Systematic reviews