Our Team

Christine has a special interest in complex communication needs and assistive technology. She has worked in Western Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Central Western NSW with children and adults with speech, language and/or learning difficulties and with students with complex needs since 1991. Christine has consulted extensively with local schools to provide education about speech and language disorder, whole class/whole school resources and strategies for curriculum access and engagement, and research into supporting students with complex communication needs as part of funded projects with the NSW Department of Education. 

Christine has presented at the SEPLA (Special Education Principals’ and Leaders’ Association) Conference, the Spectronics, AGOSCI (Australian Group Supporting Communication Inclusion) and SARRAH (Services for Australian Rural and Remote Health) National Conferences over the past decade. As an advocate of AAC, Christine has presented regular workshops, professional development to speech pathologists, teachers and other service providers. She also provides supervision and mentoring to speech pathologists for all things AAC. Christine was a member of the SARRAH Leadership Panel for its national leadership course for rural and remote allied health leaders in August 2024. Along with Divya and Lerryn, Christine co-presented a day long workshop for Central Western Speech Pathologists in 2025. She was also part of the team to co-design the Bathurst-based Accessible Artistry Program in 2025, a program funded by Suppoya and project managed by Arts Out West, to enable disabled people who identify as artists to develop their skills and knowledge with professional artists. 

Christine is passionate about the right of all individuals to be able to tell their stories and to communicate with others for social closeness, friendship, to share humour, to make informed choices and to find purpose. 

Alison has extensive experience with working with children and adults with speech and language difficulties, social communication difficulties, trauma backgrounds, selective mutism and autism. Her interests include Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), trauma informed practice and supporting students with literacy difficulties and speech sound disorders. 

Alison presented to the 2023 Diocesan Learning Support Teachers Conference, Catholic Education Office, on language disorder presentation and strategies in the school setting. Alison completed a quality management project in 2023, collecting data from teachers about the readability and application of speech pathology reports, presenting outcomes of these to Speech Pathologists from across Central Western NSW in 2024. Alison also provided inservicing to primary and high school teachers across NSW about speech and language disorders and accommodating these in the classroom setting in 2024. 

As our Orange-based speech pathologist, Lerryn achieved a Level 1 Allied Health Rural Generalist Pathway Qualification from James Cook University in 2024, grant-funded by Services for Australian Rural and Remote Health (SARRAH). As part of obtaining her qualification, Lerryn coordinated the Central West TechTalkers® Program Project, a pilot program for communication partners of people who are using AAC. She co-presented about this project with Christine at the SARRAH National Conference in October 2024. Lerryn has worked with children with disabilities and their families for over 12 years, both in Australia and Ireland. She has been employed in clinical roles at various disability services and in schools for children with disabilities. Lerryn has also worked in research, assessment and project roles.

The projects that Lerryn has worked on include developing resources for schools to support meaningful inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream school playgrounds, reviewing and developing augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) practices in multidisciplinary teams and parent training in communication strategies and AAC. She has also presented at AGOSCI conferences, co-presented an AAC workshop for speech pathologists in 2025 along with Christine and Divya, and has launched a local AAC Interest Group for speech pathologists. 

Lerryn is passionate about:

• communication as a basic human right and valuing all forms of communication
• giving children the best chance to develop autonomous communication, friendships and social closeness, and participate meaningfully in all aspects of life
• working with families to support and advocate for their child.

 Divya completed a clinical placement at EnhanceABILITY in 2022 and commenced a role with the EnhanceABILITY team in 2023 following completion of her Masters in Speech Pathology through the University of Technology Sydney.

Divya enjoys working with both children and adults. Her areas of interest include working with people with complex needs, mealtimes and swallowing, adult language difficulties after stroke or brain injury, speech sound disorders as well as augmentative communication (AAC). Divya is passionate about taking functional approaches to therapy and empowering clients through their strengths, whilst providing support to families. Divya brings an extra dimension to our practice as a speech pathologist fluent in Hindi. She provides training in safe swallowing and key word sign to other organisations and co-presented the AAC Workshop for Central Western Speech Pathologists in 2025. 

Divya is a diligent and empathetic clinician who has embraced a functional approach to working with people with complex needs. She is also our go to Canva designer and social media guru. 

Emma came to EnhanceABILITY for her first clinical placement as a third year speech pathology students at the University of Western Sydney. She was so fabulous that we decided to keep her! Emma is enjoying her role as an allied health assistant along with administration assistance and being flexible enough to bounce along to Christine’s next big idea. She is looking forward to being a qualified speech pathologist at the end of 2026. 

Chereen keeps us all in line. She has an extensive background in providing excellent customer service. Chereen has also spent time volunteering within the community learning about advocacy, the NDIS and supporting people with a disability and she would like to do further study around Auslan and Key Word Sign in the future. She is the face behind the reception desk and the phone as your first point of contact with EnhanceABILITY. She also has excellent knowledge about other local services and has assisted many families to source service providers.