UQ’s Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences is proud to announce the next Head of the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Professor Sandy Brauer has been appointed to the role, having been Acting Head of School since January this year.
She is the Director of the UQ Centre for Neurorehabilitation, Ageing and Balance Research, and the President of the Council of Physiotherapy Deans of Australia and New Zealand.
Previous positions have included Deputy Head and Head of Physiotherapy within the UQ School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.
Faculty Executive Dean Professor Bruce Abernethy said the appointment followed an extensive international search.
“Professor Brauer brings a great deal of experience, knowledge and academic leadership to the role,” Professor Abernethy said.
Professor Brauer is an alumnus of UQ having completed both her Bachelor of Physiotherapy Honours – for which she was awarded a University medal – and PhD here.
She worked clinically at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital while studying and following her PhD was an NIH Research Fellow at both the University of Oregon and the University of Washington.
Professor Brauer’s initial appointment at UQ was as a conjoint research fellow with the Princess Alexandra Hospital and she was promoted internally to professor in 2013.
She is an established, international research leader on the improvement of balance and gait in older adults and those with neurological disorders such as stroke and Parkinson’s disease.
Professor Brauer is the author of two books chapters, some 130 peer-reviewed papers, and a host of other publications.
She has a Scopus h index of 33 based on 168 published documents, and has been the recipient of $7.3 million in competitive research grants as a principal investigator.
Over the course of her academic career she has supervised 23 PhD students, one MPhil and more than 40 honours students.
