Jodie Long appointed as Speech Pathology Australia CEO
Speech Pathology Australia is delighted to announce the appointment of Jodie Long as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Jodie will join the Association at the end of July 2023.
“During the long and carefully considered recruitment process, we were very honoured to meet some highly skilled candidates and through our due diligence we are confident that our decision to appoint Jodie will set the Association up for a prosperous future,” said Speech Pathology Australia, National President Tim Kittel.
“Jodie’s strong financial and management background combined with her experience in allied health will make her a great fit for the Association.”
Most recently Jodie was CEO of the Australian Sonographers Association (ASA). “After an amazing 5 and a half years with the ASA I am excited to have the opportunity to join Speech Pathology Australia. I am extremely passionate and committed to achieving better healthcare outcomes for all and I look forward to working with the talented, and dedicated team and their more than 14,000 members, as we work together to empower all speech pathologists and strengthen access to speech pathology,” said Jodie.
“I recognise that allied health professionals have significant and often overlooked roles in caring for clients at all stages of life and I will work tirelessly to continue to raise awareness of the vital role of speech pathologists, so that everyone can achieve effective communication and swallowing throughout their lives.”
In the weeks leading up to Jodie’s start date current Deputy CEO, Robert Di Leva will be acting CEO.
The appointment comes after the recent retirement of Gail Mulcair who held the Association’s CEO role for 18 years.
Bio of Jodie Long
Jodie is a highly accomplished executive healthcare leader with more than 25 years’ experience in the allied health sector. She has the ideal mix both of business and clinical experience. Having worked for a large corporate healthcare company for 11 years Jodie had customer orientated sales roles, senior divisional managerial roles as well as being a spokesperson for the healthcare division and clinical experience who started out as a radiographer. She has also provided healthcare management consultancy services for a couple of years under her own company and demonstrates strong in-depth healthcare knowledge and executive business leadership.
Jodie was instrumental in transforming ASA’s membership which had an increase of over 40% of members, more than 30,000 online CPD points issued last year, as well as advocated for policy change with the Australian government. The transformation was recognised by Associations Forum in 2020 with ASA short-listed as a finalist for the Association Turn Around of the Year award. Jodie has continually strived throughout her career to create a positive impact and deliver impactful change.
Taken from Speech Pathology Australia Media Release on 28 April 2023.
