Sally Brinkman

Sally is a social epidemiologist with the majority of her research focusing on societies' impact on child development.

Sally is Head of Child Health, Development and Education at the world-renowned Telethon Kids Institute in Perth. Sally is also the Co-Director of the Fraser Mustard Centre, an innovative initiative between the Telethon Kids Institute and the South Australia Department of Education and Child Development aimed to improve research translation. Sally is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide.

Sally is well known for spearheading the use of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in Australia, being the first to pilot the instrument outside of Canada. Sally continues to work across the country to help facilitate the use of the Australian EDI (the AEDI) working with communities, service providers and governments.

Internationally, Sally works with Governments and donor organisations such as the World Bank, UNICEF, AusAID and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation working with various measures of child development for monitoring and evaluation purposes.

Sally has over 100 publications including books, chapters, monographs and journal articles covering topics such as infant mouthing behaviours, child physical activity and nutrition levels, the measurement of alcohol related violence, the evaluation of teenage pregnancy prevention programs, how child development varies across communities and the impact of socio economics and service integration on child development.

As such Sally brings locally, nationally and internationally recognised epidemiological skills particularly in relation to population monitoring of child development and education. She has a commitment to practical, pragmatic and translatable research.