Our HDA Schools Communicator for 2024

Congratulations to Dr Hayley Leake, our HDA Schools Communicator for 2024. This award is funded by the Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation (CRF).

Hayley is a Research Fellow within the Body in Mind Research Group, IIMPACT in Health at the University of South Australia.

Hayley will be delivering her interactive session on The Mysterious Science of Pain to a number of South Australian schools this year.

Hayley’s research focuses on chronic pain management, pain education and digital health, particularly in adolescence. Her work identifies and implements interventions to change individual’s misconceptions about pain, to improve active engagement in pain rehabilitation.

“I am honoured to receive the HDA Schools Communicator Award and excited to increase students’ understanding of chronic pain including learning about the science of pain, and how they can help support other young people around them challenged by chronic pain”, Hayley Leake.

The goal of this award is to help our emerging researchers, like Hayley, to showcase their research to South Australian high school students with the aim of getting them excited about the amazing opportunities open to them in health science or science career pathways.

Science is to obtain new facts, but most importantly, science is to discover new ways of thinking about them. It is, therefore, important to engage students and make them understand the problems of today and tomorrow because students of today are the leaders of tomorrow.

Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation Executive Director, Greg Ward, says the opportunity to fund HDA’s Schools Communicator Award provides an inspiring platform for CRF to help foster and support the development of  research careers in children’s health in South Australia.

“CRF has been a dedicated supporter of HDA since 2007 through its PhD Excellence Awards and now in its fourth year, the Schools Communicator Award,” Ward says.

“This opportunity for CRF to inspire young people to consider a career in research, and importantly, in children’s health and development is incredibly important to us”

“We congratulate Hayley on receiving the 2024 HDA Schools Communicator Award and encourage her dedication to inspire younger generations to consider a future that will ultimately lead to improving the lives of children.”