Dimity Dornan AO is a

speech pathologist Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...

, author, social entrepreneur, bionics advocate, researcher, and businesswoman in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia. She is the founder of the Hear and Say Centre for Deaf Children on 6 July 1992 and helped initiate newborn hearing screening in Queensland hospitals, the first such program in Australia. She has received

Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territo ...

for Queensland in 2003, and the Suncorp

Queenslander of the Year Queensland Day is officially celebrated on 6 June as the birthday of the Australian state of Queensland. History Moves towards statehood began with a public meeting in 1851 to consider separation of Queensland from the Colony of New South Wa ...

in 2010.

Griffith University Griffith University is a public research university in South East Queensland on the east coast of Australia. Formally founded in 1971, Griffith opened its doors in 1975, introducing Australia's first degrees in environmental science and Asian s ...

offers a ''Dimity Dornan Hear and Say Master of Speech Pathology Scholarship'' for second year students who have an interest in paediatric speech pathology and working in a regional area.

Career

Dornan was the first speech pathology graduate at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

, and the first speech pathologist to work at the

Royal Brisbane Hospital The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) is a tertiary public hospital located in Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is operated by Metro North Health, part of the Queensland Health network. The hospital has 929 be ...

. Dornan has been attributed for her ground-breaking auditory verbal work which has assisted families and hearing-impaired children throughout Queensland. Hear and Say is now a global Hearing Health Education and Development Program with six centres across Queensland, including a telepractice for remote regions of Queensland. Dornan is the founder of Bionics Queensland (BioniQ) which was established to promote the development of the human bionic industry in Queensland. Dornan is also the founder of Human Bionics Interface, which an international network of bionics researchers, clinicians, businesses that share projects to delivery

bionics Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology. The word ''bionic'', coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1 ...

solutions. Dornan retired from the role as Executive Director, Hear and Say, and moved into an ambassador role in 2022.

Achievements

In 2017, Dornan was inducted into the

Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame In 2009 State Library of Queensland The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Qu ...

. In October 2017, Dornan was elected to the

Senate by the graduates of the university. In 2003 she received

for Queensland, and in 2010 the Suncorp

Awards

Churchill Fellowship 1992
* Member of the Order of Australia 1998 * Fellow of Speech Pathology Australia 1999 * Australian Medical Association (AMA) Award for Distinction for Services to Medicine 1999 * Australian of the Year for Queensland 2003 * Ernst & Young Australian Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 * Suncorp Queenslander of the Year 2010 * University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year 2011
Telstra Business Women’s Awards Business Woman of the Year for Queensland and White Pages Community and Government Award (2011)
*

Queensland Greats The Queensland Greats Awards recognise outstanding Queenslanders for their years of dedication and contribution to the development of the state and their role in strengthening and shaping the community in Queensland, Australia. The awards are pr ...

2013 * Dame of Honour 2013 * Order of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitaller) 2013 * Officer of the Order of Australia 2014 * Lord Mayor's Business Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award 2014 * McCullough Robertson Life Sciences Queensland Industry Excellence Award 2015 * Women in Technology Life Sciences Award 2016 * Brisbane Women in Business Award (Innovation and Technology) 2016 * Women in Technology Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award 2016 * Women in Business Innovation and Technology Award 2016 *

2017 * Queensland Senior Australian of the Year 2018

References

External links

Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame - 2017 Inductee digital story - Dr Dimity Dornan AO

Women in Technology

Disability and carers

State Library of Queensland - The Petrie Family

State Library of Queensland - Alice with eyes a-shine

State Library of Queensland - Proquest - Social inclusion for children with hearing loss in listening and spoken Language early intervention: an exploratory study

State Library of Queensland - Proquest - Exploring the impact of spoken language on social inclusion for children with hearing loss ...

Hear and Say

Bionics Queensland

The University of Queensland School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences - Profile - Dr Dimity Dornan, Adjunct Professor

Senior Australian of the Year Awards

Churchill Trust Fellow - Dimity Dornan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dornan, Dimity Speech and language pathologists Living people Officers of the Order of Australia Australian businesspeople Australian of the Year Award winners Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Year of birth missing (living people)