Following school, Leona moved to Melbourne where she graduated with First Class Honours at Monash University with a Bachelor of Behavioural Neuroscience. Leona is now part of a multidisciplinary paediatric research team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute that works closely with premature children. She is involved in a range of long-term clinical studies that aim to understand the impact of premature birth on brain development, behaviour and cognition in children. Over the past two years, Leona has been the project leader for a clinical trial investigating a working memory training program in extremely premature children. In December 2013, she received an Australian Postgraduate Award from Monash University allowing her to commit to furthering her studies with a PhD exploring the benefits of cognitive training in premature children.

She also received postgraduate research funding through the Centre of Research Excellence in Newborn Medicine to support her PhD studies.

Leona now works as a Senior Research Fellow (Mental Health & Wellbeing, Policy & Equity) at the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Walk of Fame Inductee 2014