ACvA Board Director Professor Natasha Lannin’s path to becoming a clinician researcher in stroke rehabilitation wasn’t a straight line. Originally studying architecture, her life changed when a family member was involved in a serious accident. That experience reshaped her future. Witnessing firsthand the impact of rehabilitation, she shifted focus and trained as an occupational therapist.
Today she’s a clinician researcher specialising in stroke rehabilitation. She holds a joint Professorial Chair between Monash University in the School of Translational Medicine and Alfred Health in the division of Allied Health. She’s also a Heart Foundation Fellow.
Her drive to meet people on their worst days and offer hope, pushes not only her work in stroke rehabilitation but the desire to get it right.
“The greatest difference we can make is when someone has lost the ability to do something that is meaningful to them and we can offer a pathway to regain it,” she says.
Her involvement with ACvA began four years ago, when she attended the Excellence in Cardiovascular Research Awards alongside a colleague. That event opened the door to a wider professional community and meaningful conversations about rehabilitation within the broader cardiovascular context.
“There isn’t anything else like it,” she says. “It’s about policy and practice, how we can get government to pay attention to cardiovascular and stroke research, and how we can band together in a really meaningful way.”
Recognising the opportunity to strengthen allied health and stroke representation, Professor Lannin successfully stood for election to the ACvA Board in 2022. Since then, she’s played a key role in amplifying the stroke voice within ACvA, including through the Stroke Clinical Theme and initiatives like the Early- and Mid-Career Researcher (EMCR) networking session at the Asia Pacific Stroke Conference held in Adelaide last year.
As a Board Director and Co-Lead of the Stroke Clinical Theme, she works at the intersection of disciplines where collaboration can genuinely move the dial. Most recently, the Stroke Clinical Theme published State of Stroke Rehabilitation in Australia: A WHO STARS Assessment to Identify Strengths and Gaps Across Policy, Practice and Funding as a first step to meeting the World Health Organisation Rehabilitation 2030 initiative. These findings will help shape national priorities to improve stroke rehabilitation across Australia.
For stroke and allied health researchers, especially those in the early to mid-stages of their careers, being part of a diverse, multidisciplinary community can be transformative. For Professor Lannin, access to a broad network across the cardiovascular field, created new opportunities.
“I now meet with cardiac researchers I would never otherwise have had the opportunity to collaborate with,” she says. “And I get a lot out of it.”
It’s a modest statement from someone who has already given so much but it captures exactly why being part of a connected, collaborative community matters.
You can find out more about ACvA membership HERE.