Member of the Order of Australia (AM) honour for Prof. Elizabeth Kendall

The Hopkins Centre is pleased to acknowledge the recently announced King’s Birthday Honours and congratulate Prof. Elizabeth Kendall for being honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Professor Elizabeth Kendall has been honoured with a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of her significant service to rehabilitation research, to people with a disability, and to tertiary education. Professor Kendall AM has been acknowledged for her unwavering dedication to transforming the lives of individuals with disabilities and her relentless efforts in advancing rehabilitation and service systems for those managing serious injuries, disabilities or chronic conditions. Professor Kendall AM has been the Director, Co-Director and Director of Innovation and Partnerships at The Hopkins Centre and is the leader of Griffith’s Inclusive Futures: Reimagining Disability Beacon.

Prof. Kendall AM, had this to say about her award:

"My interest in disability and rehabilitation stems from my brother who sustained a serious brain injury in a car accident back int he 1970s. There was not much in the way of services then but Dr. Paul Hopkins had just started delivering rehabilitation out of a demountable building on the grounds of the PA hospital. Watching this process got me very interested in the brain, but also in the way we deliver services that respects people and their families.

I started studying psychology and anatomy to learn more about the brain, but my first contact with a cadaver wasn't as much fun as I thought! In my research projects, I focused on the role of the family in rehabilitation, based on how important our whole family was to my brother's recovery. Around the same time, I started working in Headway (now Synapse) and I stayed there until 1990 when I started my PhD. We took that service from a voluntary social group to a well funded statewide advocacy and information service.

In 1990, I launched my first research report, which was affectionately dubbed the Kendall Report. It was a sweeping review of brain injury services in Queensland. It was an exciting time, with the Disability Services Act changing so many things about rehabilitation and community services. It was probably as exciting as when the NDIS was first introduced. It felt like the start of a whole new era. There was a lot of emphasis on the valued roles people with disability played in society and the ways in which we could facilitate that participation. During that time, I started or contributed to a number of services that still exist, including Riding for Disabled, but one of our best achievements was with Prof Michele Foster, our former Research Director. We worked together on the Ambulatory Care project where we trialled a community-based approach to supporting people following discharge from hospital. It was a huge project and ended in MAIC funding the pilot ABIOS service with Ray Quinn as our first Director. Michele and I both moved onto CONROD along with Pim Kuipers, Sean Tweedy and a number of other people you would all remember. I was based at Griffith University in the School of Behavioural Science, which eventually turned into a Rehabilitation Studies program and then the School of Human Services and Social Work which has now blended with the School of Allied Health Sciences.

There have been so many opportunities in my career to influence brain and spinal injury rehabilitation services, as well as chronic disease programs, disability services and research centres. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have a research position at Griffith where I have been able to join forces with people like Prof Tim Geraghty to really make a difference.

This award is a wonderful honour for me, but it is also recognition for my large network of excellent colleagues and the way in which we have all worked together to bring about positive change for people with disability over the last 30 years. When I look at the membership list for Hopkins Centre, I see names of people who have been important in my work for that entire time. We should never underestimate how impactful the Hopkins Centre has been and this all rests on its amazing people. "