SHEILA MATTHEWS

“During another strike a brick was thrown through the bus window as I was driving. I  just stepped on the gas! I didn’t dare stop.”

I recently retired from Melbourne University, as a Clinical Trials Coordinator managing a national project for Indigenous Australian children.

Over 70 % of our Indigenous children have chronic hearing loss from an early age which can affect them for life.  The most appropriate treatments for them are still being debated, so the project is following up and measuring the outcomes of 2 different options.

My career path has been convoluted, but certainly not boring.   I’ve worked with an amazing array of people and professionals.

My mother told me from an early age that I would follow family tradition and go into nursing. I left high school at the end of 1969, when the major career choices for women were nursing, teaching or secretarial duties. Continue reading →