Cleft Speech & Language Therapy Fellowship
University Hospitals Bristol, NHS Foundation Trust
Kat Bray
Craniofacial Australia is excited to announce a new educational grant with our UK-based partner NHS University Hospitals Bristol and the Cleft Collective to fund our first Cleft Speech and Language Therapy Fellowship.
The Fellowship will run for 12 months and will provide the Fellow with specialised training in all aspects of speech and language therapy for people with Cleft Lip and Palate in a multi-disciplinary setting.
Speech Therapist Kat Bray is our inaugural Fellow for 2026.
This new Fellowship is possible thanks to the generosity of our community. Thanks to their donations, we are able to expand our support and deliver world-class training and education to more multidisciplinary team members, ensuring that people with cleft and craniofacial differences worldwide receive the best treatment possible.
For more than six years, Craniofacial Australia has partnered with NHS University Hospitals Bristol and the Cleft Collective to fund the Surgical Cleft Fellowship as part of our Education Program, which aims to provide best pracise training to surgeons and multidisciplinary team members in Australia and overseas.
In addition to the Surgical Cleft Fellowship, the Cleft Speech and Language Therapy Fellowship will provide Speech Therapists with advanced training in treating people with Cleft Lip and/or Palate. Often, children with Cleft Palate have unique speech challenges related to differences in anatomy and physiology that can affect resonance and articulation
The Fellow will have the opportunity to learn directly from Cleft Speech & Language Therapists in all aspects of their work, including:
The Fellow will also complete a research project that will be submitted for peer-review and considered for presentation at multiple international Craniofacial and Speech Pathology conferences.
Our 2026 Cleft Speech & Language Therapy Fellow
Kat Bray is an Adelaide-based Senior Speech Pathologist with more than ten years’ experience treating Cleft and Craniofacial patients. She most recently was a Senior Speech Pathologist and Clinical Lead for Nasendoscopy at Cleft and Craniofacial SA at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
We are thrilled to have Kat as our inaugural Cleft Speech and Language Speech Therapy Fellow.
This Fellowship aims to strengthen specialist cleft lip and/ or palate speech pathology care in Australia through international training, research engagement, and knowledge exchange.
The Fellowship hopes to:
One of the main goals of Craniofacial Australia is to drive discoveries for a better future. We are at the forefront of craniofacial research thanks to funding the brightest minds in Australia and beyond. Here is a round up of our current research.
