Kate Walker

Kate is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist with over 16 years of experience working in the assessment and management of voice disorders, upper airway dysfunction including inducible laryngeal obstruction and chronic cough. She provides specialised adult voice and upper airway speech pathology services via telehealth across Australia, with a strong focus on multidisciplinary collaboration.

Kate has worked across Australia and the United Kingdom in community health, acute and tertiary hospital settings, rehabilitation units, and specialist voice clinics. In London, she held a position at The Wellington Hospital, working across the outpatient voice clinic, intensive care unit, and rehabilitation services. She later became a lead clinician in the Royal Darwin Hospital Voice Clinic, where she worked closely with ENT surgeons to assess voice disorders and develop individualised management plans.

Her clinical experience includes close collaboration with ENT and Maxillofacial teams, supporting patients undergoing head and neck cancer treatment, voice and swallowing preservation and rehabilitation, and ongoing laryngectomy management. Kate is skilled in instrumental swallowing assessment, including Videofluoroscopy (VFSS) and Fibreoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES), and has a comprehensive understanding of swallowing physiology and complex aerodigestive disorders.

Kate has a strong background in professional voice care, informed by her training in music theatre at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and her ongoing work as a singer. She is trained in Laryngeal Manual Therapy (Lesley Mathieson) and laryngeal massage techniques (Walt Fritz) and provides manual therapy for laryngeal, jaw, tongue, and cervical tension where clinically indicated.

She has a particular clinical interest in gender-affirming voice care, having established the first gender-affirming voice clinic in Darwin. Kate is the founder of Affirm and Thrive, an LGBTQ+ wellbeing hub offering gender-affirming voice and communication services in Adelaide and globally online. She is also a Lecturer in Voice within the Adelaide University in the Speech Pathology program.

Kate is a Certified Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a member of the Laryngology Society of Australasia and the Australian Voice Association.