Diana
Russo

Diana is a seasoned Speech Pathologist, holding the esteemed Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) status with Speech Pathology Australia. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Speech Pathology from Lincoln Institute, a Master’s Degree in Health Sciences (Infant & Parent Mental Health), and a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Sciences, both from the University of Melbourne.

Her substantial paediatric speech pathology background spans the mental health and education sectors. For many years, Diana held the Speech Pathology Discipline Senior Lead, at Monash Health – Early in Life Mental Health Service in Victoria, where she carried a senior mental health speech pathologist role, including managing a team of mental health speech pathologists and a clinical load. She subsequently transitioned to Principals Australia, overseeing the implementation of a national mental health framework for primary and secondary schools (KidsMatter & MindMatters).

Diana has pursued further training in Tuning into Kids, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Supporting Kids in Primary School (SKIPS), all of which have enriched her clinical practice.

Diana is deeply committed to evidence-based practice, exemplified by her tenure as the Senior Advisor of Professional Standards at Speech Pathology Australia. In this role, she focused on competency assessment for overseas-trained Speech Pathologists and those returning to practice. Additionally, Diana’s dedication to education is evident in her role prior joining the Selective Mutism Clinic, as a clinical educator for student Speech Pathologists at the University of Melbourne and earlier with the Australian Catholic University.

Throughout Diana’s career she has been passionate about providing speech pathology supervision. After gaining further practice experience with children and families in the Selective Mutism Clinic, Diana has now transitioned to sharing her expertise with speech pathologists. Diana shares her knowledge in a safe reflective space to offer informed, strengths based, collaborative supervision to speech pathologists to build skills and improve client outcomes. She seamlessly integrates principles from both speech pathology and mental health, garnered from her years of practice.

Diana is available to provide supervision to speech pathologists around the treatment of selective mutism in children and more broadly around mental health speech pathology – exploring the impact of children’s social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties that co-occur with communication impairment.