Dr Ed Johnson, an allied health professional, academic and entrepreneur, joined the AHANA Board in late 2024. Get to know Ed, what makes him tick and what he wants to bring to AHANA, through this interview by Andy Richardson, AHANA Chair.
I've been working in allied health since 2011. I got into it because I wanted to be part of the “helping professions”; to be able to support people who are in need.
I studied at University of Sydney – a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics/Anthropology/English - then later a Masters of Speech Language Pathology. I finished my PhD in 2021, on the phenomenologies of rural families of children with intellectual disabilities, and humanistic digital allied health support delivery and capacity-building with National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants across rural and remote Australia (essentially looking at the policy, delivery and psychology of disability services in rural and remote Australia).
I was once told by a boss that I wasn’t allowed to see a client because they lived too far away, and that I could see more clients in that time if I didn’t go. It inspired me to study my PhD, and I subsequently started my business based on its findings, which now provides to support to people like that client, who were being denied support from allied health because of something as arbitrary as their postcode.
My favourite part about working in allied health is knowing there’s a chance to change someone’s life for the better.
In terms of getting to know me, in a personal sense... I’m a cricket tragic. I’ll watch, play, or talk about it with anyone. I also play the mandolin, and love any interactions which involve family, friends, animals, rural Australia, and books.
Cook, speech pathologist, start-up cofounder, director and president of Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health (SARRAH), and applied anthropology lecturer.
Starting my social enterprise which invests 50% of all profits to help people in rural and remote areas to get allied health services when they couldn’t afford them before.
Being president at SARRAH when we were awarded the contract to administer the allied health rural generalist program across rural and remote Australia – the largest federal investment ever into rural and remote allied health.
I recognise the importance of AHAs in supporting the wellbeing and quality of life of millions of Australians. I want to be part of that.
I want to help AHANA become a sustainable peak body which is recognised for the important work of its members for which it advocates.
I aim to use my expertise in business, policy, and service delivery to inform AHANA’s growth into a peak body with a large enough membership and influence to create change in policy at a national level.
I want allied health supports to be available to everyone, everywhere, at the time that they need it. AHANA’s growth, presence, and advocacy could help to build and credential a well-trained workforce that could make that happen.
I see it as well-funded, recognised for its importance in the quality of life of all Australians, and well understood by all stakeholders (because at the moment, it’s not well understood, not even amongst different allied health disciplines!).
Nothing too specific just yet, but I want to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to AHANA. Many peak bodies rely on government funding to support their work, but change sometimes has to happen from the ground up. I believe that AHANA can prove itself with or without jurisdictional or Federal support, and can achieve its goals regardless. It can do this through building robust income streams that support AHAs and grow their visibility in the health and social services ecosystem.