A/Prof Debbie Phyland
PhD, MAppSc, Grad Dip Ed, BAppSc (SpPath), FSPAA
Dr Debbie Phyland is the Owner and one of the Principal Speech Pathologists of Voice Medicine Australia. She has primarily worked in acute hospital settings, part-time lecturing at Latrobe, Melbourne and James Cook Universities in voice, neurological and dysphagia subjects and running this private voice practice. Debbie is also a music theatre singer-performer combining her love of performance with her speech pathology career, championing voice medicine in the performing arts.
Along with Fellowship category (2014), Debbie has been honoured with the prestigious Speech Pathology Australia Association’s Elinor Wray Award (2010) for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Profession’. In 2002, she was the recipient of a Churchill and Kilpatrick Fellowship (link) and travelled to the USA and Europe to study performance fitness for professional voice users. She was also the grateful recipient of a Garnett-Passe and Rodney Williams 2-year Research Fellowship in 2016.
As well as heading up the VMA team, Debbie is a co-founder and owner of the multi-disciplinary clinic The Melbourne Voice Analysis Centre (started in 1993). She also currently works part-time as Associate Professor for the School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University and Director of Clinical Research for the ENT Head and Neck Department of Monash Health. Debbie is currently the Chair of the Voice Committee for the International Association of Logopaedics and Phoniatrics, a twice past Board member of the Australian Voice Association and Past President of the Laryngology Society of Australasia (2013-2017).
Debbie is a committed academic as teacher and researcher in the laryngology and neurologic communication disorder field. She has authored numerous journal publications and book chapters and in 2014 completed her doctoral thesis through the Department of Surgery, Monash University researching ‘The impact of vocal load on the vocal folds of professional music theatre singers’. She is regularly invited to give presentations in Australia and overseas, as a recognised researcher and skilled speech pathologist who is passionate about improving understanding and clinical management of voice and laryngeal disorders
Since the late 1990s, Debbie has been the resident voice consultant for Melbourne Theatre Company and consulted for Opera Australia and countless professional productions including the national tours of the musicals Moulin Rouge, Six, MammaMia, Wicked, Frozen, Billy Elliot, Matilda, Kinky Boots, Aladdin, WarHorse, Lion King, Hamilton, Six and Les Misérables. In recognition of her sustained input, she was the recipient of a Victorian Green Room Award ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Melbourne Stage’ (2012), an Australian Voice Association award for ‘Outstanding contribution to the Australian voice community’ (2014) and an ANATS Victorian Branch recognition for ‘Outstanding sustained contribution to the singing community’ (2024).
In addition to her experience and evident enthusiasm for all things voice-related, Debbie has a keen interest in the medical and functional aspects of other inter-related aspects of laryngology particularly upper-middle airway dysfunction, cough and irritable larynx syndromes and neurological speech disorders, particularly Parkinson’s Disease, tremor, spasmodic dysphonia and other complex motor speech disorders. She is a strong advocate for the prevention of occupational vocal injuries, for the promotion of healthy and authentic voicing and for improved understanding of the impact of voice disorders on communication.
Along with the other speech pathologists in the team, Debbie is highly confident that all patients at VMA will receive exceptional care grounded in a strong evidence-based approach to practice and informed by our long history of practice-based evidence.