Associate Professor Alison Ledger has two main roles within the Academy for Medical Education at UQ - Academic Lead for Staff Development and Dynamic Learner and Educator Theme Lead in the MD program. In all of her work, Alison is passionate about promoting scholarly teaching and application of education research.

Researcher biography

Alison has a long history at UQ, first completing her undergraduate and MPhil degrees in music therapy here.  She later worked as a Clinical Lecturer, in a joint appointment between UQ and the Royal Children’s Hospital Brisbane, working and supervising students in paediatric oncology.

Alison completed her PhD at the University of Limerick, Ireland, employing a unique combination of ethnographic, narrative, and arts-based research methods.  She was then recruited by the University of Leeds, UK, for her qualitative research expertise. At Leeds, she began her medical education career, teaching and supervising education research from undergraduate to postdoctoral levels. She quickly moved through the ranks of Research Fellow, Lecturer, to Associate Professor and led the BSc in Applied Health (Medical Education) programme for 10 years. She demonstrated effective leadership as Head of Intercalated Programmes, overseeing a portfolio of 20 programmes allied to medicine.

Alison is known internationally for supporting researchers who are new to clinical/health professions education research. She is a previous chair of the UK Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) Education Research Committee and editor of the text Starting Research in Clinical Education. Her current research seeks to promote diversity and inclusion within clinical academic career pathways.

Alison has supervised doctorates in health professions education to completion and welcomes interest from others contemplating this next step.  She is also available for external examining work.