Prof Szoeke is a legally qualified and registered medical practitioner and am a specialist physician and neurologist. She completed my undergraduate bachelor’s degree at the University of Melbourne, with honours in Genetics.  She subsequently completed hermedical training at Flinders University with registration at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and herPhD in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at University of Melbourne was conferred in 2006.   

She has been a member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physicians since 2002 and completed her Epilepsy Fellowship 2004-2007.  Her postdoctoral studies included a Cognition Fellowship at Stanford University returning to work as a consultant neurologist in the Department of Neurology, Royal Melbourne Hospital, before moving to private practice.  

 She has experience as a non-executive director, including holding the role as Chair of several board subcommittees. In 2015 she became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  She has specific experience on hospital and healthcare network boards holding roles as Chair of the Education, Training and Research Committee and Chair of the Quality & Safety Committee.  She was also a consultant to the Australian Commonwealth Science Organisation and regularly sits on advisory boards for the State and Federal Department of Health. She has held medical teaching roles in several academic institutions and specialist colleges.

 From 2008-2013 she was the Director of the Women’s Healthy Ageing Project at the National Ageing Research Institute.  From 2013 to 2024 she was the Director of the Healthy Ageing Program in the Centre for Medical Research Department of Medicine (RMH), School of Medicine, University of Melbourne including a period from 2016-2019, as Director of the Healthy Brain Initiative at the Institute of Health and Ageing. She was promoted to Full Academic Professor, in the Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne by a national and international panel in 2017.

 In 2003 she was conferred the RW Tweedle Award of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physicians. 

 In 2007 she was awarded a Cognition Fellowship Scholarship to attend Stanford by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physicians

 The International Greenblatt Prize for Women’s Health was awarded to her in 2008.

 She won the Australasian Grossman Award for women’s health in 2012.

 In 2018 she received the Robert Maple-Brown Award from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physicians. 

In 2022 she received Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physician Career Award.

 In 2023 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Flinders University Medical School.

 She is the author of a health book, several medical textbook chapters, and over two hundred articles in the medical literature.

 Since specialisation she has continued to be engaged in consulting neurology practice.  She had a long interest in forensic and medico legal issues and was responsible for preparing medicolegal reports for public hospital patients even in her early hospital roles. Her first registration with WorkCover was in 2003 and she was appointed to Medical Panels (Vic) by the Minster of Health. 

 She has completed certifications in AMA4, AMA5, AMA6 and Commcare.  She is certified for CORE, NEURO, SPINE and GEPIC impairments. For decades she has provided medico legal reports for a range of areas including standard neurologic care, and the neurological sequelae of injuries and surgical procedures.

 She is registered with the Medical Board of Australia, became a member of the medicolegal section of the AMA in 2006, before becoming a member of the Medicolegal Society of Victoria since 2014.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Physicians, Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Digital Health.   She served as council member of the Australian Medical Association (Vic) from 2016-2023.  She is currently a member of Medical Panels Victoria.