Dijana graduated from the University of Canterbury, NZ in 1997. She has worked in all areas of adult intervention from acute, rehab, slow stream rehab, brain injury rehab, outpatients and community in NZ, The UK and Australia. She obtained her PhD in dysphagia with Distinguished Professor Maggie-Lee Huckabee in 2024. Dijana left public health in 2020 to pursue opportunities in the private sector and now works as the National Allied Health Manager for Bloom Healthcare. She also works independently as Sydney Swallowing Diagnostics, providing community FEES (instrumental) assessments to clients, and training and supervision to Speech Pathologists. Dijana is also involved in research and is a sessional academic for various universities. Dijana is passionate about evidence-based practice, client-focused interventions, shared decision-making and quality of life.