Dr Laura Bird completed her PhD in psychology and Master of Clinical Psychology in 2019, in the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences at The University of Melbourne. Her doctoral thesis, completed in collaboration with The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, explored the neuroprotective benefits of music training for cognition in people with epilepsy. Dr Bird concurrently worked as a research associate and postdoctoral researcher in the Clinical and Cognitive Neuroscience laboratory at The Florey, investigating longitudinal cognitive and brain changes after stroke.

Dr Bird has held a Research Fellow position at Monash University since 2021, working across the School of Psychological Sciences/Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health (2021-June 2024) and the Department of Medicine Monash Health in the School of Clinical Sciences (June 2024-current). In psychology, Dr Bird worked across research teams focusing on developing digital technologies to monitor and improve wellbeing, cognitive health, and facilitate healthy aging. She provided expertise to the Monash THRIVE team, collaborating to develop digital resources for cognitive and mental health in students, in addition to managing the Child Development and Digital Technologies Laboratory for Dr Hannah Kirk from June 2023-June 2024. Dr Bird also contributed to the School of Psychological Sciences' undergraduate and postgraduate educaton programs, as the Chief Examiner for units on Disability and Inclusion (3rd year PSY3252), Psychology of Ageing (2nd year PSY2242), and Neuroanatomy and Cognition (1st year Clinical Neuropsychology postgraduate PSY6162).

In her current position, Dr Bird is working within the Supportive and Palliative Care Unit Research Team at Monash Medical Centre, leading clinical and implementation research aiming to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and health outcomes of novel digital health technologies (telehealth and mobile applications) for monitoring and reporting patient health, in addition to using mixed-methods research to explore and better understand the supportive and palliative care needs of different clinical and community populations.

As a clinical psychology registrar with over 13 years' clinical and research experience in multidisciplinary hospital settings, Dr Bird has broad interests in understanding risk and protective factors for cognitive and mental health across a range of clinical populations (e.g., epilepsy, stroke, dementia, acquired brain injury, functional neurological disorders), with a special passion for investigating how to harness the beneficial effects of listening to and playing music for wellbeing.

Dr Bird supervises PhD and Honours students across the Schools of Clinical Sciences, and Psychological Sciences, and is the current Deputy Chair of the ECR Steering Committee in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.