Speech Therapists

Bethea is a Senior Speech Therapist with over 7 years of experience across acute and outpatient settings. She brings expertise in adult care, clinical education, and service innovation. She graduated with First-Class Honours in Applied Science (Speech Pathology) from the University of Sydney.

Her clinical specialisations include dysphagia (swallowing difficulties), acquired communication disorders, fluency disorders (stuttering) in both children, adolescents and adults, and voice assessment and rehabilitation. She has a particular passion for voice therapy—supporting professional voice users, children with voice concerns, and individuals undergoing gender-affirming voice care. Her early training in operatic singing at the School of the Arts (SOTA) sparked her interest in the science of voice, which continues to inform her holistic, evidence-based approach to care.

In 2024, Bethea was awarded the prestigious SingHealth Health Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) fellowship, where she completed advanced training in voice rehabilitation at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Centre in New York, focusing on both professional and paediatric voice clients.

Over the years, Bethea had taken on several leadership roles, including leading inpatient teams for geriatric and ICU/high-dependency care. As the lead of her department’s Voice Clinical Practice Group, she had helped shape service planning, staff development, and outreach efforts. She spearheaded a community Voice Care Program in collaboration with national agencies such as the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the National Institute of Early Childhood Development (NIEC), promoting voice care awareness among teachers and early childhood professionals.

She also worked closely with ENT specialists to review and refine care processes for both voice and swallowing. She also contributed to professional education, serving on the teaching faculty of the biennial SingHealth Laryngology Conference, which trains ENT residents, Speech Therapists, and other healthcare professionals.

An experienced clinical educator, Bethea has supervised junior therapists and students from NUS and SIT. She has trained new staff in both inpatient and outpatient settings, particularly in dysphagia, communication disorders, and voice therapy. She has also delivered training for nurses and facilitated observerships for medical students.

In addition to her clinical and educational work, Bethea is actively involved in quality improvement, innovation, and research. She served as her department’s Quality Improvement Champion and Innovation Lead, spearheading efforts to integrate digital solutions into clinical practice. She led a team that developed a digital tool to automate case history interviews, and is part of a research project—supported by a $35,000 grant—to develop a portable thickening bottle for individuals with dysphagia.

At the core of Bethea’s practice is a client-centred philosophy. She believes in collaborative goal setting with families and delivering therapy that is both personally meaningful and grounded in strong evidence. Drawing on her years of experience and advanced clinical skills, she is passionate about applying this depth of expertise to paediatric care—providing care that is not only effective, but deeply responsive to each child’s unique needs and each family’s goals.