Sally Brinkman is an Associate Professor at the world renowned Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in Perth. Brinkman is a social epidemiologist with the majority of her research focusing on societies' impact on child development. She is also the Director of the Fraser Mustard Centre, an innovative new initiative between the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and the South Australia Department of Education and Child Development aimed to improve research translation. Brinkman is well known for spearheading the use of the Early Development Instrument (EDI) in Australia, which is now conducted as a developmental census across the country once every three years as a national progress measure of future human capital. Locally, she consults to government primarily around data-linkage and evaluation, and research translation. Internationally, she works with governments and donor organisations such as the World Bank, UNICEF, AusAid and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation working with various measures of child development for monitoring and impact evaluations. Brinkman has over 50 publications including books, chapters, monographs and journal articles with her primary interest in how child development varies across communities and the impact of socio economics and service integration on child development. As such, she brings locally, nationally and internationally recognized epidemiological skills particularly in relation to population monitoring of child development and early education.