Claire Galea is Head of Research at United Way Australia and an adjunct fellow at Western Sydney University. Claire completed her Ph.D. in June 2025 at Macquarie University titled “The impact of shared book reading on children and their families: insights from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.”
Claire has an outstanding track record with over 60 publications and over 2700 citations. She received the Dean’s commendation for her Masters in Epidemiology dissertation in 2017. Claire has extensive experience as a statistician consulting on the design, analysis and reporting of data, and together with her strong foundation in Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Claire provides an innovative perspective to research.
Claire’s passion for revealing the story that data can yield as a powerful narrative tool exhibits her desire to showcase positive change for children throughout the globe. This has been evidenced through her ambitious Ph.D., which is the largest ever worldwide study into the impact of shared book reading.
In partnership with the Dollywood Foundation and United Way Australia, this study has provided groundbreaking evidence for the importance of providing children with books from birth.
Through combining a genuine desire for the well-being of future generations of readers with her data driven insights, Claire is positioned to utilize her 30 years of expertise in the statistical field to illuminate positive stories of literacy growth for children everywhere.
