An Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the Creative Arts Research Institute and Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Brydie-Leigh is a dynamic research leader, award-winning educator, respected community collaborator, and arts sector advocate. Over the past twenty years she has led an innovative program of research that advances our understanding of the role that music and the arts can play in addressing complex social challenges in communities. As a world-leading expert in community music, her work examines how participation in communal music making can open up pathways for greater social justice, equity, inclusion and wellbeing, especially in communities where entrenched social disadvantage, displacement and division exists. Her current research projects are investigating the role community music can play in: addressing entrenched social inequity in Australian communities; operating as a cultural determinant of health and promote cultural healing for First Nations’ communities; offering creative approaches to juvenile justice, including primary prevention and desistance; and promoting social inclusion for community members experiencing poverty, homelessness, and isolation. She has been awarded seven major national competitive grants, eight funded consultancies with leading arts and social sector organisations, and five prestigious fellowships for music research in First Nations’ communities, prisons, war affected cities, remote regions, health, educational, and industry contexts. She is currently President of the Social Impact of Music Making international research platform (Belgium), Associate Editor of the International Journal of Community Music and Non-Executive Director of QMF (Queensland Music Festival). Her recent awards include a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence (in Leadership 2022 and Research Team 2023), a Fulbright Senior Fellowship (2022, awarded 2020), an Arts for Good Fellowship (2018-2019), and Australian University Teacher of the Year (2014).