Terry Swanson completed her undergraduate work in the United States of America before immigrating to Australia in 1988. She was endorsed in 2004 as one of the first Nurse Practitioners in her state in the specialty of wound management. Terry was admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Wound Management Association in 2010 for her significant contribution to wound management at a state, national and international level. She is the current Vice Chair of the International Wound Infection Institute (IWII) and chaired the development and publication of the 2016 and co-chaired the 2022 IWII Consensus Document Wound Infection in Clinical Practice. Terry served as the chair of IWII from 2012 until 2015. She is also on the International Relations World Union of Wound Healing Societies (WUWHS) board and serves as co-chair of the Supporting Societies subcommittee.

Terry has published and presented on chronic wounds and wound infection nationally and internationally. She was the lead author and editor for the book Wound Management for the Advanced Practitioner. Terry was the Scientific Chair of the 2018 Wounds Australia National Conference and has held positions of responsibility of various nursing and wound related boards locally, nationally and internationally. Terry was the President of the Australian Wound Management Association (now Wounds Australia) Victorian Branch. Terry was on the organising committee and helped host the first World Union of Wound Healing Conference in Melbourne in 2000.