Early childhood

Dr Alice Norton is a Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist at The University of Sydney. She has extensive experience in research and clinical practice, with a focus on understanding and treating anxiety and trauma-related difficulties. Alice’s work explores how early relationships and experiences shape mental health and how therapy can address these patterns. She is passionate about developing practical, evidence-based strategies that strengthen emotional wellbeing from the earliest stages of life.

Associate Professor Amy Dawel is a clinical and cognitive psychologist at The Australian National University, where she leads the ANU Emotions and Faces Lab. Her research program addresses emerging threats from synthetic media, investigating how people detect and respond to deepfakes and AI-generated personas. In this Australian Rotary Health project, she focuses on how interactions with AI chatbots influence preteens’ social development, wellbeing, and mental health, developing guidance and practical tools for managing these experiences safely.

Professor Alison Calear is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership-II Fellow and Co-Head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. Her research is focused on youth mental health, eHealth and the prevention and early intervention of anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm. She is also interested in the promotion of help-seeking behaviour and the role of literacy and stigma in the help-seeking process. Most recently, her research has included the evaluation of an emotion literacy program in ACT primary schools with children aged 7-10 years and a trial assessing the effectiveness of a web-based resource to support parents to better recognise and respond to psychological distress or suicide risk in their child.

Dr Charlene Holt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Parent-Infant Research Institute (PIRI) and a psychologist. She has 20 years of experience in developing and evaluating programs that support parents and strengthen the relationship between mothers and their babies following postnatal depression. Her work has also focused on improving treatment for antenatal, postnatal, and paternal depression, with a particular interest in using digital programs to make help more accessible for families.

Professor Philip Morgan (https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/philip-morgan) is co-director of the Global Sport and Movement Collaborative at the University of Newcastle. He has led the development of globally recognised family well-being programs with a distinctive focus on men and fathers. His flagship programs include ‘Healthy Dads, Healthy Kids’; Daughters and Dads Active and Empowered; Healthy Youngsters, Healthy Dads; SHED-IT, and Workplace POWER. These innovative programs have attracted strong community, media, and industry engagement and are grounded in community collaboration.

Professor Alison Calear is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow and Co-Head of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University. Her research is focused on youth mental health, eHealth and the prevention and early intervention of anxiety, depression, and suicide. She is also interested in the promotion of help-seeking behaviour and the role of literacy and stigma in the help-seeking process.

Most recently, her research has focused on suicide prevention in secondary schools and the development of an online resource to support parents to better recognise and respond to psychological distress or suicide risk in their child.

Marie Yap is an Associate Professor at Monash University and founder of the award-winning Parenting Strategies Program, which translates research evidence into actionable parenting guidelines that underpin individually-tailored online parenting interventions to prevent and reduce the impact of MH problems in children and adolescents.

On average, the parenting guidelines are downloaded >10,000 times a month, and are cited or have formed the basis for online parenting resources in over 20 countries, including Beyond Blue’s Healthy Families website.

Marie Yap is an Associate Professor at Monash University and founder of the award-winning Parenting Strategies Program, which translates research evidence into actionable parenting guidelines that underpin individually-tailored online parenting interventions to prevent and reduce the impact of MH problems in children and adolescents.

On average, the parenting guidelines are downloaded >10,000 times a month, and are cited or have formed the basis for online parenting resources in over 20 countries, including Beyond Blue’s Healthy Families website.

Dr Dave Pasalich is a Senior Lecturer and clinical psychologist in the Research School of Psychology, Australian National University. His research and clinical expertise is in evidence-based practice to promote child and family mental health and wellbeing, particularly in families exposed to adversities.

This has involved partnerships with child welfare services to deliver and trial parent interventions in out-of-home care. He has received several awards for his work, including the ACT Young Tall Poppy Scientist of the Year Award and an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award.

Megan Smith is completing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education at the University of Melbourne, researching the mental health care pathways that primary schools initiate to support their students. As well as being a qualified Occupational Therapist (OT), with a Bachelor of Science in OT from Curtin University, Megan recently earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Melbourne, and holds a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Science, also from the University of Melbourne.

Megan has extensive clinical experience as a mental health OT, primarily in adult community mental health services, and chose to complete further training in public health due her desire to improve mental health outcomes at the population level.