Mental Health

Govind is a clinical psychologist and senior academic at the University of Southern Queensland and a member of the Manna Institute (Regional Mental Health Research and Training Institute). He has over 15 years of experience in child and youth mental health services in both private and public settings. Govind’s research focuses on improving equity and access to mental healthcare for priority groups of children, youth and their families.

Dr Talia Carl is an early-career researcher and Lecturer at the School of Psychology, University of Sydney. Her doctoral research involved experimental and longitudinal studies examining the relationship between moral development, parenting and context on children’s lie telling and problem behaviours. She has also managed a number of large-scale clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of interventions for children’s mental health. Her research aims to understand the factors that impact child emotional and behavioural problems, and treatment response, in order to facilitate the development and implementation of interventions. She is also passionate about increasing access to evidence-based interventions to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Australian children.

Professor Jennie Hudson is the Deputy Director and Director of Research at the Black Dog Institute and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia. Jennie’s research focuses on understanding the factors that contribute to children’s mental health and working to improve the services available to children experiencing anxiety and other related disorders. Jennie has authored over 200 publications in the field of child mental health.

Dr Lara Farrell is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor in the School of Applied Psychology, and Director of the Griffith Centre for Mental Health at Griffith University. Her program of research focusses on improving access to evidence-based treatments for young people with phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) via novel modalities of care. She has published over 140 papers, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, and is a regular panel member for NHMRC and MRFF. Dr Farrell leads the “OCD Busters” and “Child Phobia” treatment research programs and has secured major funding from ARC, NHMRC, Rotary Health, NIMH, Foundation for Children and MRFF

Dr Lara Farrell is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor within the School of Applied Psychology, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health, Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus. Dr Farrell conducts clinical research in the field of childhood anxiety and obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. Her work has involved numerous highly cited clinical trials for child anxiety/phobias and OCD, including group treatments, intensive treatments, digital and virtual reality interventions, and novel pharmacological augmentation of CBT.

Dr Sophie Li is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist at the Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales. Her research and clinical expertise are in youth depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance and the development and evaluation of digital mental health interventions.

She currently leads a program of research examining digital technology as an emotion regulation strategy and its role in youth depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance.

Dr Lucy Tully is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Supervising Psychologist in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She has over 20 years of clinical and research experience, with expertise in child mental health, father engagement, and evidence-based parenting and family interventions. She also she works clinically as a psychologist delivering evidence-based intervention to families of children with emotional and behavioural problems at the Child Behaviour Research Clinic (CBRC) at the University of Sydney.

Dr Lucy Tully is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Supervising Psychologist in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. She has over 20 years of clinical and research experience, with expertise in child mental health, father engagement, and evidence-based parenting and family interventions. She also she works clinically as a psychologist delivering evidence-based intervention to families of children with emotional and behavioural problems at the Child Behaviour Research Clinic (CBRC) at the University of Sydney.

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.