Past Mental Health Research Grants

Dr Michelle Tye is a Senior Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales (UNSW). She is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow currently leading a program of research in developmental approaches to suicide prevention, with a focus on mHealth interventions for youth and early prevention in children. She is also the Deputy Director of LifeSpan – Australia’s largest multilevel suicide prevention trial, and a NSW Tall Poppy (2018).

I am originally from Toronto, Canada, but lived in Vancouver for many years where I completed my post-grad training in Clinical Psychology at the University of British Columbia (UBC). I moved to Seattle for 1 year to do my internship in Child Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington’s Medical School in Seattle, USA.

I have now lived in Australia for over a decade, and have been working at the University of Western Australia for several years where I am a Sr Lecturer and Director of the Clinical Psychology Programs. I’ve come to love Perth during this time, and the diverse landscape and people of WA.

Elizabeth Elliott is a Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney. She is Head of the NSW FASD Diagnostic Clinic; Co-Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in FASD; and a lead author of the Australian Guide to the Diagnosis of FASD.

Prof Elliott was on committees to develop NHMRC Australian Guidelines to minimise harms from alcohol and WHO guidelines for identification and treatment of substance use in pregnancy. Her research on FASD has provided new data about FASD epidemiology, diagnosis, management and its impacts in Indigenous and nonindigenous Australia.

Dr Mark Larsen is a Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales. He is a Chief Investigator on the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention (CRESP II), and also works in the Digital Dog research program.

His research examines the use of new technology for mental health, with a focus on suicide prevention.

Professor Tracey Wade has been a clinician and researcher in eating disorders for 30 years. She was awarded the Australian Psychological Society Early Career Award in 2003, in 2015 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, in 2016 she was made an Inaugural Honorary Fellow of the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy, in 2017-18 she was the president of the Eating Disorder Research Society, in 2018 she was appointed to the Expert Advisory Panel, Million Minds, a Federal mental health research mission.

She has over 190 publications in peer reviewed journals.

Professor Zachary Steel has worked in the field of traumatic stress for over 25 years as a researcher and clinician. He has a long history of work with populations affected by trauma, including veterans, emergency service workers as well as those affected by mass conflict and forced displacement. He holds the St John of God Professorial Chair of Trauma and Mental.

This is first Australian academic appointment linking a not-for-profit psychiatric facility specialising in the treatment of PTSD, early intervention and inpatient care directly to a university setting in order to promote clinical and research excellence by embedding evidence generation and inquiry directly to the delivery of clinical services

Peter completed his Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology at UNSW Sydney, focusing on neural and cognitive mechanisms in obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. He then moved to the Black Dog Institute where he works as a clinician and researcher, helping to develop e-mental health tools for a variety of populations, from people with chronic illnesses to astronauts.

Peter also teaches undergraduate psychology and collaborates with a team of UNSW academics to support the well-being and success of university students.

I am a clinical psychologist interested in the development of health versus psychopathology, especially common problems like aggression, antisocial behaviour, anxiety and depression. Originally trained in behavioural approaches to parent and family methods of maximising positive child development, I direct the Sydney Child Behaviour Research Clinic which operates as a clinical service for parents of children with developmental, behavioural and emotional problems, as well a training and research centre.

A major thrust of this work is understanding interparental processes whereby parental systems work together to maximise child outcomes and their own health and happiness.

Professor Leanne Hides holds an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship and the industry-supported Lives Lived Well Chair in Alcohol, Drugs and Mental Health at the University of Queensland. She is a senior clinical psychologist with over 17 years of clinical and research experience in the treatment of primary and comorbid substance use disorders in young people. Hides co-leads the $2.3m Federal Government funded grant for the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (CYSAR), the only youth focused substance use research centre in Australia.

She also led a major research program developing web and mobile-phone based programs for the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) between 2010 and 2016.

Dr David John Hallford is a registered Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow at Deakin University. His clinical work has focused on treating mental illness in young adults. He is an early career researcher, publishing over 35 peer-reviewed articles. He leads projects with collaborators in Europe, India and Australia to develop and trial novel interventions to improve treatment of depressive disorders.

His current research focuses on difficulties in mental illness in retrieving autobiographical memories and imagining future experiences, both crucial to healthy psychological functioning. He studies the causes of these difficulties, and their impact on cognitive, emotional, and behavioural outcomes.