Chair
Dr Taylor Braund
Dr Braund is an early-career researcher and Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute, UNSW, based within the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Depression Treatment Precision. His work focuses on harnessing digital data from smartphones and wearables to improve symptom monitoring and personalise treatment for people with mental disorders, particularly depression. He leads a research program developing digital phenotypes across diverse data streams, aiming to reduce patient burden while improving clinical outcomes.

Deputy Co-Chair
Deanna Varley
Deanna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use. Her research interests span social, developmental, and clinical psychology, with a focus on understanding how early life experiences contribute to psychological distress and other mental health outcomes. Her previous research has examined variations in responses to distress across attachment patterns and evaluated brief interventions for improving mental health outcomes. Currently, Deanna’s research aims to examine age, period, and cohort trends in psychological distress by harmonising population-based datasets to enhance our understanding of determinants of psychological distress to inform prevention, intervention, and policy.

Deputy Co-Chair
Deputy Co-Chair
Rachel Baffsky
Rachel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, funded by Suicide Prevention Australia, at the Black Dog Institute. Her research uses implementation science and co-design approaches to optimise youth mental health prevention in schools. Currently, she manages an MRFF-funded trial of a new, universal self-harm prevention intervention in NSW primary schools. She is also developing a complementary web-based resource for parents to support self-harm prevention in children.

Alana Fisher 
Dr Alana Fisher holds dual appointments as a research fellow at the eCentreClinic, Macquarie University, and consumer engagement manager at MindSpot, MQ Health. Drawing on expertise in qualitative, mixed-methods, and codesign approaches, Alana's research spans three broad areas, including better understanding and supporting: evidence-based, person-centred mental healthcare delivery; consumer/patient decision-making about uptake and engagement with mental healthcare; and the involvement of people with lived and living experience in mental health research and service design. Highlighting the applied nature of her research, it has directly informed clinical management guidelines, health professional practice guides, and policy recommendations to government. 

Brooke Donnelly
Dr Brooke Donnelly is an experienced clinical psychologist and clinical academic, currently undertaking a two-year Senior Research Fellowship (funded by NSW Health) with Project Air at the University of Wollongong. She brings extensive experience from working in NSW Health tertiary inpatient and outpatient mental health services for 12 years, as well as private practice, where she works with adolescents, adults and carers. As a board-approved supervisor, Brooke enjoys working with early career psychologists as well as supervising multidisciplinary mental health teams. Her clinical and research interests focus on improving evidence-based interventions for individuals living with personality disorders, eating disorders and complex trauma, as well as supporting carers and loved ones. She is passionate about improving care for people seeking treatment for their mental health. Brooke is a Senior Reviewing Editor for the Journal of Eating disorders.

Carl Moller
Carl is a registered psychologist and Research Fellow in psychosis research at Deakin University's School of Medicine. He holds a Master of Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology and a Master of Public Health, and completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Youth Mental Health and Orygen, focusing on suicidality in young people with depressive disorders. His research interests span mood disorders, psychotic disorders, substance use, self-harm, suicide, and cognition in psychiatric conditions, along with a strong interest in addressing health inequities.

Emma West
Emma is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University and Research Translation Coordinator for the DELIVER program; a MRFF Rapid Applied Research Translation project. Her research examines the nexus between physical and mental health, with a particular focus on ageing. She currently collaborates on the Geelong Osteoporosis Study, an ongoing prospective cohort study that encompasses one of the largest, comprehensive psychiatric epidemiological studies in Australia. Emma is also passionate about translating evidence into practice to address inequities, enhance services, and improve mental health outcomes. 

Lucy Zhang
Lucy is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Psychology, UNSW, working with A/Prof Susanne Schweizer on a Wellcome Trust Funded project investigating women’s wellbeing and mental health during the perinatal period. Lucy’s other research interest is on the topic of resilience—how individuals adapt following significant challenges. Specifically, she has examined resilience to the negative mental health effects of childhood adversity and trauma in young people during her PhD. 

Shurong Lu
Dr Shurong Lu is an Australian Rotary Health funded Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on mental health literacy and early intervention in population mental health, with a particular emphasis on young people, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and populations in low- and middle-income countries. As a member of the multicultural community, Dr Lu is a strong advocate for fostering a respectful, collaborative, and inclusive research environment.

Sinead Day
Sinead Day is a clinical psychologist and researcher in the fields of eating disorders and trauma. She is currently completing her PhD at Western Sydney University, where her research has focused on evaluating eating disorder residential treatment and understanding the prevalence and impact of complex trauma in individuals with eating disorders. Sinead also currently works in private practice treating a variety of mental health concerns, and she is passionate about the value of clinical practice in informing meaningful and translational research. 

Urksa Arnautovska
Dr Arnautovska is a psychologist and Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Queensland. She also works as a Senior Mental Health Practitioner at Queensland Health. Following professional training in Slovenia, she was recruited to the Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, where she was subsequently awarded an international PhD scholarship and received the Award for Excellent Higher Degree Thesis by the Australian Psychology Society in 2017. She is a Chief Investigator on multiple research grants that aim to improve health in people with severe mental illness, totalling over $13.5 million. She is also the Principal Investigator of the SMART project which involves co-design, testing, and implementation of an innovative digital intervention that aims to improve cardiometabolic health and quality of life among people living with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Dr Arnautovska has contributed to over 60 publications and was awarded the MAGNET (Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network) Mid-Career Emerging Leader award in 2024. She is passionate in supporting and mentoring junior researchers and working with multidisciplinary teams and individuals committed to improving health and well-being of vulnerable populations.