What is your role and what does your work focus on?

My role is research associate/project officer, working on developing peer support in primary care for mental health service users. This project is focusing on developing a lived experience peer support intervention, linking service users, peer workers, and general practitioners in urban and rural Queensland and South Australia.

Where did you work before joining CMPH?

Before joining CMPH I worked at the University of Adelaide as an academic tutor in the School of Psychology (Faculty of Medicine and Public Health) while I completed my PhD in Psychology.

What journey brought you to this point in your career? 

It’s been a long journey! I come from a family who value knowledge seeking and the ways in which that knowledge can be applied to solve real world problems. I’ve accompanied family on diplomatic missions across the world and have had opportunities to talk with some amazing minds in a variety of countries. It’s very handy to have an expert on German history accompany you when you want to travel across the country, or to have a cousin whose PhD was in French film and literature offer suggestions on where to go in Paris. Having that value at the heart of my life has put me in great stead to figure out what I wanted to do, starting from the age of eight when I found out what a psychologist did, on to high school when I learnt of the dreaded ‘grant application’, and then into university where I pursued scholarship with great voracity.

What is something you love most about your work?

The thing I love most about my work is people. I am fascinated by how we all forge our ways in life, regardless of the limits and paths laid down for us. I also love chasing patterns, whether they be in quantitative data or thematic analysis of interviews.

What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

I’m looking forward to getting up to Queensland to meet my new nephew Thomas, and seeing my niece, sister, and brother-in-law. I can’t wait to visit them, and the weather doesn’t hurt either.

How do you like to relax or spend your spare time?

In my spare time I relax by writing fiction and am currently editing two novels out of a trilogy while I chip away at my writer’s block on my unfinished third novel. I also play the cello, like to go for bushwalks, and spend time in cafes hoarding a table while I read and drink coffee.