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Dr Arnautovska is a psychologist with 20 years' experience spanning clinical practice and research in mental health, with a focus on health behaviour change and neuroscience. Her research translates evidence into real-world care, closing the gap between what mental health treatments can achieve and what is sustainable in individuals' everyday lives and in health services more broadly.

Her work addresses a critical structural divide: clinicians who lack the time or resourcing to address lifestyle factors, health services organised around separate physical and mental health pathways, and people with complex mental illness or those with cognitive challenges who are rarely equipped with the tools to change health behaviours on their own. Dr Arnautovska's research is focused on embedding physical health care into routine mental health treatment, so that monitoring and supporting a person's physical health becomes as standard as supporting their mental state.

She led the development of SMART, a world-first SMS-based lifestyle intervention targeting metabolic health tailored to people living with severe mental illness, delivered without reliance on smartphones or app-based platforms. SMART was developed through a comprehensive co-design process with multidisciplinary experts, clinicians, and people with lived experience, and is now being implemented within routine care at four mental health services in metropolitan Brisbane.

Consumer partnership is central to Dr Arnautovska's approach to research; she facilitates the involvement of people with lived experience across all phases of the research cycle, from priority-setting and study design through to evaluation and implementation, while actively supporting the research capacity of lived experience partners.

Dr Arnautovska has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers and is a named investigator on projects attracting more than $14.5M in funding since 2021, including a $5M NHMRC Synergy Grant. Her contributions have been recognised through the Mental Health Australia General Clinical Trials Network (MAGNET) Emerging Leader Mid-Career Researcher award (2024), the UQ Rising Star Commendation (2024), and earlier BA and PhD Thesis awards (2017 and 2006).

Central to her research philosophy is the view that motivation and a person's agency are central elements of treatment outcomes and determine whether novel, health behaviour-focused interventions succeed and whether their impact is sustainable.

Dr Arnautovska grew up in Slovenia, where social justice and equality were formative family values that continue to inform her approach to health equity in her research today.

The most important treatment for anxiety disorders is exposure to fear cues. Parents need to support their child to face their fears and meet challenges, yet many struggle with this fundamental process.

Dr Byrne completed a PhD and Masters of Clinical Psychology in child anxiety at Macquarie University in 2015. He has held postdoctoral positions at Yale Child Study Center, as well as psychiatry departments at Westmead Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Since 2021 he has been a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at University of Queensland.

His research focusses on unconventional use of psychiatric drugs to treat mental disorders, treatments for anxiety and treatments for children.

Dr Sasha Lynn is a registered clinical psychologist and Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. She specialises in child and adolescent development, with a particular focus on social and emotional learning (SEL), mental health, and wellbeing in educational settings. Her work spans psychology, education, and neuroscience, with an emphasis on research that is both applied and translational.

Dr Lynn’s research investigates how wellbeing and mental health influence developmental and educational outcomes, particularly in relation to emotion regulation, peer relationships, and classroom engagement. She is committed to embedding SEL meaningfully into the curriculum through developmentally informed, evidence-based strategies. A core feature of her work is the co-design of interventions with educators and students, ensuring student voice and agency are central to program design and implementation.

She has a particular interest in the use of gamification frameworks to increase engagement with SEL and mental health content, and her research spans both digital and face-to-face modes of delivery. Her work also explores how compassion-focused therapeutic approaches can be adapted to educational contexts to enhance both student and teacher wellbeing, classroom climate, and relational safety.

Dr Lynn is affiliated with the UQ Learning Lab and is a member of the Compassionate Mind Research Group. She has been involved in a number of large-scale projects across school and clinical settings, and brings nearly 20 years of direct experience in school-based clinical and mental health roles to her academic work. This practitioner perspective ensures her research remains grounded in the realities of education systems and responsive to the needs of schools.

She has contributed to the development and evaluation of interventions such as KooLKIDS and Mindfields HS, which have demonstrated promising early outcomes and attracted commercial interest. Dr Lynn’s broader goal is to support educators, families, and students by creating practical, evidence-informed approaches that foster resilience, emotional literacy, and a positive foundation for lifelong learning.

Fiona is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology with research interests in grief & loss, trauma, emtion regulation and anxiety. Her work is mechanism focussed. She applies experimental and longitudinal methods including experience sampling to better understand the pyschological processes that contribute to resilence and/or the development of psychopathology. Her work is also focussed on improving supports for those struggling with grief and trauma.

Fiona completed her Master of Psychology(Clnical) and PhD at UNSW and undertook an NHMRC postdoctoral fellowship at the Loss, Trauma and Emotion Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also has many years experience working as a clinician in public health and private practice.

Jacob is a Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, at the University of Queensland. Jacob works on projects under the Meaningful Outcomes in Substance use Treatments Centre of Research Excellence (MO-CRE) and the National Centre for Youth Substance use Research (NCYSUR).

Jacob completed his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University in 2022, where his projected examined the motivational influencers on alcohol and drug preloading behaviours across youth populations in entertainment districts. After completion of his PhD, Jacob developed further clinical specilisation into the treatment of substance use disorders, behavioural addictions, post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and long-term emotional dysregulation. While focusing on his clinical career, Jacob honed his scientist-practitioner skills, published several journal articles and presented in conference proceedings.

Jacob's research interests lie in the overlap between mental health and substance use difficulties, improving outcomes in AOD treatment services through brief interventions, as well, the motivational predictors of alcohol and substance use with relation to preloading and broader policy implications.

Current projects:

• Examining alcohol and substance use trends in youth college populations
• Exploring the potential role of lived experience peer workers in early AOD treatment
• Investigating and testing theoretical components and predictors of alcohol and drug preloading behaviours
• Projects under the MO-CRE and NCYSUR

Dr Daniel Sullivan is a Clinical Psychologist and Adjunct Lecturer in the Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland. In his clinical role, Dr Sullivan leads a program of research to design Australia's first psychology extended scope of practice model of care for limited pharmacotherapy management, with an emphasis on deprescribing hypnotic medicines in the public sector sleep psychology setting (ExPEDiTe Sleep project). As a member of the Let’s Yarn about Sleep group at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Dr Sullivan is working to improve sleep health equity for First Nations Australians through community co-designed, culturally responsive sleep programs which harmonise sleep science with Indigenous Australian perspectives and knowledges about sleep.

Dr Sullivan’s research and clinical expertise is in the behavioural aspects of sleep; he is an Editor of the journal Research Directions: Sleep Psychology (Cambridge University Press) and is board certified by the US-based Board of Behavioral Sleep Medicine. Dr Sullivan completed postgraduate training in sleep at the University of Sydney (MSc), and his PhD in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University, where his doctoral research examined psychological factors involved in sleep-related headaches.