Academic and High Performance Psychologist

With my work, I want to do the most good that I can. Through my career, I want to help others do the same. For those who want to improve the world, I provide the knowledge and skills so they can do it best. I use methods like systematic reviews and meta-analyses to try and figure out the best approach to problems. Then I use online educational interventions to deploy those approaches cost-effectively, at scale. I use theory and evidence to make those interventions compelling, time-efficient, and effective.

Summary of Teaching

I use evidence-informed decision-making both in the content of what I teach and in the process of how I teach. I teach students how to think critically using evidence, and I build professional skills supported by systematic reviews. I use the same philosophy in my own teaching, using pedagogical approaches supported by top level evidence. I lead others to follow this approach, both through collaborations and coaching programs I established.

Leadership

• Led or mentored lead for 6 university teaching development grants (totalling $134,750)
• Co-founded INSPIRE, a world-first evidence-centre for learning and teaching in universities. We create, curate, and disseminate evidence for what works in higher ed.
• National Lecturer-in-Charge for four different courses, leading the curriculum, resource development, and accreditation in each for up to four years.

Accolades

• Received 9 awards for teaching including an AAUT, a SFHEA, and a VC’s Award
• Average student evaluations of learning and teaching of 4.8 / 5 after 2,390 students

Summary of Research

I have research experience on large projects with many stakeholders, complex issues, and international research teams. To meet those challenges, I use best-in-class research management processes to do rigorous, impactful, and reproducible work (e.g., Asana, Agile research, Scrum). I use my subject matter expertise in leadership and high performance psychology to help my teams to do high-performance research.

Grants

• Chief investigator on $3,694,120 of competitive Category 1 grants
• Average yearly grant income over 3x higher than the sector weighted benchmark
• Grant collaborators at University of Oxford, University of British Columbia, University of Helsinki, University of Birmingham, Northeastern University, & University of Otago

Publications

• Scopus m-index of 4 where > 2 ‘characterizes outstanding scientists, likely to be found only at the top universities or major research laboratories’
• Category normalised citation index of 3.7; 53% of papers in the top 10% for citations
• Published in the SJR #1 journals for psychology, experimental psychology, aging, paediatrics, education (three times), and sport science (twice)

Impact & Engagement

• Developed the content for award winning, scalable physical activity program (published in JAMA Pediatrics), delivered to 190 schools, helping over 50,000 students
• Developed the content for a coach leadership and athlete resilience project, scaled worldwide to 500 clubs and 20,000 boys
• All 4 current Cat. 1 grants have industry partners, such as the NSW Departments of Education and Health