Bep Uink, PhD
Currently, I am the director of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet within Kurongkurl Katitjin at Edith Cowan University. The HealthInfoNet is a unique, best-practice online resource which provides timely, accessible and relevant information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing to practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and the general public.
I completed my Masters in Applied Psychology (Clinical) and PhD at Murdoch University and my experience spans research and leadership roles, notably Senior Research Fellow at Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre and Dean of Indigenous Knowledges at Murdoch University.
My research focuses on understanding how socially determined disadvantage impacts the social emotional wellbeing of young people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and how social systems, such as higher education, can support young peoples' wellbeing.
More specifically, my work spans investigations into adolescent emotion dynamics, the barriers and enablers of Indigenous student success in higher education, gendered barriers to higher education, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTQA+ youth mental health. I apply research methods including experience sampling methodology, surveys, and yarning circles.
Lynette Vernon, PhD
My research and leadership career has encompassed primary and secondary schools, education support facilities and tertiary institutions. I have worked with students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Indigenous students, and those with special needs. Within my leadership roles I have helped promote best practice across the whole educational community, including teaching and non-teaching staff, professional and academic staff and external agency support structures. I successfully managed and directed Murdoch’s Aspirations and Pathways for University (MAP4U) project, a five million dollar grant over four years, working to promote an inclusive culture across schools, universities and the wider community. I have a vibrant and productive research program, generating impactful research both on problematic use of technology for adolescents and aspirational capacities of students in low SES region, as indicated by my recent partnership with the ABC to conduct Australia’s Biggest Smartphone Survey. My research has relevance for parents, teachers, psychologists across the lifespan for healthy development.
Kathryn Modecki, PhD
I trained in developmental and quantitative psychology at the University of Virginia (undergraduate), University of New Hampshire (PhD) and Arizona State University and the Prevention Research Center (REACH; NIMH-funded post-doc). In addition to a T32 NIMH fellowship with REACH, focused on advanced quantitative methods and prevention science, I trained as a NIMH CHIPS (Child Health Intervention and Prevention Science) fellow in ambulatory assessment, including experience sampling, wearable technologies, and bio-marker methodologies.
I currently hold a Future Health Research Innovation (FHRI) Distinguished Professoriate Fellowship and a substantive professorial appointment at the School of Psychological Science at The University of Western Australia. I offer guest lectures in psychometrics and intensive longitudinal methods, among other topics. I also lead the Developmental Science of Mental Health Team at The Kids Research Institute Australia.
My team maps how adolescents (and parents) navigate stressors, seek support from those around them (including online), and move onto problematic vs. healthier trajectories at key developmental junctures. The lab harnesses new technologies to investigate diverse pathways of risk, health, and wellbeing, with a focus on youth and families living in the context of structural and socio-economic disadvantage. We apply a lens across years, weeks, days, and moments via longitudinal surveys, daily diaries, experience sampling, and passive sensing approaches.