Our Team

Sue Cotton

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University

Director, CORE-BD

Professor Sue Cotton is the Director of CORE-BD and a psychologist with clinical training in neuropsychology and formal qualifications in biostatistics. She has over 20 years experience working in psychiatric research with interests in novel interventions and clinical trial methodology, health service evaluation and outcome measurement particularly in young people with mood and psychotic disorders.

Professor Cotton is based in the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University and the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. She also holds an honorary appointment at the Centre for Youth Mental Health (CYMH) at The University of Melbourne.

Research Interests

Clinical trials focusing on psychosocial and/or pharmacological treatments for bipolar disorder, first episode psychosis, borderline personality disorder, depression, and substance abuse, evaluation of health services and outcomes.

Michael Berk

IMPACT, Deakin University

Deputy Director, CORE-BD and Co-chair, Clinical and Academic Advisory Committee

Based in Geelong, Professor Michael Berk is an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Alfred Deakin Chair of Psychiatry at Deakin University and Barwon Health, and Director of IMPACT, the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation. Professor Berk is the top ranked author in Australia for Psychiatry with a special interest in mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder. His foremost interests are in discovering and
implementing novel therapies to empower people with psychiatric disorders.

Research Interests

Novel therapies, risk factors and prevention of psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder.

Melissa Hasty

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University

Executive Officer, Core-BD and Co-chair, Youth Advisory Group

Dr Mel Hasty is the Executive Officer of CORE-BD and Senior Research Fellow at Monash University. As a clinical psychologist, she worked for over 20 years in both clinical and research roles at Orygen’s Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre. Her work has focused on early stage bipolar disorder and first episode psychosis in young people.

Research Interests

Early stage bipolar disorder, psychological intervention, youth mental health, early intervention.

Aswin Ratheesh

Black Dog Institute, The University of NSW

Executive Committee Member and Co-chair, EMCR Committee

Associate Professor Aswin Ratheesh is a psychiatrist and the James Packer Chair in Mood Disorders. He leads a program of clinical research involving prediction and intervention development in youth mood disorders. In this work, he supported the development and validation of one of the first clinical risk prediction approaches in bipolar disorder. With national and international collaborators, Aswin has led the development of a digitally-supported early intervention model for youth with bipolar disorder which is being evaluated further. He has also undertaken a range of collaborative projects involving efficacy and effectiveness trials in youth mental health. 

As a psychiatrist, Aswin has worked across tertiary and primary care settings, predominantly in youth mental health, and led clinical programs in early psychosis and mood disorders.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorders, improving psychological and pharmacological interventions, relationship between bipolar disorder and substance use, depression and psychosis.

Philip Mitchell

University of New South Wales

Co-chair, Policy Think Tank

Scientia Professor Philip Mitchell is an international authority in the fields of bipolar disorder and depression, with his major achievements spanning the breadth of genetics, phenomenology, treatment and epidemiology of these conditions. He has demonstrated specific neuroimaging, genetic, clinical and neuropsychological differences in young people at risk to bipolar disorder; identified distinguishing clinical characteristics of bipolar depression; and published major national epidemiological reports on bipolar disorder.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorder and depression, predictors of the development of bipolar disorder in at-risk individuals; molecular genetics, pharmacological and psychological treatments, clinical phenomenology. 

Greg Murray

Swinburne University of Technology

Chair, Brains Trust and Co-Chair, Education Committee

Professor Greg Murray conducts research into mood disorders, circadian rhythms, and personality. He is ranked in the top 1% of researchers worldwide in each of these fields, and is recognised as a world expert in bipolar disorder.

Research Interests

Clinical Psychology, mood disorders, bipolar disorder, circadian rhythms, sleep.

Ian Hickie

Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney

Co-chair, Policy Think Tank

Professor Hickie is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Co-Director of Health and Policy, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. He has led major public health and health services developments in Australia, particularly focusing on early intervention for young people with depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviours and complex mood disorders. He is active in the development through codesign, implementation and continuous evaluation of new health information and personal monitoring technologies to drive highly-personalized and measurement-based care.

Research Interests

Emerging mood disorders, depressive disorders, neuroimaging, immune markers, circadian measurement, e-mental health and e-healthcare.

Patrick McGorry

Orygen, University of Melbourne

Professor Patrick McGorry is an Irish-born, Australian psychiatrist known world-wide for his development and scaling up of early intervention, youth mental health services, mental health innovation, advocacy and reform. He is executive director of Orygen, Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and founding editor of the journal “Early Intervention in Psychiatry”.

Professor McGorry has published over 1500 publications, with 60,115 citations and a “h” index of 125 (Web of Science). He has played key advocacy and advisory roles to government on health system reform in Australia and many parts of the world. He is President of the International Association for Youth Mental Health, Past-President of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, Past-president of the Society for Mental Health Research, and was Founding President and is now Treasurer of the IEPA: Early Intervention in Mental Health. He is also a Founding Board Member of Australians for Mental Health.

Research Interests

Psychosis, mood disorders, service reform.

Ken Walder

IMPACT, Deakin University

Chair in Metabolic Diseases and Deputy Director of Deakin’s IMPACT, the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Professor Ken Walder uses molecular biology and bioinformatics techniques to examine how drugs currently used in mental health work, and to screen other drugs for their potential as new options for treating depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His team’s novel gene-expression-signature based platform led to a glaucoma drug (methazolamide) being successfully repurposed for type 2
diabetes, providing a likely new therapeutic that could help millions of sufferers worldwide.

Research Interests

Drug discovery, repurposing drugs, biomarkers.

Olivia Dean

Deakin University

Professor Olivia Dean is Director of theClinical Trials Hub, and a member of TRIALS at Deakin University. Olivia Dean leads a novel therapies program, with experience in developing and coordinating several successful multi-centre national and international randomised controlled trials in mental health. In addition to her role directing current clinical trials, Olivia has broad research interests including anti-inflammatory treatments for depression, oxidative biology and autism, mitochondrial dysfunction in bipolar disorder, and molecular markers of psychiatric illness.

Research Interests

Affective and anxiety disorders.

Catherine Mihalopoulos

Monash University Health Economics Group (MUHEG), School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Professor Cathy Mihalopoulos is head of the inaugural Monash University Health Economics Group (MUHEG) within the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. She is nationally and internationally recognised for her expertise in the use of economic evaluation techniques (both within trial and modelled), particularly within the context of mental health. Within Australia, she leads the largest group of academic health economists specialising in the economics of mental health and psychosocial care, consisting of staff funded entirely on research income. She has over 200 publications and has been an investigator (including a lead investigator) on both Category 1 (including NHMRC and MRFF) as well as Category 2-4 grants totalling more than $75M. She has been invited to sit on committees of national and international significance, including the Economics Sub-Committee of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and sits on the Executive Committee of the Society for Mental Health Research. She has extensive academic teaching experience within the discipline of health economics and is currently the course coordinator of two Monash University Masters programs – Master of Health Management and Master of Health Administration.

Cathy is frequently invited to present keynote and plenary sessions at national and international conferences and meetings and has won various prestigious awards, including the 2021 Research Australia Health Services Research Award — Highly Commended, and Cathy and Health Economics Group researchers won the inaugural 2023 Australian Clinical Trials Alliance HEAT Excellence in Trial Based Health Economics Award for their economic evaluation of the Target-D program.

Research Interests

Novel therapies, risk factors and prevention of psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder.

Professor Alison Yung

Deakin University

Professor Alison Yung is Consultant Psychiatrist and an NHMRC L2 Investigator at IMPACT, Deakin University and President, International Early Psychosis Association. Her research on the early stages of psychotic disorder has resulted in reform in the delivery of mental health services nationally and internationally for young people thought to be at high risk of psychotic disorder. The instrument she created to assess risk for psychosis, the Comprehensive Assessment of At Risk Mental States (CAARMS) has been translated into 18 languages and is used throughout the world. She is also interested in exercise as an intervention for mental health conditions, improving the physical health of people with mental disorders and discovering biomarkers for negative, cognitive and metabolic symptoms in early psychosis.

Research Interests

EarlyPsychosis, ultra high risk for psychosis, physical health of people with mental health conditions, exercise as an intervention, biomarkers.

Tamsyn Van Rheenen

University of Melbourne

Co-chair, EMCR Committee

Associate Professor Tamsyn Van Rheenen is a Principal Research Fellow at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, where she leads the Mood-Psychosis Spectrum Research Group. Her research program aims to characterize cognitive impairments in severe psychiatric disorders and understand the mechanisms behind them.Despite several career interruptions, A/Prof Van Rheenen has published over 100 papers and received a number of prestigious international, national and local awards in recognition of her research excellence. These awards include a Gerald Klerman Young Investigator Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, a Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and a Paul Bourke Medal from the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, social and general cognition, neurobiology, neuroimaging.

Andrew Nierenberg

Dauten Family Centre for Bipolar Treatment Innovation, MGH, Harvard, USA

Professor Andrew Nierenberg is the Thomas P. Hackett MD Endowed Chair in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard. Nierenberg has published over 595 papers and has been listed in The Best Doctors in America for mood and anxiety disorders. Awards include the Gerald L. Klerman Young and Senior Investigator Awards by the Depression Bipolar Support Alliance and the Colvin Prize for outstanding achievement in mood disorders research. From 2014-2017, Nierenberg was listed among the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (Clarivate), currently with over 35,000 citations. Nierenberg was awarded the Mogen Schou Research Award, the highest award given by the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (2020). Professor Nierenberg established the Dauten Family Center for Bipolar Treatment Innovation at MGH which has an endowment to focus on finding better treatments to get better outcomes.

Research Interests

Bipolar depression, novel treatments.

Jan Scott

University of Newcastle, UK

Professor Jan Scott is Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine at University of Newcastle UK and holds visiting professorships the University of Sydney, University of Paris, and NTNU in Trondheim (Norway). She is an Honorary Professor at the Centre for Affective Disorders at IPPN (formerly the Institute of Psychiatry) in London, and a Distinguished Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. She holds ‘Science without Borders’ Fellowship with Universities in Sao Paulo and Porte Allegre in Brazil. Professor Scott is ranked in the top four key opinion leaders among women academics in bipolar disorders globally and is in the top 1% of all researchers in this field. Professor Scott’s earlier research focused on combined treatment strategies (pharmacotherapy and cognitive therapy) for adults with difficult-to-treat bipolar disorders and psychoses.

Professor Scott’s current research is focused on understanding developmental trajectories of mood disorders and the application of trans-diagnostic clinical staging models to research and clinical practice. Professor Scott is a member of several collaborative research networks on bipolar disorders across Europe and is a grant holder on the H2020 funded RLiNK (response to lithium prediction project) and international collaborator on Wellcome Trust and other grants in Melbourne and Sydney.

Research Interests

Predictive modelling of early onset of adult-pattern bipolar and other disorders in community and clinical cohorts. The importance of 24-hour rest-activity rhythms in health and disease. Meta-analysis and network analyses of risk factors, including sleep and circadian rhythm dysfunction, in onset of mood disorders in youth. Clinical trials of modular psychosocial interventions in help-seeking youth with sub-threshold and attenuated clinical syndromes. Development and refinement of trans-diagnostic staging models.

Lana Williams

IMPACT, Deakin University

Professor Lana Williams is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Research Fellow, clinically trained psychologist, Deputy Director for Population Health at the Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation (IMPACT), Deakin University, and co-director of the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS), one of the largest and comprehensive psychiatric epidemiological studies in Australia. Professor Williams founded and continues to lead, CONEXUS Research based at Deakin University, which is home to her research program aimed at understanding the interplay between mental disorders, associated treatment regimens and physical disease.

Research Interests

Psychiatric epidemiology, physical comorbidity, mood disorders, personality disorders.

Lesley Berk

IMPACT, Deakin University

Dr Lesley Berk is a Research Fellow and Clinical Psychologist working at IMPACT, Deakin University. She graduated with a PhD in 2013 and was awarded an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. Dr Berk represents Oceania on the Board of Directors of the ISBD. Dr Berk wrote and helped trial the psychosocial group therapy program MAPS for adults with bipolar disorder that showed a reduction in relapse, and was rolled out in clinics in Australia. Dr Berk is currently upgrading MAPS in a hybrid face-to-face and Smartphone app program. Dr Berk has developed and trialled a psychoeducation website for carergivers that is now publicly available. She has experience in conducting trials of novel pharmacological treatments in BD. Dr Berk has published a bestselling self–help book, Living with bipolar disorder.

Research Interests

Clinical Sciences, neuroscience, clinical and health psychology, health services and systems.

Christopher Davey

The University of Melbourne

Co-chair, Clinical and Academic Advisory Committee

Professor Chris Davey is Head of the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Melbourne. Professor Davey has been CIA on 2 large, multicentre, NHMRC-funded Randomised controlled tirals of treatments for depression, and has been a Chief Investigator on 6 other NHMRC-funded clinical studies. His trials have investigated both biological treatments and psychotherapeutic approaches. Professor Davey also has expertise in implementing clinical fMRI studies. Professor Davey is editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Professor Davey worked as a psychiatrist for many years at Orygen, a youth mental health clinical research program in Melbourne. There he managed a clinical team that cared for young people with severe and complex mood disorders, and led the research effort in mood disorders. Professor Davey is currently leading a new trial for multiple doses of ketamine for the treatment of bipolar depression.

Research Interests

Mood Disorders, treatments for depression, brain imaging, social-affective processes.

Jacob Crouse

Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney

Dr Jacob Crouse is a NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. He holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours), a Master of Brain and Mind Sciences, and a PhD in Medicine. Dr Crouse’s research interest is in the neurobiology of mood disorders, with major focus areas on the role of genetic risk factors and disturbances in the 24-hour circadian (“body clock”) system in the onset and course of mood disorders, as well new models of early intervention in mood disorders among young people (e.g., circadian-targeted therapies). Dr Crouse is a member of several international consortia, including the “Mobile Motor Activity Research Consortium for Health” led out of the National Institute of Mental Health (USA) and the “Chronobiology Task Force” of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.

Research Interests

Depression, bipolar disorders, chronobiology, circadian rhythms, neurocognition, genetics.

Elizabeth Scott

Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

Associate Professor Elizabeth Scott is a Principal Research Fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of
Sydney and has expertise in youth mood disorders, service developments for youth mental health, as well
as sleep and circadian dysfunction through her work with the Brain & Mind Centre.Until. January 2021
she was the Medical Director of Uspace – inpatient services for young people with emerging psychiatric
disorders at St Vincent’s Private Hospital.

Research Interests

Infection and immunological conditions, neurosciences and mental health.

Frank Iorfino

Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney

Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney

Associate Professor Frank Iorfino is an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre. His research interests and expertise are in youth mental health and early intervention with a specific focus on how digital health can change the way we assess and manage emerging anxiety, mood and psychotic disorders. His work has contributed to our understanding of illness trajectories with a specific focus on illness progression, suicidality and functioning among youth mental health service populations. Frank currently leads a digital mental health program that has established multidisciplinary partnerships with health service organisations, data scientists and industry to drive real-world impact that improves the quality of youth mental health care and leads to better outcomes for young people.

Research Interests

Youth mental health, early intervention and prevention, digital technologies.

Kate Filia

Orygen, Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Kate Filia is a Principal Research Fellow at Orygen, the Centre for Youth Mental Health at The University of Melbourne. She leads a program of research regarding social inclusion and mental health which focusses on improving understanding about the role of social determinants such as social exclusion in the prevention, treatment and ongoing management of mental ill-health, particularly in early stages for young people. 

A/Professor Filia has developed a measure of social inclusion, the Filia Social Inclusion Measure (F-SIM16), which has been validated in younger and older people with and without mental ill-health. The F-SIM16 is now used in research, clinical and policy settings, and is being validated in multiple countries and languages. More information about the F-SIM16 and its development can be found here – https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796021000755.

Research interests

Social inclusion, social determinants of health, functioning, early intervention, health equity, health services research.

Tania Perich

Western Sydney University

Associate Professor Tania Perich has worked in research primarily in the treatment and management of bipolar disorder and depression.  She has led several research trials, such as one comparing Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for depression, and her PhD research study that explored mindfulness in the area of bipolar disorder.

Currently Assoc. Prof. Perich is working as a researcher in the area of bipolar disorder at Western Sydney University where her focus is on researching the benefits of psychological interventions in the management of this condition.  She also focusses on the impact of hormonal events on women with bipolar disorder and in particular menopause.  She also has an interest in factors associated with living well with bipolar disorder including quality of life, recovery, understanding stigma and improving diagnosis and treatment outcomes.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorder, depression, menopause.

Emma Morton

School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University

Co-chair, Youth Advisory Group

Dr Emma Morton completed her PhD and clinical training as a psychologist at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia (2018). Following that, she took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where she was supported by a competitive Institute of Mental Health Marshall Fellowship (2019-2021) and a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-2023). Emma currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer (Teaching and Research) in the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University.

Dr Morton’s research aims to optimize the quality of life of individuals living with bipolar spectrum disorders. Three intersecting research streams inform this program: 1) Measuring and predicting consumer-valued outcomes, 2) Developing and evaluating psychological interventions, and 3) Diversifying the delivery of self-management education via digital health tools and peer support programs.  Her research has been supported by philanthropic funding (The Laurel Foundation, The Daymark Foundation) and competitive government grants (Health Research BC, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research).

Dr Morton values partnering with individuals with lived experience of mood disorders to design, conduct, interpret and disseminate research. She is passionate about sharing research findings directly with the communities likely to benefit from that knowledge, and is a host and contributor for the webinar series #TalkBD (talkbd.live), among other knowledge translation initiatives. Dr Morton is a co-director of the Collaborative Research Team to Study Psychosocial Issues in Bipolar Disorder (CREST.BD), a network of academics, clinicians, and people with lived experience of bipolar disorder. CREST.BD seeks to optimise the health and quality of life for people with this condition, and empowers communities to engage in bipolar disorder research.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorder, quality of life, digital health/mHealth, co-design, psychosocial interventions, self-management, peer support.

Craig Macneil

Orygen Specialist Program, The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Co-chair, Education Committee

Dr Craig Macneil is a Senior Clinical Psychologist and Team Leader within the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC) within Orygen, a specialised Youth Mental Health service in Melbourne, Australia. He has also worked as a Senior Clinical Educator in the Orygen Clinical Training team which facilitates knowledge transfer, workshops, supervision and secondary consultation to mental health clinicians across the state of Victoria, nationally and internationally. Dr Macneil has a strong research interest, mostly focussing on early psychosis and bipolar disorder and has been an investigator on research projects with the First Episode Mania Team at EPPIC since its inception in 2002.

Research Interests

Bipolar disorder, early intervention, psychotherapy, schema, therapeutic alliance.

Mary Lou Chatterton

Monash University Health Economics Group (MUHEG), School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Dr Mary Lou Chatterton is a Senior Research Fellow and Co-Program Lead for Mental Health at Monash University Health Economics Group, one of the largest groups of health economists dedicated to mental health. Over the past 25 years, Dr Chatterton’s health economics research has spanned a variety of clinical areas including respiratory medicine, infectious diseases, neurology, endocrinology, and psychiatry. A majority of early professional experience relates to economic evaluations for pharmaceutical companies in the United States, with the past 12 years contributing to academic research in Australia. This work has focused on economic evaluations of medications, psychological interventions, and novel delivery systems to prevent and treat mental health conditions including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and depression. Dr Chatterton completed her PhD (part-time) in 2024 evaluating the cost-effectiveness of adjunctive treatment options for bipolar disorder in Australia.

Research Interests

Health economics, mental health, clinical trials.

Sheri Johnson

Dr. Sheri Johnson is a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley, where she directs the Calm Program. Her work has been funded by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Cancer Institute. She has published over 200 manuscripts, including publications in leading journals such as the Journal of Abnormal Psychology and the American Journal of Psychiatry, and is co-editor or co-author of five books, including Emotion and Psychopathology and a best-selling textbook on Abnormal Psychology (Wiley Press). Dr. Johnson is a fellow for Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), the Association for Behavioral Medicine Research, and the American Psychological Society. 

Paul Badcock

Associate Professor Paul Badcock has a PhD in psychology and currently works as the Associate Director of Graduate Education at Orygen and the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Youth Mental Health. As someone who has lived, loved, laboured and learned experience of mental illness, he is passionate about translating research and knowledge into meaningful practice through the intermediary role of teaching. As a researcher, he has published with leading thinkers on the nature of the mind and mental health, with a particular focus on mood disorders and youth mental health. As an educator, he has extensive experience in curriculum design and delivery, but derives the greatest enjoyment from engaging with students, with the hope of making a meaningful difference to the lives of the young people with whom they work.

Dov Degen

Dr Dov Degen is a medical doctor with a lived experience of bipolar disorders. He shares his experiences openly in order to reduce the stigma of mental illness in society and amongst healthcare practitioners. He is a mental health advocate for SANE Australia and Beyond Blue.

Amanda Cops

Amanda Cops is President of Bipolar Life Victoria.

Rebecca Fitton

Rebecca Fitton is a postdoctoral research fellow at CORE-BD. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and has recently submitted her PhD in Psychology. Her work has focused on how light exposure and the body clock’s response to light are linked to mood symptoms and treatment in mood disorders, specifically bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Rebecca is also a co-chair of the CORE-BD Student Network and a member of the “Chronobiology Task Force” of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.