Programme Committee Chair

Associate Professor Rosemary Purcell (M.Psych, PhD) is the Director of Research & Translation at Orygen, Australia’s National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health, Deputy Head of Department of the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and a registered psychologist. Rosie’s focus is on supporting world-class research and it’s effective translation to impact the treatments and models of care that are offered to young people experiencing mental ill-health and their families. She is a member of the leadership team of Frayme, the Canadian-based international network on knowledge transfer and implementation in youth mental health, and is the Managing Editor of Early Intervention in Psychiatry, a journal devoted to disseminating research on youth mental health.

In terms of her own research, Rosie currently leads Orygen’s Elite Sports and Mental Health research and consultancy team. Her primary interests include mental health and wellbeing in elite and professional sportspeople, building the capacity of community sports organisations to respond to the mental health needs of their young sports participants/players, and the relationship between physical activity and mood and anxiety disorders in young people. She has worked for a number of years with international and national sporting organisations to develop evidence-informed frameworks to optimise mental wellbeing in elite athletes. Rosie trained in forensic mental health and she retains a strong interest in the relationship between mental ill-health and offending and crime victimisation in young people, stalking behaviour in juveniles, and enhancing the focus on early intervention in forensic mental health, especially via greater investment in youth criminal justice and mental health. She has co-authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications, 2 books, including the award winning Stalkers and their Victims (Cambridge University Press) and has presented at numerous international conferences. Rosemary was on the Organising and Scientific committees of the first IAYMH conference in Melbourne in 2010 and is delighted to welcome delegates to the 5^th conference in her home country Australia