MENTAL WELLBEING IN RURAL AND REGIONAL COMMUNITIES DEALING WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES LIKE FIRE, FLOODS AND DROUGHT
With
Suzie Cosh, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology,
The University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia | June 2025
Associate Professor Suzie Cosh is a psychologist and clinical researcher. Her work focuses on the intersection of climate change and mental health and she currently leads a body of work that focuses on supporting small rural communities to recover from and prepare for extreme weather events such as bushfires, floods and droughts.
In 2024, she received $6 million in funding from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Futures Fund and the National Health and Medical Research Council to trial novel interventions to protect mental health and wellbeing in diverse rural Australian communities.
In particular, she currently leads the Equip project, a multisite trial developing psychological disaster preparedness and community resilience. Having completed a Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology, her work combines clinical experiences and insights into intervention-based research to support mental health. She completed postdoctoral research fellowships in Germany and France, before returning to Australia and establishing a program of research that aims to better understand the impacts of climate change on mental health, and how to best support mental health into the future as climate change and its impacts escalate.
She holds memberships on international societies, actively furthering the connection of science and clinical practice. Her work is based on a strong commitment to ensure that the best evidence guides and is translated into clinical practice and helps to protect and promote the mental health of individual and communities.
Source: Supplied
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8003-3704
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Non-invasive tools for CVD screening and monitoring
Dr Hadi Afsharan is a Research Fellow Cardiovascular Science & Diabetes at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research; is a translational research and innovation fellow in medical technologies at The University of Western Australia, holding dual titles as Translational Fellow and Innovation Fellow within UWA’s Medical School and the FHRI (Future Health Research and Innovation) program.
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Seeking discoveries in earlier bowel cancer detection
Associate Professor Susan Woods is a cancer research focused on eradicating bowel cancer through earlier detection and investigating the DNA related from colorectal cancer cells. She leads the Gut Cancer Research Group at the University of Adelaide and SAHMRI and with her team is researching new treatments for advanced disease.
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Environmental exposure to function of lung epithelial stem cell biology
Dr Clare Weeden has recently commenced as a Laboratory Head at WEHI in 2025, supported by the CSL Centenary Fellowship.
Dr Weeden specialises in lung epithelial cell biology in the context of homeostasis, inflammation, and lung cancer, particularly in people who don’t smoke. Her work endeavours to understand how past environmental exposures shape the responses of lung cells and the molecular mechanisms underlying this cellular recall, with the aim to develop novel early detection strategies for lung disease.
