I am a professor of Pediatrics and director of the Heart and Mind Wellbeing Center and the Center for Heart Disease and Mental Health Research.

My research investigates the factors that shape emotional and neurobiological development in children with critical or chronic illness, particularly congenital heart disease (CHD). My team seeks to understand how experiences of early medical adversity may alter developmental processes, including emotion regulation and stress reactivity, in ways that increase vulnerability to anxiety, depression and other mental health difficulties. My team also explores infant-parent bonding and attachment, and the ways in which we can best support young children and their families in the context of medical illness. In partnership with patients, parents and health care providers, the overarching goal is to discover the mechanisms that contribute to developmental risk and resilience, and deliver targeted interventions, strategies and policies to promote health and wellbeing throughout childhood and across the life course. My team pursues this research using methods drawn from clinical and developmental psychology, neurobiology and medical science.

I have a PhD in medical psychology from the University of Sydney and serve on the editorial board for Health Psychology Review and Psychology & Health. I hold a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellowship (2017-2020), have been continuously funded by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, and was awarded a Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice based at Harvard Medical School (2018-2019). In 2018 my team received the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network Innovation Award for Excellence in the Provision of Mental Health Services for children with heart disease and their families.