Ellie Lawrence-Wood

Senior Research Specialist, Phoenix Australia Ellie Lawrence-Wood, PhD, BBSc (psyc hons) is a senior research fellow at Phoenix Australia Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, and an adjunct fellow in the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide. She specialises in the area of military and high-risk occupation mental health and wellbeing, with a current focus on performance optimisation, risk mitigation and early intervention for Veterans and first responders exposed to stress and potentially traumatic events through their occupations. She has extensive experience in assessment and monitoring of the health impacts of service among military and first responder populations, and has specific expertise in the prospective longitudinal assessment and monitoring of mental, physical and neurobiological impacts of stress exposure. She has been an investigator on several project grants and consultancies, including the Transition and Wellbeing Research Programme, and was the lead Investigator on the Impact of Combat Study specifically. Other military projects she has led include the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) Prospective Study (the precursor to the Impact of Combat Study), a large-scale project focusing on the psychological, physical and neurobiological impacts of deployment to the MEAO among ADF personnel; and the Mothers in the MEAO study, a follow-up to the Military Health Outcomes Program (MilHOP) Health Studies, aimed at understanding the specific health and psychosocial wellbeing impacts of deployment, for Australian mothers deployed to the MEAO. In addition to her research, she is the current Chair of the Clinical Advisory Committee, and a Director on the Board of Management, for the Operation Flinders Foundation, a South Australian based charitable organisation that runs a world leading wilderness adventure program for young people at risk.