Professor Nicola Newton

Professor Nicola Newton is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow and Director of Prevention at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney. She is also Prevention Lead at the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in PRevention and Early Intervention in Mental Illness and Substance UsE (PREMISE) and Vice-president for the Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders.

Nicola holds a Bachelor of Psychology from Macquarie University and a PhD from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of New South Wales Sydney. After completing her PhD, she spent 2 years on an international postdoctoral research fellowship at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK, followed by seven years as a research academic at NDARC before moving to the Matilda Centre in December 2018.

Prof Newton leads an internationally renowned program of research in the prevention of substance use and mental health problems in adolescence. She has a focus on e-health to improve implementation and sustainability of interventions and developed the first web-based programs to prevent substance use among adolescents; the OurFutures (formerly Climate Schools) programs for drug prevention. She has extensive experience leading school-based clinical trials in Australia and the UK (7 RCTs with > 14,000 students) and has received national and international recognition for her research.

Nicola has authored >150 publications, >20 educational resources and has secured >$37 million in competitive research funding to develop, evaluate and translate evidence-based interventions into practice.

Executive Assistant: Jasmin.bartlett@sydney.edu.au