Positive Psychology for kids and Teens: Building strength, resilience and empathy at an important life stage.

Order of Australia recipient, Professor Lea Waters AM, PhD, holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology and is the Founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne (now the Centre for Wellbeing Science), where she has held an academic position for two and a half decades.  

Lea has published 110+ scientific publications, has been the recipient of major prestigious research grants including a National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant and is the Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association. 

Lea has written for The Wall Street Journal, TIME.com, The Atlantic, The Guardian and more. She has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Toronto Globe, Huffington Post, Vogue, ELLE Magazine and more. Her TEDx talk, Warning: Being positive is not for the faint hearted!, has been viewed more than 190,000 times. 

In 2015, Professor Waters was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review. In 2020, Lea was honoured by the Governor General of Australia and named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her leadership in psychology, education and the mental health sector in Australia.