Sam Teague

Dr Sam Teague is an NHMRC Emerging Leader and Lecturer at James Cook University's Department of Psychology.

Sam's research explores how digital technologies can improve the mental health and wellbeing of regional, rural, and remote children and families. Her research program has two arms:

1. a longitudinal and epidemiological research arm aiming to understand the developmental roots of mental and behavioural disorders in children; and
2. a clinical digital mental health intervention arm focused on the development, delivery, and evaluation of digital mental health interventions tailored to underserved families, including mobile apps and social media programs for depression and anxiety.
   

She has published extensively relative to opportunity with >60 articles, reviews, and reports, and has led or co-led grants to the value of >$2.2M including funding from NHMRC Investigator Grant scheme and the MRFF Million Minds Mental Health Research scheme. Her work in digital psychiatry has had substantial national and international reach, including influencing clinical practice guidelines and international policy for preventing and treating child and parent mental health problems (BMJ Best Practice, US Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, US National Bureau of Statistics), and in responsibly integrating artificial intelligence tools into mental healthcare (Canada’s Drug Agency, 2021; WHO, 2020).

Previously, Sam completed her PhD at Monash University's Centre for Developmental Psychology & Psychiatry in 2019, and held a Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship at Deakin University from 2020-2021 (sole-CI, $220k). She is currently Research Lead of the PAHL Group, Leader of the Digital Mental Health stream at JCU's Digital Wellbeing lab, and holds a Honorary Research Fellow position with Deakin University's SEED Lifespan SRC.

Prospective Research Students

I am always looking forward to working with motivated and self-driven students interested in child psychology and/or digital mental health projects. The interdisciplinary nature of digital health particularly may be suitable to students with backgrounds outside of psychology, such as computer science and engineering. If you are interested in talking to me about prospective projects, please drop me an email with your CV and information on your prior research experience, if any. A list of currently available projects that are looking for students is provided on the Teaching page.