“Never let go of yourA/Professoreams” – Let’s cultivate environments which encourage expectations of success rather than failure.

A/Professor Tracy Westerman is a trailblazer in Aboriginal mental health, having been named the 2018 Australian of the Year (WA); Inducted into the 2018 WA Women’s Hall of Fame and awarded the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award, Curtin University amongst many other accolades. She holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology, a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Doctor of Philosophy (Clinical Psychology). Despite having to undertake her university subjects mostly by distance education, she is a recognized leader in Aboriginal mental health, cultural competence and suicide prevention, achieving national and international recognition. A/Professor Westerman is a widely sought-after keynote speaker having delivered to over 80 national conferences and internationally in Canada (2003); the USA (2004), Auckland (2006 & 2007) and Wellington (2009). In 2005 the Canadian government sent a delegation to Australia to explore A/Professor Westerman’s work, resulting in recommendations that the same approaches be adopted for Canadian Aboriginal people (Nunuvut Taskforce, 2006). She was recognized by Canadian Health, 2009 for her substantial contribution to Aboriginal youth mental health & has been cited in numerous reports highlighting her work as best practice. She has developed seven unique psychometric tests enabling the identification of Aboriginal people at suicide and mental health risk. She has trained 25,000+ clinicians in these tools and approaches meaning they are then able to reach many thousands more Aboriginal people at risk.

Her most notable awards include:WA Australian of the Year 2018Curtin University Lifetime Achievement Award 2018Finalist in Australian of the Year 2018Inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame 201840 under 40 Business Leaders Strategic Alliance AwardSuicide Prevention Australia Award for Emerging Researcher (2006)National Health & Medical Council Post-Doctoral Fellowship to investigate ADHD in Aboriginal peopleNAIDOC National Scholar of the Year (2002)Mark Liveris Award, Curtin University, Health Sciences for best Oral Presentation of PhD (2002)
Her message is that “there is nothing we can’t achieve as Aboriginal people if we believe in ourselves”