Donna Cross

Donna Cross is an Australian academic, professor, a child health advocate at the School of Global and Population Health within the University of Western Australia and leader of the Telethon Kids Institute. She was awarded an Order of Australia for her work in children's mental health.

Cross is the Chief Investigator and the Western Australian Node Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course.

Cross was formerly the Founding Director for the Child Health Promotion Research Centre within the Edith Cowan University, from 2003 to 2012. As Founding Director she led projects aimed at promoting the mental development and wellbeing of young people. Cross also created the Friendly Schools Plus (FS+) program, which has been adopted by over 3,000 schools in Singapore, Australia, the UK, and the USA.

Education

Cross received a PhD from Columbia University, in New York, and a Bachelor of Education from the Western Australia Institute of Technology in 1983.

Career

Cross has spent her career investigating childhood mental health, safety in schools, and designing and implementing research around well-being in school settings. She also has researched impacts of cyber-bullying, aggression, and the protection of young adolescents, particularly for implementing her research in real-life settings.

Publications

Cross has written 38 books and chapters, as at July 2024, with 173 peer-reviewed journal articles, 95 reports, and more than 100 health education resources. Cross has an H-index of 57 and over 12,000 citations, according to google scholar.

Select publications include:

• Papageorgiou, A., Fisher, C. and Cross, D. (2022) "Why don’t I look like her?" How adolescent girls view social media and its connection to body image. BMC Women's Health. doi:10.1186/s12905-022-01845-4
• Lester, L., Cross, D. (2015) The Relationship Between School Climate and Mental and Emotional Wellbeing Over the Transition from Primary to Secondary School. Psych Well-Being 5, 9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13612-015-0037-8
• Perren, S., Dooley, J., Shaw, T. et al. (2010) Bullying in school and cyberspace: Associations with depressive symptoms in Swiss and Australian adolescents. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 4, 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/1753-2000-4-28.
• Cross, D. Waters, S. (2012) Friendly schools plus teacher resource. Early & middle adolescence 11-14 years.

Awards

Award for Cross's work in adolescent mental health include the following:

• 2023 - Western Australian Science Hall of Fame.
• 2015 - fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science^[3].
• 2012 - Western Australian of the Year Awards,^[4]
• 2012 - Future Justice Prize.^[5]
• 2011 - Cross finalist for the WA Citizen of the Year Award,
• 2011 - WA Scientist of the Year.^[6]

Cross was awarded both the Churchill fellowship and NHMRC Research fellowship in 2016.

References