Donna Bayliss is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western Australia. She earned her BSc and PhD from the University of Wollongong and served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol from 2001 to 2004, collaborating with Professors Chris Jarrold and Alan Baddeley. Bayliss joined the University of Western Australia in 2005 as a Lecturer in the School of Psychology, advancing to Senior Lecturer in 2016 and to her current position as Associate Professor.

Her research focuses on the development of attention regulation and working memory and its relation to educational achievement and developmental disorders, early childhood adversity and its developmental impacts, and the cognitive underpinnings of trust and social vulnerability in children, including links to educational and mental health outcomes. She has obtained over $650,000 in competitive funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), Spencer Foundation (US), Australian Research Council (Australia), and University of Western Australia grants. Bayliss's publications have garnered more than 1,275 citations in the last five years (Google Scholar), ranking her in the top 3.1% of scholars on child development (ExpertScape). Notable works include "The complexities of complex span: Explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults" (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2003; 695 citations), "Mapping the developmental constraints on working memory span performance" (Developmental Psychology, 2005; 311 citations), "The relationship between short-term memory and working memory: Complex span made simple?" (Memory, 2005; 155 citations), "Chronic Illness and Developmental Vulnerability at School Entry" (Pediatrics, 2016; 140 citations), and "Consolidating working memory: Distinguishing the effects of consolidation, rehearsal and attentional refreshing in a working memory span task" (Journal of Memory and Language, 2015; 91 citations). She has supervised 12 PhD students, 10 Masters students, and over 45 Honours students to completion. In 2022, she became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Bayliss has served on the School Executive Committee (2017-2019), as Director of the Research Committee (2017-2019) and Deputy Director (2020-2021), and as an academic auditor for Excellence in Research for Australia.

Professional Email: donna.bayliss@uwa.edu.au