Rate My Professor Jayashri Kulkarni

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni AM is a Professor of Psychiatry at Monash University and The Alfred Hospital, a position she commenced in 2002. She graduated from Monash Medical School with an MBBS in 1981, became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989, and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 1997 for her thesis 'Women and Psychosis'. Kulkarni founded and directs the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc), expanding it from 25 personnel in 2002 to 185 staff and students by 2015, encompassing seven research streams and over 110 clinical trials aimed at developing new treatments for severe mental illnesses under the motto 'We Mend Minds'. She also directs HER Centre Australia, established by Monash University in 2022 to advance health, education, and research in women's mental health, and serves as Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Central Clinical School, Monash University. Additionally, she founded the Cabrini Women’s Mental Health Hospital in 2021, Australia's first dedicated women's mental health facility, and previously held roles such as Director of Research for the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, and Director of the Monash Partners Academic Health Science Centre Neurosciences and Mental Health Stream.

Kulkarni's research focuses on women's mental health, pioneering psychoneuroendocrine investigations into the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, particularly the use of estrogen in treating schizophrenia, and developing gender-tailored interventions for depression, anxiety, perimenopause, and eating disorders. She has produced 289 publications, 25 book chapters, and 56 other works, influencing clinical practices through hormone-based therapies and biomarker innovations like the EVestG device, which won the 2010 ABC New Inventors Grand Final. Her contributions earned the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2019 for services to psychiatry, Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2016, RANZCP Senior Research Award and Ian Simpson Award in 2024, Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Founders Medal in 2013, and Melbourne Award for Contribution to Community in 2012. Internationally recognized, she has delivered keynote addresses, chaired advisory boards, served as President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health since 2017, hosted the 3rd International Congress on Women’s Mental Health in 2008, and founded the Australian Consortium for Women’s Mental Health in 2015. Her clinical experience spans consultation-liaison psychiatry, early psychosis, and women's mental health clinics.