Rate My Professor Joanne Bennett

Dr. Joanne Bennett serves as a Senior Lecturer in Psychology within the School of Behavioural and Health Sciences at Australian Catholic University’s Strathfield Campus. She joined ACU as a Lecturer in 2017 and progressed to Senior Lecturer, while also holding an Honorary Associate position at Macquarie University since 2017. Bennett is a Member of the Australasian College of Road Safety since 2018. She completed her PhD at Macquarie University in 2018, focusing on the application of cognitive assessments to evaluate fitness to drive among individuals with dementia, involving assessments with older adults and those with dementia alongside driving evaluations.

Bennett’s research expertise lies in the relationship between cognitive function and road safety across the lifespan, covering all road users including drivers and vulnerable pedestrians, and extending to automated vehicles. Her work emphasizes translating findings into practical applications for road safety policy and industry, in collaboration with institutions such as the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, RMIT, and Austroads. She supervises honours, masters, and PhD students on topics related to cognitive impairment’s impact on driving and advanced statistical methods. With a decade of teaching experience, she specializes in research design and statistics, offering workshops on structural equation modelling and meta-analysis. Notable awards include the Lecturer of the Year from the Australian Psychological Society (2023), ACU Faculty of Health Sciences Employees Values Award (2023), and the 2025 Australasian College of Road Safety Young Leaders Oration Award for her contributions to road safety, particularly for First Nations peoples and vulnerable groups. Key publications encompass systematic reviews such as “Cognitive tests and determining fitness to drive in dementia: A systematic review” (2016), “Narcissism and Intimate Partner Violence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” (2023), “The efficacy of hazard perception training and education: A systematic review and meta-analysis” (2024), and others on hazard perception, pedestrian behaviors, and screen use impacts on cognition, contributing to over 650 citations.