Rate My Professor Katherine Donovan

Dr. Katherine Donovan is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, Faculty of Medicine. She earned her medical degree from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and completed her psychiatry training in Christchurch, New Zealand, specializing in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to her academic role, she works part-time as a clinician at Child and Family Mental Health services for the Canterbury District Health Board. Her clinical interests encompass Eating Disorders and Co-existing Problems including Addiction, Youth Psychiatry, and Infant Mental Health, for which she co-teaches the PSME433 course. Donovan teaches Developmental Psychiatry modules to clinical medical students.

Donovan's research examines psychological distress and wellbeing, particularly among youth and medical trainees. During her Psychiatry Fellowship, she contributed to the Toku Oranga survey conducted in 2019 and 2020, investigating subjective wellbeing, psychological functioning, distress, and burnout in postgraduate and medical students at the University of Otago, Christchurch; findings were published as "Tōku Oranga: The subjective wellbeing and psychological functioning of postgraduate and medical students in Ōtautahi Christchurch" in the New Zealand Medical Journal in 2023. She is involved with the March 15th Study group, providing a Child and Youth perspective, and leads the Youth March 15 Project: "Weaving our own path," an integrated group intervention incorporating well-evidenced wellbeing strategies and Islamic psychology components for adolescents and their whānau impacted by the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks. This initiative secured a Major Projects Grant of $109,985 from the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation in 2023 to evaluate its feasibility, effectiveness, and impact on emotional difficulties, functioning, and parental distress. Her publications also include "Long-term outcomes associated with adolescent ADHD symptomatology: Birth cohort study" in the British Journal of Psychiatry (2025), protocols and presentations on the Youth Group Wellbeing Project (BJPsych Open, 2024), and a commentary on mental health and paid parental leave (New Zealand Medical Journal, 2023).