Rate My Professor Lauren Breen

Professor Lauren Breen is a professor of psychology in the Curtin School of Population Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Curtin University. She holds the position of Discipline Lead for Mental Health Psychology and serves as Program Lead in the Mental Health Domain of the enAble Institute. Breen earned her BSc (Hons), Graduate Certificate in Education, and PhD in Community Psychology from Edith Cowan University in 2007. Her PhD thesis on bereavement was awarded the Australian Psychological Society's Psychology of Relationships Interest Group Thesis Award. Prior to joining Curtin University in 2011, she worked at Edith Cowan University. As a registered psychologist with endorsement in community psychology, she has built an internationally recognized research program.

Breen's research focuses on the psychology of grief and loss across the lifespan, including bereavement support needs, palliative and end-of-life care, interventions for grievers, and promoting grief literacy in communities. Her discoveries have illuminated preparedness for death among family caregivers, the lingering effects of end-of-life caregiving on quality of life and grief, social factors shaping grief stigma and support intentions, and the conceptualization of grief literacy. With over 170 publications and nearly 10,000 citations, key works include "Who Needs Bereavement Support? A Population Based Survey of Bereavement Risk and Support Need" (Aoun et al., 2015, PLOS ONE), "Understanding individual resilience in the workplace: the international collaboration of workforce resilience model" (Rees et al., 2015, Frontiers in Psychology), and "Grief literacy: A call to action for compassionate communities" (Breen et al., 2022, Death Studies). She co-edited The Routledge International Handbook of Child and Adolescent Grief in Contemporary Contexts. Breen's contributions have earned her the Faculty of Health Sciences Early Career Research Award from Curtin University (2011), the Association for Death Education and Counseling Research Award (2022), and recognition as Australia's top researcher in Hospice and Palliative Care by The Australian (2023, 2024, 2025). Through collaborations with Palliative Care Australia, Cancer Council WA, and others, her research translates into global policy and practice. She engages in public speaking, TEDx presentations, committee roles, and serves on the board of Lionheart Camps for Kids.