Rate My Professor Lyn Mahboub

Lyn Mahboub is a Lecturer and Lived Experience Academic in Curtin University's School of Allied Health within the Faculty of Health Sciences. She holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Communication & Cultural Studies and brings nearly 20 years of experience in lived experience (peer) workforce roles. Employed at Curtin since 2010 as Western Australia's first lived experience academic, she advanced from guest lecturer and curriculum consultant to sessional tutor, part-time lecturer, and her current position. Mahboub co-leads the Valuing Lived Experience Project (VLEP), launched in 2015 and endorsed by school leaders, which integrates lived experience educators into occupational therapy and social work curricula. She contributes to the Masters in Mental Health Recovery teaching team and undergraduate courses in social work and occupational therapy. Her leadership extends to local and national mental health sectors, including supervising higher degree research with a lived experience perspective across Honours, Masters, and PhD levels.

Mahboub's career encompasses key advocacy contributions, such as participating in the 2003 Consumer Consultant Trial, co-founding the West Australian Mental Illness Awareness Council (now Consumers of Mental Health WA) in 2005, serving as inaugural Director of Hearing Voices Network Australia, and acting as Program Manager for Recovery Training at Richmond Fellowship. She co-developed initiatives like the HealthRight Project and WA Recovery College Alliance. Her research specializations include embedding mental health lived experience in social work education, service user perspectives in student supervision, peer work in mental health policy, recovery colleges, and stigma reduction. Notable publications are 'The integration of service user perspectives in social work student supervision' (2024), 'Learning About Mental Health Lived Experience in Social Work Education' (2025), 'A Program for Valuing Mental Health Lived Experience in Social Work Education' (2022), 'A journey of embedding mental health lived experience in social work education' (2016 and 2019), and 'Inclusion as Assimilation, Integration, or Co-optation? A Post-Structural Analysis of Inclusion as Produced Through Mental Health Research on Peer Support' (2023). With 21 publications and over 250 citations, she received recognition as part of the Valuing Lived Experience Program Team for innovation in curriculum design and pedagogy practice.