Rate My Professor Maree Teesson

Distinguished Professor Maree Teesson AC serves as Director of the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, a flagship centre within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, and holds an NHMRC Leadership Fellow position. She earned her BSc (Psychology)(Hons) and PhD in Psychiatry from the University of New South Wales in 1996. Teesson joined the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at UNSW in 1997, where she was Deputy Director from 2002 to 2008 and later Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use. In 2018, she relocated her team to the University of Sydney, founding the Matilda Centre, which advances over 30 years of collaborative research in prevention, treatment, epidemiology, and capacity building for mental health and substance use disorders.

Her research specializations encompass the co-occurrence of mental disorders and substance use, addiction, and youth interventions. Key publications include the book Addictions and articles such as 'Policy implications of the 2020–22 Australian study of mental health' (2024), '72-month outcomes from a cluster-randomised controlled trial' (2024), and works on programs like Climate Schools and the CAP study. Teesson's contributions have influenced global policy and practice in mental health. Major awards include Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2018 for service to mental health research, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) in 2015, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), and Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW (2023). She chairs the national Million Minds Mental Health Research Mission Expert Advisory Panel, serves on NHMRC committees, and contributes to the editorial board of Advances in Dual Diagnosis.