Rate My Professor Michelle Kelly

Associate Professor Michelle Kelly is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia, within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. She earned a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from the University of Newcastle in 2007, followed by a combined PhD and Master of Clinical Psychology from the University of New South Wales, where her honours research explored cognitive functioning in healthy ageing and her PhD investigated social behaviour impairments in adults with brain injury. Before her academic appointment, Kelly worked as a Clinical Psychologist in the Specialist Mental Health Service for Older People and as a neuropsychologist in the Paediatric Brain Injury Rehabilitation team at Hunter New England Local Health District from 2012 to 2015. She joined the University of Newcastle as Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology in 2015, progressing to Associate Professor, while continuing clinical supervision for training psychologists.

Kelly's research centers on social cognition, empathy, mental health, and behaviour changes in dementia, traumatic brain injury, and older adulthood, including carer support and social skill interventions. She develops assessment tools for social cue recognition in dementia and explores stereotyping of older people. Key publications include 'A meta-analysis of response inhibition and Stroop interference control deficits in adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI)' (Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2011), 'Learning from the minds of others: A review of social cognition treatments and their relevance to traumatic brain injury' (Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 2019), 'A survey of clinicians working in brain injury rehabilitation: Are social cognition impairments on the radar?' (The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, 2017), and recent articles such as 'Telehealth-based assessment of cognition, social cognition, mood, and functional independence in older adults' (Infection, Disease & Health, 2025) and 'SIFT IT: A feasibility and preliminary efficacy randomized controlled trial of a social cognition group treatment programme for people with acquired brain injury' (2024). Kelly collaborates with researchers at UNSW, University College London, and the National Ageing Research Institute, and partners with health services, aged care providers, and organizations like Hunter Primary Care. She supervises PhD students on climate anxiety, social skills interventions, and self-disclosure patterns, and coordinates courses in cognitive neuropsychological assessment and clinical psychology for special groups including older adults.