Professor Lea Waters AM, PhD, is the Founding Director and Inaugural Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne where she has held an academic position for 24 years. Lea holds affiliate positions at Cambridge University’s Well-being Institute and the University of Michigan’s Center for Positive Organizations.
She also holds a position on the Science Board of The University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Professor Waters has published over 100 peer reviewed scientific publications and has been awarded academic prizes for research excellence by the American Academy of Management and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. In 2015, Professor Waters was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review and Westpac bank. In 2020 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia by the Governor General for her long term leadership in in the Mental Health sector. This is one of Australia's highest civilian honours. Professor Waters is committed to spreading the science of positive psychology and consults widely to schools, workplaces and family association across the globe. She is regularly featured on TV and radio, including Morning Dose (The CW, USA), Revolution School (ABC, Australia), Matter of Fact (ABC, Australia), Destination Happiness (Channel Nine, Australia), Today Extra (Channel Nine, Australia), National Nightly News (Channel Ten, Australia), The Project (TV3, New Zealand), The Café (NZTV, New Zealand), Breakfast (NZTV, New Zealand). Lea's work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Globe, and The Guardian. Her book, 'The Strength Switch' was the top release on Amazon in the parenting category and was listed in Top reads for 2017 by Berkeley University’s Greater Good Science Centre. It is being translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Russian. Lea is Immediate Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) (2017-2019) and was the Chair of the 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology. She is currently a Board member of IPPA, the Patron for Flourishing Education Japan and the Ambassador for Positive Education Schools Association Australia. Lea has been a researcher at the University of Melbourne for 24 years and has consulted to schools and companies across the globe on employee wellbeing and student mental health.
Find out more about Lea Waters' experience
Lea Waters' highlights
FEATURED Journal article
Coming Out as LGBTQ plus : The Role Strength-Based Parenting on Posttraumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth
Read moreLea Waters' selected work
Projects
Displaying the 4 most recent projects by Lea Waters.
Project Types
2
Internal Research Grant
1
Research Contracts
1
Research Grant
Scholarly Works
Displaying the 106 most recent scholarly works by Lea Waters.
News
Displaying the 12 most recent news articles by Lea Waters.
Honours, Awards and Fellowships
Member of the Order of Australia
Dean's Certificate for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
Dean's Certificate for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching
Edward Brown University Teaching Award
Dean's Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Teaching
Best Paper Award at Annual Meeting (with Muller, J.)
Awarded 'Management Educator of the Year'
Dean's Individual Award for Innovation in Teaching
Dean's Individual Award for Good Teaching and Innovation
Dean's Award of Good Teaching
Best Paper based on a dissertation
Isi Liebler Prize - Best PhD in the area of Community Relations
Dean's Award of Good Teaching
Australian Postgraduate Research Award
Credentials
Positions
Professor
Melbourne Graduate School Of Education
Member
Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management
Full Member
Australian Psychological Society
Full Member
College of Organisational Psychology
Full Member
American Academy of Management
Vice President
Work/Life Association
Registered Psychologist
Victorian Psychological Council
Associate Member
Australian Psychological Society
Education
Doctor of Philosophy
Deakin University
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
University of Melbourne