[Commpsych] Congratulations to Heather Gridley OAM!

[Harriet Radermacher]

Dear all,

We are delighted to announce (for those who haven’t already heard) that our very own Heather Gridley was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia yesterday for her services to community health! This award recognises Heather’s outstanding contribution to the community, in particular community psychology.

As most of you may be aware, Heather has been a trailblazer in community psychology both in Australia, across the Trans-Tasman and internationally for three decades. Heather’s interest in community psychology stemmed from her work in community health in the 1980s, where she became aware of the limitations of interventions directed solely at individuals. In 1990 Heather joined the fledgling Victoria University, where she coordinated the postgraduate program in Community Psychology, which remains a highly sought after course and has a reputation for producing graduates with a strong commitment to social justice, critical thinking ability and skills applicable to the complex problems of today. Heather is a committed supervisor and mentor, with many past students attesting to her influence on their career and life pathways, most of whom she is still in touch with today!

Heather has been a driving force within the Australian Psychological Society’s (APS) College of Community Psychologists for many decades. She has ensured the group remain active and viable, connecting graduates and networking across groups, cities and states, relentlessly fighting for community psychology’s legitimacy and survival within Australia. Heather has also remained committed to building connections across the Trans-Tasman as evidenced by her ongoing involvement in the Trans-Tasman community psychology conferences, including as conference Chair at the Melbourne conference in 2017.

Heather has written and published extensively about community psychology and encouraged and supported others to do so. Her most recent accomplishments include Editor of the Australian Community Psychologist special issue and a chapter in the APA Handbook of Community Psychology.

And of course true to the values of community psychology, Heather has been a champion of the rights of marginalised groups and those who face disadvantage including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, women and girls, migrants and refugees and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex people. Her work in partnership with Indigenous Psychologists (both Australian and Maori) and ongoing active membership of the APS Women and Psychology Interest Group were particularly noted in the application for the OAM.

Heather worked for 12 years as Manager of the Public Interest at the APS and has served two terms on the APS Board where she has been influential in ensuring that psychology is applied in the interest of community wellbeing and social justice. She currently holds an Honorary Fellow position in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Victoria University.

Please join us in congratulating Heather, on what we are sure you will agree is a well deserved award, not to mention a great promotion for community psychology!

Warm regards,

Emma and Harriet

P.s. A big shout out to Julie Morsillo who initiated this nomination, and to Colleen Turner, Lauren Breen, Isaac Prilleltensky, Ken Robinson and all others associated with the nomination!


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.curtin.edu.au/pipermail/commpsych/attachments/20190128/c8855840/attachment.html>