Dr Nina Papalia

Biography

Dr. Nina Papalia is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Forensic Psychology and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow in the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology. Formerly, she held the prestigious appointment of Visiting Fulbright Scholar within the Department of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Dr. Papalia’s scholarship focusses on two interrelated areas: understanding and ameliorating the effects of childhood maltreatment and other traumatic exposures on children’s development, particularly the effects on survivors' later involvement in offending and violence; and improving prevention and intervention services targeting young people involved in, or at risk of involvement in, the child protection and justice systems.

Dr. Papalia was awarded the 2021 Swinburne Vice-Chancellor’s Research Excellence (Early Career) Award, the 2022 School of Health Sciences Award for Emerging Outstanding Researcher, and in 2022, she was the recipient of an Internationally Competitive Trainee Award for Early Career Scholars in Child Abuse & Neglect. In 2018, she received awards from the Australian Psychological Society and the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers for her work on the long-term impacts of child sexual abuse. Dr. Papalia is also a registered clinical forensic psychologist, with experience working with children, adolescents, and adults in court, correctional, general clinical, and forensic mental health settings.