Meet our Working Well Team

“Find a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

While this often-repeated quote has been credited to various figures including Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Confucius and even a Princeton professor from the 1980s, we don’t entirely agree that you’ll never work hard. However, our team certainly appreciates the satisfaction and benefits that come from doing work that inspires us, challenges us and contributes meaningfully to others.

Working Well is something of a passion project for our team: an opportunity that builds on previous research areas and professional expertise, and has the potential to make a profound positive impact on people working in all industries and sectors right around Tasmania.

We’re proud to introduce you to our Working Well team, and tell you a bit about their experience and what drives them. You can also read more about team members’ academic qualifications and specialisations here.

 

Professor Angela Martin

Angela’s professional expertise spans 20 years in academia, working across a number of Australian universities, as well as significant business and leadership experience in the private and public sectors.

Angela holds a PhD in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from Griffith University, and currently has part-time and honorary Professorial appointments with the Menzies Institute for Medical Research and the Tasmanian School for Business and Economics, University of Tasmania.

She is highly regarded nationally and internationally for her research in the area of Work and Mental Health, and along with colleague Dr Larissa Bartlett has been instrumental in the establishment of the Working Well study as part of the larger project that provides the foundation for WorkSafe Tasmania’s Workplace Mental Health Framework.

Outside of her university positions, Angela is Co-Director for Pracademia, a consulting organisation working across industry, government and the community sectors delivering specialist services with a focus on creating, curating and apply knowledge.

 

Dr Larissa Bartlett

Larissa’s first career was in information technology, and while raising her young family she discovered the benefits and joy of mindfulness practice. This prompted a return to study and before long Larissa was undertaking a PhD investigating workplace mindfulness training for employee stress, mental health, wellbeing and productivity.

Larissa is a registered mindfulness teacher with her own practice, working with individuals, groups and organisations.

She is also The Mind Games Research Fellow (Mental Health) at Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Larissa has been actively involved with The Mind Games – Tasmanian’s largest teambuilding challenge that raises awareness and funds for workplace mental health research – since it was established in 2019.

Along with her colleague Professor Angela Martin, Larissa has been the driving force behind the Working Well study and is proud to see this come to fruition and open up the chance for Tasmanian workers to have the chance to have a say in how workplace mental health and wellbeing will be managed in the future.

 

Kelly Broughton

As a self-described curious thinker, Kelly feels privileged to have a career that allows her to indulge her passion for research in the area of workplace mental and physical health and safety.

Kelly’s recently submitted PhD addresses employee experience returning to work following physical or psychological injury, as well as factors influencing the experience. She has extensive experience in the area of work and wellbeing, with recent research projects including psychosocial hazard regulation; occupational rehabilitation; and the impact of the workers compensation system on ill or injured workers.

Kelly has also worked in research consultancy, including the review of the Workplace Rehabilitation Provider Accreditation Process. Her current role as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Project Officer with the Working Well study allows Kelly’s professional expertise and her passion for research to come together, and contribute to creating a foundation that will see improved workplace mental health practices and policy for future workers in Tasmania.

 

Professor Tony LaMontagne

Tony is Professor of Work, Health & Wellbeing at the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University and a regular visitor to Tasmania and long-time collaborator of Professor Martin.

He also holds appointments and affiliations with the University of Melbourne, Monash University, the University of Massachusetts and the Institute for Work and Health in Toronto.

Tony’s broad research interest is in developing the scientific and public understanding of work as a social determinant of health and translating this research into policy and practice to improve workplace and worker health. He has an international profile for cross-disciplinary applied epidemiology and intervention research in work and mental health, occupational health and safety (OH&S) and health promotion.