UNE Medicine and Health

At 15, Vanessa Sadler dreamed of becoming a psychologist. Life took her in other directions: work, family, raising children, and countless competing responsibilities.

But that dream never disappeared and, at 41, amid COVID and home-schooling, she returned to study.

Today, with support from UNE’s Sole Parents and Carers Country Scholarship, Vanessa is pursuing that goal while raising two teenage boys on her own.

“My studies have been a big leap of faith ... This UNE scholarship has provided that soft landing for me.”

For Bachelor of Special and Inclusive Education student Jane Clifford, who lives in regional Victoria, the scholarship has enabled her to buy important teaching resources while also meeting household expenses.

“As a single parent to a child with autism, I never put my needs first. Even working part-time has proven difficult. But my studies are a way to set myself up for a sustainable future career – one in which I can help children live better lives."

Read more via our link in comments.

***
Every gift helps create opportunities for UNE students, researchers and communities. Support the area that matters to you most with a tax-deductible gift by 30 June - see link in comments.

Coercive control doesn’t always leave bruises – but its impact can be devastating.

UNE School of Psychology Honours student Julia Parkin is investigating how coercive control traps women in psychologically captive relationships, and how understanding “trauma-coerced attachment” could lead to earlier identification, better support and safer pathways out.

“Coercive control is a chronic pattern of behaviour, where the abuser subtly uses privileged knowledge to degrade, deprive, isolate, intimidate, manipulate and entrap their partner in order to maintain dominance.” – Julia Parkin
​
Her research aims to:
▪️shine a light on the hidden patterns of coercive control
▪️challenge “why didn’t she leave?” narratives
▪️help future psychologists recognise and respond to these dynamics sooner

🔗 Read the full story and learn more about Julia’s research: Challenging what happens behind closed doors: https://www.une.edu.au/about-une/news-and-events/news/2026/06/challenging-what-happens-behind-closed-doors

👩‍💻 Have you experienced coercive control in a past relationship with a man? Julia is inviting women to take part in a confidential online survey to support this important research:
https://unesurveys.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2fr7OM3lyKqf40u

If this topic raises concerns for you, please consider reaching out to a trusted support service in your area.

The transformative power of confronting difficult histories was in focus at the 2026 Myall Creek Symposium at University of New England, AU .

While the event, held on 5 June, commemorated a dark day in history, guest speakers and panellists explored how truth-telling, deep listening and shared commitment can help communities towards healing, justice and reconciliation for future generations.

The symposium featured keynote speaker, Mr Tony McAvoy SC, Australia's first Indigenous Senior Counsel, and a Wirdi man from Central Queensland.

"Once you engage in the truth and put down the burden of secrecy, you are freed in the sense that you can walk together with First Nations people and really this country can become what it ought to be," he said.

Contributors included:

📍Emeritus Professor Judy Atkinson, Founder/Patron/Elder and Lead Facilitator of We Al-li – an organisation dedicated to the Culturally Informed Trauma Integrated Healing Approach
📍Children’s lawyer Karen Conte
📍Fiona Lovelock (Aboriginal Client & Community Support Officer in the NSW Local Court)
📍Dr Sujata Allen (Armajun Aboriginal Health Service, Armidale)

.. and many others from across UNE.

Thank you to Dr Julie Collins (Faculty of HASSE), Dr Andrew Lawson (School of Law), Tess Cullen (Oorala Aboriginal Centre), Associate Professor Peter Smith and Traci Travers (Faculty of Health and Medicine) and the Armidale Friends of Myall Creek Memorial, for their creative input in facilitating and organising this wonderful and important event.

Psychologists are in short supply across Australia, and it is rural, regional, and remote communities that are feeling the pressure most. At UNE, that reality has been front of mind for the Professional Psychology team for years.

Now, a new national grant is helping them go even further.

UNE has received funding through the National Leadership in Mental Health Postgraduate Psychology Incentive Program, led by Dr Amanda Jefferys, to expand and enhance its Professional Psychology Programs. The focus is clear: train more clinicians “on country,” deepen their clinical skills, and send them back into communities where specialist support is often hardest to find.

Dr Jefferys and her colleagues have been steadily modernising the curriculum, building placements that reflect real world complexity, and supporting students who want to stay close to family and Country while they train. This grant recognises that work and gives the team new capacity to grow a strong pipeline of rural psychologists.

For many communities, that means greater access to clinicians who understand local realities and are equipped for higher order, repeated trauma and complex mental health presentations.

UNE’s vision is simple but ambitious: a future where rural clients no longer miss out on the psychological care they need.

🔗 Read the full story in comments below.

The distressing world of cancer – as experienced by patients, carers and health professionals – is laid bare in a powerful new book being launched at NERAM next week.

🌟 Congratulations to author and UNE alumna Louise Chappell AM. Link to the full story in the comments below 👇

When UNE medical student Mitchell Tillott received a Droder Scholarship, he was able to step away from part-time retail work and focus on his studies. The money went towards accommodation, resources, and placement expenses - "Straight away, I was less stressed," he says.

Today, Mitchell is a career medical officer and has begun GP training.

For archaeologist Crystal Phillips, a scholarship helped fund real-world experiences that shaped her future career.

"I used [it] to attend an international field school in Spain, join our class cataloguing artefacts at Port Arthur in Tasmania, and complete a short course in working with human remains. These experiences all helped me to get my first jobs."

Ten years on, the Carole and Stan Droder Scholarships continue to help students turn ambition into achievement. Read more about the lasting impact of this remarkable gift, via our link in the comments.

***
Every gift helps create opportunities for UNE students, researchers and communities. Support the area that matters to you most with a tax-deductible gift by 30 June - link in comments.

"𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵; 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 '𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯' 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳.”

The University of New England, AU is proud to host the Myall Creek Memorial Symposium this Friday, 5 June 2026 at Oorala Aboriginal Centre UNE, all are welcome.

Truth-telling and reconciliation will be the focus of the symposium, which will precede the annual memorial event at Myall Creek near Bingara, remembering the 28 Wirrayaraay men, women and children who were killed at the site in 1838 in an unprovoked attack.

The Myall Creek massacre remains a pivotal moment in Australian legal history, as the first time perpetrators of a frontier massacre were successfully prosecuted and executed in a colonial court.
This year’s symposium, "Walking the talk together to build a better future", will feature barrister Tony McAvoy SC as keynote speaker. With a career spanning 40 years in native title, human rights, and treaty, Tony will discuss how the Myall Creek legacy continues to shape Australian law.

Find out more and register at the link in the comments