Carolyn Baker was an Associate Professor in the School of Education at The University of Queensland. Associate Professor Baker, who passed away in 2003, is best remembered for her research and her excellent postgraduate supervision and teaching. This prestigious annual memorial lecture commemorates the life and valuable contribution that our colleague, Carolyn, had generously shared with all of us during her time with the School of Education. The Carolyn D. Baker Memorial Lecture is presented as part of UQ's Research and Innovation week. Join us as we remember our colleague and friend Carolyn Baker at the annual memorial lecture.
School Mental Health: The Power and Potential of Teachers to Make a Difference
Venue
All are welcome to attend our free event. For catering purposes, please register by Friday 5 September 2025.
About the lecture
Studies from around the world demonstrate that the overall mental health of children and adolescents has been deteriorating over the past 2 decades. Outside the home, school is the setting where children and young people spend most of their time, for better or worse, making it a central location for mental health promotion and intervention. To capitalise on this potential, schools can be supported to provide identity-affirming mental health support that equips students with good mental hygiene, enabling staff to notice when students’ struggles are mounting and provide front-line support while awaiting community referrals. These are all key elements of a comprehensive school mental health system. Such a model has been successfully implemented in Ontario, Canada, where School Mental Health Ontario (SMH-ON) has provided support for multi-tiered school mental health for the 78 school districts and authorities serving Ontario's 2 million+ primary and secondary students.
Teachers have several important roles to play in supporting the mental health of every student, and school leaders have a crucial role in enabling this support. Dr Runions will outline current research on teacher-student relationship quality, the potential impact of classroom mental health literacy and promotion, and the bidirectional relationship of teacher and student well-being. This will provide a timely review of how educators and school leaders can invest their time and energy toward supporting student mental health.
About our speaker
Dr Kevin Runions holds PhD (2004) and Masters (2000) degrees in Human Development and Education, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; University of Toronto), as well as a Bachelor of Education. He currently leads the Research, Evaluation & Monitoring team at School Mental Health Ontario, the implementation partner of the Ontario Ministry of Education in supporting multi-tiered, identity-affirming student mental health programming for Ontario’s two million elementary and secondary students. He also holds an appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct) with McMaster University, in Hamilton Ontario. Prior to this, he was Head of the Schools and Community Wellbeing team at Telethon Kids Institute, Perth Australia and a Research Fellow with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (aka, the Life Course Centre), and has held lecturer/ assistant professor roles at Edith Cowan and Curtin Universities (Western Australia) and the University of Victoria (British Columbia).
Dr Runions is an internationally recognised researcher of child social and emotional development, with over 60 peer-reviewed publications addressing biopsychosocial aspects of child and adolescent development and how school practices contribute to mental health and well-being. He holds particular expertise in bullying, aggression and dysregulated behaviours, their motivational and affective processes, and intervention and prevention development, implementation and testing. His most cited publication is a meta-analysis of bullying and cyberbullying prevalence, with over 900 citations. He has consulted with governments in Australia and Canada, providing expert advice and strategic planning, including the Australian Department of Education, Independent Schools Australia, the Association of Independent Schools of NSW and the Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan. He serves on the editorial board of the journals Aggressive Behavior, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, and the Journal of Psychologist and Counsellors in Schools, and on the Council of the International Society for Research on Aggression.
Event Details:
Registration: 5:15pm for a 5:30pm start
Public Lecture: 5:30–6:30pm
Reception: 6:30–7:30pm
Location: Room 206, Steele Building (3), UQ St Lucia
Enquiries: ea.education@uq.edu.au