Professor Jayashri Kulkarni (AM)

Professor Jayashri KULKARNI MBBS MPM PhD FRANZCP FAHMS AM
Director, Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) Melbourne, Victoria AUSTRALIA

Jayashri Kulkarni (AM) was appointed Professor of Psychiatry at The Alfred and Monash University in 2002. She founded and directs a large psychiatric research group, the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc), which expanded from 25 personnel in 2002 to over 160 staff and students in 2017, covering seven different research streams, and conducting over 100 clinical trials.

Professor Kulkarni graduated from Monash Medical School in Melbourne Australia. She initially worked in emergency medicine and then decided to become a psychiatrist. She became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1989 and was awarded a PhD from Monash University in 1997 for her thesis Women and Psychosis. Professor Kulkarni became a Fellow of the prestigious Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2016.

She has won numerous awards and accolades for her work with mental health patients. Of note, Women’s Mental Health is Professor Kulkarni’s major area of interest and research. She is the current President of the International Association for Women’s Mental Health. In 2015, she founded the Australian Consortium for Women’s Mental Health. She has worked in the field of women’s mental health for 25 years and has improved the quality of care for women with mental illnesses by developing specific treatments that are tailored to suit women’s needs biologically, socially and psychologically. Her work has been published in many national and international peer-reviewed publications. To date, Professor Kulkarni has authored in excess of 200 papers, 23 book chapters and 40 other publications.

As a psychiatrist, Professor Kulkarni has extensive clinical experience in many broad areas of practice. She has also trained in many research areas including psychoneuroendocrinology, clinical trials, psychopharmacology and is currently working in the area of the neuroscience impacts of early life trauma.

Professor Kulkarni is a well-known public speaker and has a great deal of experience with the media. She has been a regular presenter on ABC radio and has contributed to many other talkback radio programs as well as appearing on television programs such as the Insight series on SBS, and ABC 7.30 report. She is also a highly sought-after presenter having been invited to deliver keynote addresses at many international meetings and conferences in Australia and around the world.