Prof Phillipa Hay

Professor Phillipa Hay is a Psychiatrist and leading international mental health researcher in the field of Eating Disorders. She is Foundation Chair of Mental Health at Western Sydney University (WSU) and Director for Mental Health Research for the South Western Sydney Local Health District. She spent her formative life and professional years in the Greater Wellington region of New Zealand- Te Upoko o Te Ika a Maui – where she conducted seminal research on bone loss in people with anorexia nervosa. She has been a Senior Investigator on all major randomised controlled trials of therapy for adults with anorexia nervosa in Australia and others in bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.

Phillipa has a unique body of work reporting the point prevalence of eating disorders and their burden in the Australian general population, the only representative population data on eating disorders in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  Her research has been translated, guided policy and practice, and is award winning. In 2015, Phillipa received the Lifetime Leadership Award from the ANZ Academy for Eating Disorders, and in 2020 the RANZCP Senior Research Award. She has also received three WSU Vice Chancellor Excellence Awards (2018, 2019, 2020) as a member of interdisciplinary teaching and research groups. She regularly supervises and conducts workshops in specific psychological therapies for people with eating disorders.