Dr Violette McGaw
Early Career Research Award

Award type: Science

Dr Violette McGaw is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist, lecturer, and researcher with the School of Educational Psychology and Counselling at Monash University.

Co-authoring multiple peer-reviewed publications, her work has been cited more than 200 times, and focuses on intergenerational trauma, veteran and first responder families, systemic disadvantage, and complex family systems. 

Dr McGaw completed her PhD in 2021, exploring the lived experiences of veteran families affected by posttraumatic stress disorder, including impacts on parenting, wellbeing, and identity.

She was invited to present her findings to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide, and at the International Conference of the Parental and Family Mental Health Worldwide in Prato, Italy. Joining Monash in 2024, her research also includes a focus on children in out-of-home care, young people with lived experience of parental mental illness, and trauma-informed pedagogy.

She co-leads the Trauma-Informed Education and Research (TIER) Impact Lab at Monash University and is a co-chief investigator of a national evaluation of a government funded trauma recovery program for victim-survivors of family, domestic, and sexual violence.

Dr McGaw is establishing herself as an emerging leader in the area of intergenerational trauma, with a deep commitment to trauma-informed, participatory, and socially responsive research.