Overview
The Psychology Week theme for 2026 is Psychology in action: how psychology changes lives, with a goal to shine a light on the difference psychologists make every day. When it comes to action, the organisational psychologists working with our military services see this close at hand.
We all understand that the military services operate somewhat differently to commercial organisations or other government entities. For example: employees often operate in high risk, low failure tolerant environments, there are multiple regulatory regimes that apply with a strong focus on ethics and public scrutiny through Royal Commissions and media attention can heighten the consequences of actions. Nevertheless, military psychologists support their clients with quite similar interventions as mainstream organisational psychologists: leadership development, team effectiveness, personnel selection, management of psychosocial risks to name a few. Therefore there will be something that we can all learn from the application of our speciality in this different context.
You will hear from four experienced professionals on our panel. Each has a different career story about how their involvement with their particular area links with their organisational psychology journey. Emily Douglass retrained as an Organisational Psychologist after serving in Army Logistics, Samantha Lam brought her organisational psychology and consulting experience to her role in the RAAF and now the Navy. Simon Pietch brings his past experience as a RAAF instructor pilot and his org psych training to support front line flying units while Monique Crane’s research background had been applied both in civilian defence roles and in her continuing work on military and other projects in her research on resilience. Cliff Morgan, will bring the conversation together for us, drawing on his own background with the RAAF and his ongoing consulting work with both military and business leaders. We will explore a wide range of perspectives and there will be the opportunity for questions.
Please join us for this panel event to highlight how organisational psychology changes lives in our military and beyond.
About the presenter(s)
Prof. Monique Crane is a Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, specialising in resilience, stress adaptation, and mental health in high-pressure occupational settings. She leads the Resilience Research and Training Systems team and is the Director of the Performance and Expertise Research Centre. Her research focuses on how individuals and organisations can support and maintain resilience, particularly within defence, emergency services, and other demanding workplaces.
Before joining academia, she worked in the Australian Department of Defence as a senior researcher and project manager in strategic and operational mental health. She is also deeply engaged in teaching and developing evidence-based programs that support wellbeing and performance across organisations.
Ms. Emily Douglass has over 25 years of military service, joining the Army straight from school, then training to become a logistics officer. After realising she was more interested in using her systems-based thinking to support workers, she retrained and is now an endorsed Org Psych.
In 2018 she deployed to the Middle East and used her psychology skills in places like Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Afghanistan and Jordan. She left full-time service in 2019 to run her own consultancy business and is a past COP QLD Chair. In her civilian work she predominantly facilitates training and conducts coaching. She has recently become a PhD student looking into ways to prevent vicarious trauma in military jobs where exposure is inherent to the role.
Ms. Samantha Lam is an organisational psychologist with more than 25 years’ experience across psychology, leadership and organisational consulting. Her consulting and corporate work includes leadership development, team effectiveness, assessment, coaching and organisational capability across a range of settings. In addition, Sam has 13 years’ experience as a psychologist in the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Australian Air Force. She is currently undertaking doctoral research examining leadership in military complex adaptive systems, focusing on how leadership occurs in operational teams under complex warfighting conditions. Her work brings together organisational psychology, consulting and military experience with contemporary leadership research to address practical challenges in leadership, teamwork and capability.
Mr. Clifford Morgan is an endorsed organisational psychologist and executive coach with over 15 years of service in the Royal Australian Air Force. During his tenure, he was instrumental in establishing the Air Force Leadership Coaching Program at RAAF Base Amberley, coaching military commanders and training personnel in effective leadership through coaching skills. After his military service, Clifford founded Lumian Consulting, where he assists senior leaders and their teams in achieving peak performance. He is passionate about exponential leadership, aiming to develop leaders who, in turn, cultivate leadership in others, creating layers of proactive and purpose driven leaders within organisations.
Mr. Simon Pietsch is a psychologist in private practice and a former Royal Australian Air Force instructor pilot. His psychological work spans sport, emergency medicine, police special operations, and paramedicine. Separately, within the RAAF, Simon currently serves as a High-Performance Program Manager and leadership coach supporting frontline flying units. In this capacity, he works with executive teams to codevelop and deliver leadership training, Crew Cohesion, Teaming and Values (CCTV) workshops, and senior leadership strategy for high performance teams; working with both individual operators and leadership teams to sustain and enhance operational performance. Through his external psychology consulting, Simon provides one-on-one psychology sessions focused on performance under pressure. He also consults to organisations on psychosocial hazard identification and risk mitigation, aligning workplace practices with contemporary safety frameworks.
Notes
Target Audience
This activity is aimed at all those who work in the organisational psychology field or with an interest in military psychology.
Please note:
- This is a Member Groups event. All communication will be sent to the registrants’ registered email address. This includes event reminders with details (such as the Zoom link) and any pre-event or post-event resources, if provided by the facilitators.
- A post-event email will be sent within two weeks of the event’s completion to each registrant’s registered email address. This email will include the CPD certificate, event-recording, and any additional resources shared during the session.
Duration of Access
This event will be recorded. The recording will be emailed to all registered within 2 weeks post event and available for viewing up to 90 days.
CPD
It is up to attendees to assess and determine how learning from this event aligns with the requirements of their learning plan. The providers accordingly do not make any representation that the event counts towards attendees’ CPD learning requirements. If an attendee determines themselves that the learning they complete aligns to their learning plan, then they can decide to count those hours towards their CPD requirements for the registration cycle.
The information in this presentation has been prepared in good faith and for educational purposes only. Therefore, the information is general in nature and should not be relied upon in the treatment of any condition and you should seek your own independent professional and/or legal advice concerning any specific issue. The APS accepts no responsibility for any errors, omissions or decisions relating to the information. The content should not be reproduced without permission or unless permitted by law.
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