About Lea…

Order of Australia recipient, Lea Waters AM, PhD is a psychologist, researcher, professor, published author, internationally-celebrated keynote speaker and one of the world’s leading experts on Positive Education, Positive Organisations and Strength-Based Parenting and Teaching.

Positive Psychology Expert & Educator

Professor Waters is the Founding Director and Inaugural Gerry Higgins Chair in Positive Psychology at the Centre for Positive Psychology (now the Centre for Wellbeing Science), University of Melbourne where she has held an academic position for two and a half decades. Lea holds affiliate positions at Cambridge University and the University of Michigan and serves on the Scientific Board at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Lea is a Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association (2017-2019), serves on the Council of Happiness and Education for the World Happiness Council, is the Patron of Flourishing Education Japan and Ambassador for the Positive Education Schools Association. She is a registered psychologist (AHPRA) and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society.

Media Expert

Lea is committed to spreading the science of positive psychology as widely as possible and has been featured on Morning Dose (The CW, Dallas, TX, USA), Revolution School (ABC, Australia), Matter of Fact (ABC, Australia), Destination Happiness (Channel Nine, Australia), Today Extra (Channel Nine, Australia), National Nightly News (Channel Ten, Australia), The Project (TV3, New Zealand), The Café (NZTV, New Zealand), and Breakfast (NZTV, New Zealand). Lea has written for The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, The Atlantic, and The Guardian, and her work is featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Toronto Globe, Huffington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Vogue, ELLE Magazine and more.

Speaker

Lea’s TEDx talk, Warning: Being positive is not for the faint hearted! explores how small positive steps can make a big impact on the wellbeing of ourselves and others, has been viewed more than 200,000 times. She has spoken to organisations, schools and parents all over the world, including to: Google, Target, Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, Positive Education Schools Association, the World Government Summit, Ridley College (Canada), The Shipley School (USA), Tecmilenio (Mexico), Discovery College (Hong Kong), Mayerson Academy (USA), Samuel Marsden Collegiate School (New Zealand), The Hill School (USA), and more.

Researcher & Author

As a researcher, Lea has published 110+ scientific articles and book chapters. Her book, The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish, was the top release on Amazon in the parenting category, was named one of the top reads by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and was listed in the Top Five Books on Happiness for Children in the UK’s Top Five site. It has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Russian, French, and Spanish.

Consultant

Lea is the founder of Visible Wellbeing, an initiative that brings the science of wellbeing and learning to schools. Visible Wellbeing is being used in schools across Australia, Asia, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and the United Arab Emirates. Her newest program, The Strength Switch, offers parents and educators free resources, online courses, and facilitated courses to better build the strengths of families across the globe. 

Accolades, Awards & Honors

In 2020, the Governor-General of Australia appointed Lea as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). This is one of the highest Civilian Awards in Australia and was given to Lea for her long-term work addressing youth mental illness in Australia and for her long-term leadership in education, youth mental illness, and positive psychology.

Professor Waters has been listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review and Westpac Bank and featured on the Marques ‘Who’s Who in the World’ and the Marques ‘Who's Who of Australian Women’ lists.

Lea was inducted as a Fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association and is the only Australian to be inducted (2015). She was named the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Educator of the Year (2004), received an Australian University Individual Teaching Excellence Award from the Prime Minister (2007), was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award by the Melbourne Graduate School of Education (2011) and received a team Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Government’s Office for Teaching and Learning (2013).