Researcher biography

Dr Matthew Sanders is the Foundation Professor of Parenting Studies and Family Psychology, Strategic Advisor to the Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre and Founder of the Triple P Positive Parenting Program at The University of Queensland. Professor Sanders received his PhD in 1981 and has been at The University of Queensland since 1979. Between 1996-2023, he served as Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre (PFSC).He has been an consulting Professor at The University of Manchester, a visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina, and has held adjunct Professorships at Glasgow Caledonian University and The University of Auckland. As the founder of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program, Professor Sanders is considered a world leader in the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of population based approaches to parenting and family interventions. Triple P is currently in use in 35 countries worldwide. Professor Sanders' work has been widely recognised by his peers as reflected a number of prestigious awards. In 2007, he received the Australian Psychological Society's President's Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology and in 2004 he received an International Collaborative Prevention Science award from the Society for Prevention Research in the US. In 2007 he received a Trailblazers Award from the Parenting and Families Special Interest Group in the Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Therapy and in 2008 was became a fellow of the New Zealand Psychological Society. Professor Sanders has also won a Distinguished Career Award from the Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, was named Honorary President of the Canadian Psychological Association (2009), and Queenslander of the Year (2007). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Psychological Society, the New Zealand Psychological Society and the Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. He received a Queensland Greats Award from the Queensland Government in 2018.