Dr. Stewart Vella is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at UOW, a Movember Foundation Men's Health Partner, and a recent National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow. 

Dr. Vella is a developmental sport psychologist with specific expertise in the relationships between sport participation and multiple indicators of health during childhood and adolescence. Using large and nationally representative datasets he has linked participation in organised sports during childhood and adolescence with increased levels of physical activity, enhanced social and emotional functioning, enhanced health-related quality of life, personality change, and protection against mental health problems. 

He is currently leading a national, multi-institution, multi-component, community-based project to promote mental health, prevent mental health problems, and target early intervention using organised sporting clubs. He has initiated and is actively leading research collaborations with the Australian Sports Commission, Cricket Australia, the Australian Football League (AFL), Football Federation Australia, Basketball Australia, Swimming Australia, Tennis Australia, the Black Dog Institute, the Australian Drug Foundation. Dr Vella has over $2.5 million in competitive grant funding as the lead researcher. He is currently Associate Editor at the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.

You can learn more about him and his work here and find him on Twitter @stewartvella.