Katrina Phillips

Dr. Katrina Phillips

Senior Lecturer, Psychology
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Details

  • College: School of Science,Engineering & Tech
  • Department: School of Science,Engineering & Tech
  • Campus: Hanoi Campus Vietnam
  • katrina.phillips@rmit.edu.vn

Open to

  • Collaborative projects
  • Career advice
  • Industry Projects
  • Join a web conference as a panellist or speaker
  • Masters Research or PhD student supervision
  • Media enquiries
  • Membership of an advisory committee
  • Mentoring (long-term)
  • Mentoring (short-term)
  • Teaching provision
  • Technical support

About

Originally from New Zealand, Katrina is a New Zealand Registered Psychologist and Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and has been in Vietnam since January 2024. She has worked as a clinician and researcher with children and adults with disabilities, including neurodivergent individuals (e.g. Autistic, ADHD, dyslexia), and individuals with intellectual disability, dementia, or brain injury. Her clinical and research work has focused on understanding how to support disabled persons and those who support them to remove barriers impacting quality of life. Most recently, this focus has found her supporting vocational/employment training, removal of barriers to internet use, and best resources for supported decision-making. Indeed, Katrina's partnership with local organisations lead to the creation of New Zealand's first training cafe for individuals with neurodivergence (e.g., Autism, Intellectual disabilities, and other neurodevelopmental disabilities). In addition to doing research in the community, she has worked teaching and mentoring students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has supervised Honors, Masters, PhD and Intern Psychologists. She has a passion for supporting neurodiverse students and for assessing the utility of evidence-based educational pedagogy.

Research fields

  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 5203 Clinical and health psychology
  • 3904 Specialist studies in education
  • 4203 Health services and systems
  • 390411 Special education and disability
  • 420318 People with disability
  • 390114 Vocational education and training curriculum and pedagogy
  • 3901 Curriculum and pedagogy

UN sustainable development goals

  • 10 Reduced Inequalities
  • 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • 17 Partnerships for the Goals
  • 4 Quality Education

Academic positions

  • Senior Lecturer
  • RMIT Vietnam
  • SSET
  • Hanoi, Vietnam
  • 15 Jan 2024 – Present
  • Programme director for Behavioural Psychology Programme
  • University of Auckland
  • Psychology
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2020 – 1 Jan 2024
  • Senior Lecturer
  • University of Auckland
  • Psychology
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2019 – 1 Jan 2024
  • Lecturer
  • University of Auckland
  • Psychology
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2016 – 1 Jan 2019
  • Professional Teaching Fellow
  • University of Auckland
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2011 – 1 Jan 2016
  • Senior Tutor
  • University of Auckland
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2008 – 1 Jan 2011

Non-academic positions

  • Clinical supervision
  • ABI Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service, Hōhepa Trust, Rosehill Special School, Sommerville Special School, Rescare Homes Trust, GoodDog Training, Northern Health Schools Te Awa Unit.
  • , New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2017 – Present
  • Consultant Psychologist
  • Te Roopu Taurima O Manukau Trust
  • , New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2014 – 1 Jan 2019
  • Senior Psychologist
  • Rescare Homes Trust
  • , New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2009 – 1 Jan 2022
  • Psychologist
  • Rescare Homes Trust
  • , New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2007 – 1 Jan 2009
  • Psychologist
  • Sommerville Special School
  • , New Zealand
  • 1 Jan 2007 – 1 Jan 2010

Teaching interests

Katrina's background in studying human behavior and using evidence-based practice underpins her teaching and supervision philosophy. She believes that everyone has the capacity to learn, but we need to ensure that we provide the right environment for the learning to occur. The right educational environment scaffolds students’ skills and provides them with multiple and varied opportunities to engage with the materials actively. She uses activities to facilitate scaffolding of skills and active student engagement, including graduated note fading, workbooks, response cards, quizzes, choral responding, equivalence-based instruction, and interteach. She believes that we must be clear in our expectations of students, ensure we are teaching both theoretical knowledge and transferable skills that will be valued by employers, and that we give clear and effective feedback. She has experience teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and has supervised Honors, Masters, PhD and Intern Psychologist. She is is always looking to implement and study new an innovative teaching strategies.

Research interests

Katrina believes that research must not only further the knowledge of the research area, but also be useful for the participants taking part in the research. Her research focused on working alongside children and adults who often struggle to learn with mainstream supports (e.g. autistic people, people with intellectual disabilities, brain injury, dementia, young people struggling in school and with dyslexia) and the people who support them. The research she creates is designed alongside the people involved, and the impact is assessed by their analysis of the experience alongside the more formal data analysis. Although she has a researched a variety of areas her current research interests fall into four areas.
1. Designing and assessing training programmes for disabled people to improve employment outcomes.
2, Reducing barriers to access for disabled people, especially in technology.
3. Improving staff and family training to ensure effective support for disabled people.
4. Co-design research with those who receive services to understand how we ensure we are providing culturally responsive behaviour support services for disabled people.

Initiatives and links