Deanna Francis

Dr. Deanna Francis is a child mental health researcher with expertise in understanding the association between learning difficulties and mental health problems – particularly reading difficulties and anxiety - for children and young people. Dr Francis was awarded her PhD in 2020 and holds a Master of Clinical Neuropsychology, Master of Research, and Bachelor of Psychology (Honours). Her research focuses on developing and evaluating interventions to support children’s mental health, and she is particularly interested in developing accessible interventions to support children who need it most. 

Deanna is a senior postdoctoral research fellow at the Black Dog Institute and University of New South Wales and a member of the Child Mental Health Team where her program of research focuses on developing accessible anxiety interventions for children with learning disabilities. Deanna is one of the only researchers globally with the unique combination of clinical and research expertise in the treatment of both anxiety and reading difficulties.   

Deanna is also a clinical neuropsychology registrar working in her self-managed solo private practice. Deanna provides comprehensive assessments to children and young people with concerns relating to learning, attention, intellect, and autism. As part of her clinical and research interests, Deanna is an Executive Committee member of the Australian Paediatric Neuropsychology Research Network, and co-chair of the Student and Early Career Researcher Interest Group.