Mental health leader and women's advocate recognised with Queen's Birthday honour
Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, Director of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc)
More than 90 of our most notable alumni, staff, former staff and friends have been recognised in the annual Queen's Birthday Honours list, including a fierce advocate of women’s health who is also a migrant, mother and former marathon runner, Professor Jayashri Kulkarni AM, Director of the Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc).
A world-leading mental health researcher, Professor Kulkarni is now a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to medicine in the field of psychiatry.
Professor Kulkarni is among many notable staff, alumni, friends and supporters of Monash who have been recognised in the annual Queen’s Birthday Order of Australia Honours list, with all recipients mentioned below. We congratulate them and recognise the wonderful contributions they've made to society.
Professor Kulkarni’s world-first research on the relationship between women’s hormones and mental illness has led to new and improved treatments for conditions such as schizophrenia and depression.
Growing up in Melbourne as an Indian migrant in the 1960s, and studying medicine at Monash in the 1970s, when fewer than one in three students were female, helped instil the strong sense of empathy and social justice that inspired her work.
Professor Kulkarni’s late parents, Rangnath and Shashikala, arrived from Bijapur, southwest of Mumbai, in 1961 with three-year-old Jayashri and her baby brother Anand, now an economist and head of planning at Victoria University.
The White Australia Policy was still in force when they became only the second Indian family to migrate to Melbourne. Rangnath set up the CSIRO’s ozone research program, and Shashikala taught at a local high school.
“At this stage there were probably some people with Italian backgrounds and Greek backgrounds, but not very many Asian migrants at all,” Professor Kulkarni recalls.
“I was called Jane for a few months by this teacher, who said: ‘I can’t say your name, it’s too complicated.’ My mum came to pick me up and she spoke with the teacher, but in a very gentle way, taught her how to pronounce my name, and I was then called Jayashri.”
Working as a young registrar at the former Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital, Professor Kulkarni was drawn to the plight of mothers who had developed mental illness after giving birth.
“I got to meet women who had been institutionalised for a long time, and they told me about the fact that they had children,” she says. “The psychosis had happened post-partum and it hadn’t improved.”
This led to a distinguished career investigating the relationship between hormones at varying life stages and women’s mental illness. World-first oestrogen treatments for psychosis and other mental health conditions have been developed from this research, which began in the late 1980s.
MAPrc now has more than 100 staff and conducts world-leading research on women’s mental health, neuropsychiatric technology, psychopharmacology, psychiatric services and cognitive psychiatry.
“There’s a better understanding of mental ill health, but I think what we need … is more effective treatment without adverse effects,” Professor Kulkarni says. “The better your treatments are, the easier the stigma is to dispel.”
Professor Kulkarni, who has two adult daughters with her neurologist husband, Associate Professor Ernie Butler, and has run four full and five half-marathons, insists her work is a team effort. “It’s not just about my work; it’s about a number of research programs that the staff here are undertaking,” she says.
“When you make even a little difference in somebody’s life … and just improve the quality of their life just a tiny bit, it's so satisfying. It also spurs you on to think, ‘What’s next’?
“It’s always about not ‘settling’. If a person is able to get a bit better, but still not well, that doesn’t mean that you stop. You then try to find the next thing that you can do.”
To view the full Queen’s Birthday 2019 Honours list, visit the website at: https://www.gg.gov.au/australian-honours-and-awards/australian-honours-lists
Monash University recipients of the Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia include:
Mr Nicholas Cowdery AO QC
Mrs Alison Harcourt AO
Dr Megan-Jane Johnstone AO
Professor Fiona Judd AO
Professor Christina Mitchell AO
Dr Geoffrey Raby AO
Professor Linda Richards AO
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff AO
Dr Carol Schwartz AO
Professor Mark Von Itzstein AO
Monash University recipients of the Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia include:
Mrs Eliza Ault-Connell AM
Dr Christine Ball AM
Mr Clive Blazey AM
Mr Joseph Borensztajn AM
Associate Professor Tony Buzzard AM
Professor Mary Chiarella AM
Ms Sophie Cunningham AM
Professor Kevin Davis AM
Ms Noeleen Dix AM
Mr John Etherington AM
Dr Josephine Flood AM
Professor Lynn Gillam AM
Professor Lindsay Grayson AM
Professor Michael Grigg AM
Mr Grant Hill AM
Professor Stuart Hooper AM
Professor Geoffrey Isbister AM
Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Jacobs AM
Mr Elias Jreissati AM
Professor Jayashri Kulkarni AM
Adjunct Professor Gilah Leder AM
Dr Andrew Lemon AM
Mr David Li AM
Mr Alastair McEwin AM
Associate Professor Michael Murray AM
Mrs Maggie Niall AM
Mrs Ingrid Ozols AM
Ms Sue Peden AM
Professor Michael Reade AM
Dr Joe Reich AM
Ms Cathie Reid AM
Professor Kerry Reid-Searl AM
Professor Gregory Reinhardt AM
Dr Lindy Roberts AM
Mr Garry Sebo AM
Professor Malcolm Sim AM
Professor Rob Skinner AM
Dr Richard Stark AM
Dr Paul Steinfort AM
Dr David Thurin AM
Dr Mark Toner AM
Dr Susan White AM
Dr Di Winkler AM
Monash University recipients of the Member (AM) in the Military Division of the Order of Australia include:
Royal Australian Navy
Rear Admiral The Honourable Justice Michael Slattery AM
Australian Army
Major General Jake Ellwood DSC AM
Monash University recipients of the Medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division include:
Mr Ernest Bentley OAM
Mrs Vivien Brass OAM
Ms Anna Brown OAM
Professor Christine Brown OAM
Mrs Barbara Campbell-Allen OAM
Ms Lella Cariddi OAM
Dr Fiona Cochrane OAM
Dr Chris Cunneen OAM
Dr Janice Davies OAM
Dr George Deutsch OAM
Dr Malcolm Dobbin OAM
Dr Robert Gillies OAM
Dr Sylwia Greda-Bogusz OAM
Mr Alain Grossbard OAM
Mr Les Kausman OAM
Mr Myles King OAM
Mr Richard Leder OAM
Ms Joanne Lee Dow OAM
Ms Amanda Martin OAM
Dr David McDonald OAM
Ms Kristy McKellar OAM
Ms Anna Moo OAM
Dr Mary Moran OAM
Mr David Morgan OAM
Mr Clem Newton-Brown OAM
Mr Greg O'Neill OAM
Mr Bill Papastergiadis OAM
Mr Malcolm Parks OAM
Associate Professor Georgia Paxton OAM
Ms Rhonda Renwick OAM
Mr Kenneth Rowe OAM PSM
Mr Garry Runge OAM
Mrs Ruth Scheuer OAM
Mr Peter Sheppard OAM
Mr William Sparks OAM
Dr Deborah Towns OAM
Monash University recipients of the Public Service Medal (PSM) include:
Ms Michelle Lauder PSM
Mr Peter Menkhorst PSM
Monash University recipients of the Australian Police Medal (APM) include:
Detective Senior Sergeant Andrew Gustke APM
Monash University recipients of the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) include:
Mr Martin Braid AFSM