Dr Mary-Anne Kate

Dr Mary-Anne Kate is an award-winning researcher and lecturer specialising in trauma, dissociation, and mental health. She has lectured in psychology at Southern Cross University since 2021, following two years teaching into the Master of Mental Health program, and will remain affiliated with the university in an adjunct role from 2026. She developed and led units on psychological assessment and diagnosis and supervised a dozen Honours students on dissociation-related projects between 2023 and 2025, including five projects focused on neurodiversity, trauma, and dissociation.

A social scientist by training, Dr Kate’s research examines the prevalence and aetiology of dissociation, lived-experience barriers to identification and protection, and intersections between dissociation, neurodiversity, and mental health conditions. She is lead author of the Dissociative and Somatic Disorders chapter in the Australasian Wiley textbooks Abnormal Psychology and Psychopathology, and created the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation – 60 item version (MID 60), a widely used measure of dissociative symptoms and disorders.

Dr Kate serves on the Scientific Committee of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), is secretary of the ISSTD Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Special Interest Group, and teaches in the ISSTD international training program. Her work has been recognised with the ISSTD Morton Prince and David Caul Awards and the University of New England Chancellor’s Doctoral Research Medal. Before academia, she worked in strategic policy roles, including a diplomatic posting in Cairo and a consultancy with a European think tank advising the European Commission on migration and social inclusion.