Kerry Armstrong

Professor Kerry Armstrong serves as Director of the MAIC/UniSC Road Safety Research Collaboration at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. With over 20 years of specialized experience, she leads nationally and internationally recognized research initiatives in road safety evaluation and injury prevention, focusing on impaired driving, traffic enforcement, and fatigue management.

Her educational credentials include a Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology) with Honors, PhD from Queensland University of Technology, and Graduate Diploma in Clinical Hypnosis from the Australian Society of Hypnosis. Professional qualifications feature registration as a Psychologist with AHPRA and membership in the Australian Psychological Society and Australasian College of Road Safety.

Research interests center on multidisciplinary approaches to road safety, with emphasis on psychological factors in impaired driving (particularly substance-related), fatigue mechanisms, and gender-specific vulnerabilities in traffic injury prevention. Her work bridges clinical psychology with transportation policy development through rigorous empirical investigation.

Recent publications (2022-2024) demonstrate a strong trajectory examining cannabis use impacts on driving behavior, psychological dysfunction in substance-impaired drivers, and cross-cultural IPV analysis. This body of work reveals consistent integration of psychological assessment tools with road safety metrics across diverse populations.

Scientific recognition includes:

• QUT Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellowship (2016-2018)

Professor Armstrong has mentored and directed over 80 research teams since 2004, securing substantial project funding through strategic partnerships with government agencies and international organizations. Her leadership emphasizes collaborative solution-building involving multiple stakeholders in complex road safety initiatives.

As Director of the Road Safety Research Collaboration, she oversees a multidisciplinary team pursuing her vision of establishing Australia's premier impaired driving research center within the next decade, with current operations based at the Innovation Centre on UniSC's Sunshine Coast campus.