Nicola C. Newton

Prof. Nicola Newton is the Director of Prevention at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Career Newton's work in the field of school-based prevention programs includes the development of the first effective web-based programs to prevent substance use as well as her exploration on expanding such programs to include student as well as parenting components.

In 2018, Newton launched an eHealth program along with Prof. Maree Teesson, Dr Katrina Champion and colleagues at the University of New South Wales to target the six main lifestyle risk factors among young people, including binge eating and unhealthy eating, to help prevent chronic disease.

Newton is co-lead of the OurFutures Vaping program which has a demand-reduction approach to prevent e-cigarette use in young people. The OurFutures Vaping program aims to use a harm-minimisation and social influence approach to empower young people to avoid vaping. In 2024, The Hon Mark Butler MP (Minister for Health and Ageing, Australian Government) announced that Australia's first evidence-based vaping prevention program (OurFutures Vaping) is to be rolled out as part of a national program for year 7 and 8 students in more than 3,000 schools across Australia. The Mental Health Services Learning Network of Australia and New Zealand, Mental Health Promotion/Mental Illness Prevention Service Award 2021 for ‘Climate Schools: health and wellbeing programs’ (team award; lead)

Publications