Pat Dudgeon is from the Bardi people in Western Australia. She is a psychologist and professor at the Poche Centre for Aboriginal Health and the School of Indigenous Studies at UWA. Her areas of research include Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing and suicide prevention. She is/was a member on many boards and committees such as on the National Suicide Prevention Office Advisory Board, the NACCHO Culture, Care, Connect Advisory Group – National, Regional and Local Suicide Prevention and Aftercare Networks, of Gayaa Dhuwi Proud Spirit Australia, of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association (AIPA)and the Australians for Mental Health. She was also a national Mental Health Commissioner for 5 years.

She is the director of the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention at UWA. She is also the lead chief investigator of a national research project, Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing. She has many publications in Indigenous mental health that have significant impact such as the Working Together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principals and Practice 2014 and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project Report – What the Evidence and Our People Tell Us 2016.

Her areas of research include decolonizing psychology, Indigenous suicide prevention and developing Indigenous paradigms in mental health such as social and emotional wellbeing.