Dr Selina Fothergill
Selina is a registered supervisor psychologist and human factors expert obtaining her Bachelor of Psychological Science, Masters of Organisational Psychology and PhD at The University of Queensland in Brisbane. Selina’s research looked at the effect of workload on decision making in en-route air traffic control through a partnership between The University of Queensland and Airservices Australia.
After this, she worked at Airservices as a senior human factors specialist and later manager of the human factors & analysis team in both the Canberra and Brisbane offices. Selina completed the internal Airservices investigator training and contributed to human factors investigations.
She was then offered a job as principal human factors consultant at Queensland Rail and was manager of the traincrew diagnostics and support investigations team.
After this, Selina was offered a job at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) leading human performance but also acting in the of certificate team manager and the safety systems manager roles. Selina completed lead auditor training, cabin safety investigation training and an advanced diploma of management at CASA and was able to work on a range of regulatory investigations. 10 years at CASA also enabled Selina to work on significant CASA regulation development and ICAO guidance materials for human performance, non-technical skills, remotely-piloted aircraft systems and safety management. Selina also conducted surveillance activities, safety promotional work and training delivery.
She next joined the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as a transport safety investigator in the Melbourne office and working across all 3 modes of transport – rail, aviation and marine – and was able to participate in and lead investigations and research activities. During her time with the ATSB, Selina obtained a Graduate Certificate in Transport Safety Investigation at RMIT as part of the newly established ATSB-RMIT partnership.
Selina also conducts consultancy work and research and has held casual lecturing roles at The University of Queensland and RMIT University. Currently she is employed full-time as Associate Professor at RMIT University in the of aerospace engineering and aviation disciplines.
Her professional interests include emerging technologies, human-systems integration with complex socio-technical systems, personality psychology, workload and decision-making, investigations and system safety.