Professor Ioni Lewis

Deputy Director, Professor and Chair of Road Transport Psychology

PhD (Queensland University of Technology), Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) (Queensland University of Technology)

Brief Biography Professor Ioni Lewis has extensive expertise in road safety and traffic psychology research, having commenced working in the field back in 2002 when undertaking her Honours project at the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q), Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Currently, she is Deputy Director and Chair a the MAIC-QUT Road Safety Research Collaboration. Ioni’s expertise is in the development and evaluation of road safety public education and advertising campaigns, drawing upon social psychological perspectives. She has led the development of an innovative conceptual framework, The Step approach to Message Design and Testing (SatMDT) which she has applied in relation to the development and evaluation of road safety campaigns addressing high risk behaviours. In 2016, the Hand in Hand: Let’s Go Places child pedestrian campaign was awarded the Excellence in Evaluation Award at the International Safety Media Awards in Tampere, Finland. Ioni has an extensive publication record comprising peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed full papers and abstracts for conferences, as well as reports for Government and Industry (see https://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Lewis,_Ioni.html). She has been the Guest Editor of a special journal issue on “Communication, Media, and Road Safety Messages” within the Australasian College of Road Safety’s Journal.   Ioni has received invitations to present at international and national forums. In 2015, she was invited to the Public Policy Center, University of Iowa, USA to consult on the development and evaluation of a large-scale National Driver Safety Education Campaign funded by the National Safety Council. In 2014, she was invited to present at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia on health communications for road safety and injury prevention. Ioni was the developer and Chair of the Organising Committee for the inaugural Australasian Symposium of Health Communication, Advertising and Marketing (Health CAM) in 2014. The Symposium, the only one of its kind to be dedicated to Health Communications in Australasia, featured international and national experts as keynotes and invited guest presenters. Ioni was also Chair of the Scientific Committee of the (inaugural) 2015 Australasian Road Safety Conference – the largest and premiere transport and road safety related conference in Australasia. Ioni was also Chair of the Organising Committee for the 2018 HealthCAM. After completing her PhD on “Factors which influence the Effectiveness of Advertising Countermeasures in Road Safety”, Ioni was awarded a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship as part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project, working with the Transport Accident Commission. This project sought to develop and evaluate a range of anti-speeding advertising messages with a particular focus on designing messages to influence young males as high-risk road users. Ioni has been involved in various research projects undertaken via competitive funding (from external or internal grant schemes) as well as a range of tenders/commissioned research projects for key stakeholders including, for example, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. These projects regularly call upon her expertise regarding message content development, message evaluation, and/or evaluation methods. Ioni has expertise in mixed methods research methods, including both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Key Research Areas

• Road safety advertising
• Role of emotion (e.g., fear) in persuasion
• Message design and evaluation (and evaluation methodologies including self-report and objective measures of persuasive processing and outcomes)
• Health communication, persuasion, attitude-behaviour relations, and health behaviour change
• Public education strategies
• Factors which influence road users’ engagement in high risk behaviours

Projects

• Addressing significant product safety knowledge gaps for older Australian
• Amplifying the voice of young Australians in road safety
• An innovative web-based education initiative to reduce young drivers’ smartphone use: The Induced Hypocrisy paradigm
• Appealing to our humanity: Designing and evaluating messages encouraging prosocial driving behaviours to enhance road safety
• Enhancing Road Safety: Developing and Testing VRU Activated Monitoring and Alert System
• Evaluation Frameworks for the RACQ Road Safety Education Programs – Docudrama, Docudrama Virtual, Distraction, Driver IQ and Streets Ahead
• Examining young adults’ attitudes and intentions towards smartphone use while driving
• Nudging for change: Design and evaluation of roadside messaging to encourage safer road user behaviours
• Outcome evaluation of the PCYC’s ‘Braking the Cycle’ Learner Driver Mentor Program
• Review and best practice recommendations on road safety behaviour change campaign development and evaluation
• Review of deterrence theory and enforcement case studies
• Talking Tailgating: Community conversations about what tailgating is and how to remedy it
• Traffic Safety Culture
• Youth Road Safety Programs and relevant research