Leona Pascoe is a Senior Research Officer with the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She holds honorary academic appointments at Monash University, the University of Melbourne, the Royal Women’s Hospital, and within Monash and Mercy Health.

Dr Pascoe has a special interest in working to improve the health and wellbeing of vulnerable children and families, and bridging the divide between the health and education sectors. Her current research is strongly embedded in school- and community-based research, with the goal of working more closely with teachers, parents and local communities to support and optimise children's mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Pascoe brings extensive clinical research experience having worked with children and families impacted by very preterm birth for over 15 years. She has led and coordinated randomised controlled trials and large, longitudinal observational studies, including the Victorian Infant Brain Studies, the IMPRINT trial, and the Victorian Infant Collaborative Study cohorts. Dr Pascoe is also the chief investigator of PremmieEd, a project focussed on understanding and building community capacity and capability in parents and teachers to better support the learning and development of children born preterm. This work was supported by a Veski Victoria Fellowship in 2022.

Dr Pascoe is currently a L.E.W. Carty Signature Grant Fellow working on a community-engaged research program aimed at developing solutions with local community to address current mental health and wellbeing challenges facing children and families. She is actively involved in and passionate about research supervision and mentoring, and believes in creating a safe, supportive and inspiring learning environment for those within her team.