Sarah Chapman Trim

Senior Research Fellow Centre for Army Leadership

After commencing her career as an academic and a statistical consultant, Sarah Chapman Trim became a deep specialist, keynote speaker and published author of over twenty articles and book chapters on the science of human behaviour, leadership and culture change in the military.

For over two decades Sarah has worked alongside and led a diverse and challenging stakeholder network within the Australian and British Armed Forces, strategic partners and allies, successfully influencing and working collaboratively with senior leaders to deliver long-term strategic change in personnel policy, leadership, gender integration, organisational culture and performance.

As a Military Psychologist her specialisation is performance optimisation of individuals and teams in Isolated, Confined and Extreme (ICE) environments, where she has focused on resilience, fatigue management, decision-making and individual differences. Sarah led and authored the review of the integration of women into the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) submarine service for the Chief of Navy and the Australian Parliament, the first dedicated Submarine Psychologist to serve in uniform in any naval force in the world. She also served as Maritime Task Group Psychologist during Gulf War II, the first Navy Psychologist to deploy to a theatre of operations and be appointed sub-unit Command, responsible for critical incident and mental health support for 600 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel and allies serving in the maritime and littoral environment. Her post-deployment report to Maritime Commander Australia and the Australian Parliament transformed conversations, training and support for the provision of mental health services to deployed personnel and was the genesis of a more comprehensive, ‘whole spectrum’ system of mental health support for serving personnel, veterans and civilians who are first responders or involved in managing national crises and emergencies.

A former Non-Executive Director within Standing Joint Forces Command, she is currently a part-time Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Army Leadership where she has recently published a paper on the role of social identity in creating engaged followership. As Head of Culture within UK Strategic Command she writes, consults and delivers workshops and presentations on leadership, decision making and the science of teamwork across all ranks within the UK Ministry of Defence.