Carmel Cefai PhD (Lond), FBPS, studied education at the University of Malta, health psychology at the University of Stirling (UK) and educational psychology at the University of Wales (UK). His PhD at the Institute of Education, University of London, focused on schools as contexts for the promotion of resilience. He is founding Director at the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, and Professor (and former Head) at the Department of Psychology, Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta. He is Honorary Chair of the European Network for Social and Emotional Competence (ENSEC), joint founding editor of the International Journal of Emotional Education, and a member of the coordinating team of the European Commission Network of Experts on Social Aspects of Education and Training (NESET).
His research interests are focused on how to create healthy spaces which promote the resilience, wellbeing and psychological wellbeing of children and young people and mental health promotion in schools. He has led various local, national, European and international research projects in social and emotional learning, mental health in schools, and resilience and wellbeing in children and young people. These include ten EU funded projects (three as coordinator) and various national projects. He works in close collaboration with other partners in the area in various universities and agencies across the world. He has more than 100 publications, including peer reviewed journal papers, books, research reports and book chapters. One of these, RESCUR Surfing the Waves, A Resilience Curriculum for Early Years and Primary Schools (2015)has been translated in more than ten languages.
His recent publications may be found at www.um.edu.mt/cres/ourresearch/ourpublications/selectedstaffpublications