Lee Martinez is the Mental Health Academic with the Department of Rural Health (DRH). Lee provides leadership in rural mental health through research, education and establishing partnerships with mental health service providers, Aboriginal health, consumers and carers. In her role Lee aims to increase the rural mental health workforce by working with government and non-government mental health service providers to establish placement opportunities for nursing and allied health students. Lee believes in equity of health outcomes for rural and remote consumers by engaging with innovative models of service delivery that work locally and improve access. 
Lee’s has worked as a rural health practitioner for the past 4 decades in areas of women’s health, Aboriginal health, youth health, aged care, acute care and more recently mental health as both a practitioner and service manager. Her current position allows her to bring lifelong learning experiences into the development of student placements, education programs and research.
Lee’s research interests range from integrated models of mental health service delivery, engaging with people who have a lived experience of mental illness in education program development and co facilitation, peer workforce and suicide prevention.
Lee currently holds positions on Country and Outback Health Board of Directors, Committee member on the Whyalla Suicide Prevention Network and Chair of the Primary Health Network Upper Eyre Local Health Cluster. In 2013 Lee was part of a team to receive the Chancellors award for Community Engagement category ‘Best Collaborations for enhancing the training of graduates for the professions’ and in 2006 she was nominated and awarded the Margaret Tobin Mental Health Award for Leadership and Innovation and the Margaret Tobin Mental Health Award; Aboriginal Award for excellence in the provision of Mental Health services for those most in need or at risk.
More recently Lee was announced as the 2017 Whyalla Enterprising Womens Business Woman of the Year.