Associate Professor Courtney Ryder is a distinguished Aboriginal ECR injury epidemiologist and Matthew Flinders Fellow at Flinders University. She serves as the Discipline Lead for Injury Studies in the College of Medicine and Public Health. Her research focuses on Indigenous Data sovereignty and knowledge interface methodology to address health inequities among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations. She has received numerous accolades, including the 2023 NHMRC Investigator grant for her innovative work in transforming injury outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Courtney Ryder’s academic journey began with a double degree in Biomedical Engineering and Science from Flinders University, followed by a PhD from UNSW. Her career is marked by significant contributions to public health, particularly in the areas of injury and trauma, and she is recognized for her leadership in transforming student learning and public health education.

Doctor Rebecca Amery is a lecturer and clinical education coordinator in speech pathology at Charles Darwin University. She completed her PhD in 2023, focusing on the collaborative development of aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems with Yolŋu families living with Machado-Joseph disease. Dr. Amery has a diverse background, holding a Graduate Certificate in Yolŋu Studies from Charles Darwin University and a Bachelor of Speech Pathology from the University of Newcastle. She has extensive experience working as a speech pathologist with people who have complex communication needs, both in Australia and internationally, including in Vietnam and Indonesia. Her research and clinical interests include intercultural and culturally responsive speech pathology, communication access, and AAC1. Dr. Amery’s work is particularly focused on improving communication opportunities for Aboriginal Australians through the development of bilingual AAC systems.

Doctor Sarah Milne is a distinguished physiotherapist and researcher. She is currently the Coordinator of the Friedreich Ataxia Clinic and a Research Officer at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Additionally, she serves as the Clinical Research Lead for Physiotherapy at Monash Health Dr. Milne completed her PhD in 2018, focusing on rehabilitation and the measurement of gait and balance in individuals with Friedreich Ataxia. Her research interests include the efficacy of rehabilitation for hereditary cerebellar ataxia and the development of specialized services for people with functional neurological disorders.

David Szmulewicz is a neurologist, neuro-otologist and translational researcher interested in diseases that interfere with normal human movement, which include the cerebellar ataxias. He is the founding head of the Balance Disorders & Ataxia Service (BDAS) at the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital and neurologist to the Machado-Joseph Disease Foundation Ataxia Clinic, and the Monash Health Friedreich Ataxia clinic.  David’s research interests include the discovery of novel disease phenotypes and gene discovery e.g. Cerebellar Ataxia with Neuropathy and Vestibular Areflexia Syndrome (CANVAS), Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 27B (SCA27B) and idiopathic Cerebellar Ataxia with Bilateral Vestibulopathy (iCABV), and the development of instrumented human movement metrics including the Ataxia Instrumented Measure (AIM) system and the development objective oculomotor tests. David is also the founding co-director of the Cerebellar Ataxia Registry (CARe) and the Cerebellar Ataxia Research Network of Australia (CARNA), as well as the Australian representative of the Ataxia Global initiative (AGI), whose aims include the establishment of an international database to cater for large scale natural history studies and treatment trial ‘readiness’.