A member of the Gitxsan First Nation, Cindy is honoured to serve as the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University’s School of Social Work. She has over 30 years of experience working in child welfare and Indigenous children’s rights and has published on topics relating to reconciliation, Indigenous theory, First Nations child welfare and human rights. A recipient of the SSHRC Gold Medal, Cindy was honoured to work with First Nations colleagues on a successful human rights challenge to Canada’s inequitable provision of child and family services and failure to implement Jordan’s Principle. 

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Michael Ungar, Ph.D., is a Family Therapist and Professor of Social Work at Dalhousie University where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience. His research on resilience around the world and across cultures has made him the number one ranked Social Work scholar in the world, with numerous educational institutions, government agencies, and not-for-profits relying on his research and clinical work to guide their approaches to nurturing child, family, organizational and community wellbeing under stress. 

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Heather is an Associate Professor in social work at Charles Sturt University, Australia. Heather’s research and teaching interests are focused on environmental social work and disaster practice. She is passionate about supporting students, practitioners, educators, and the profession to engage in matters relating to social and ecological wellbeing, global ecological injustice, and creating a healthy and biodiverse ecosystem for all. Heather is internationally and nationally recognised for her work and enjoys being involved in various innovative groups and community-based research projects. She specialises in qualitative research methodologies that promote participatory, emancipatory, and co-designed processes and outcomes.

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Professor Tom Calma AO FAA FASSA FAHA FANZSOG is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja and Woolwonga tribal groups in the NT and he lives on Ngunnawal country in Canberra. Graduating in social work and community development in 1978 he has a long and distinguished career in academia, public service bureaucracy, social justice and community development. 

He is the National Coordinator Tackling Indigenous Smoking (2010-present), a Professor at the University of Sydney (2015-present) and Patron of the five national Poche Centres for Indigenous Health (2010 to present). 

Julianne has over 45 years’ experience in health, community services, community development, policy and program development, and implementation and research. She is an Accredited Social Worker and is in the final stages of her PhD. Julianne received an OAM in 2017 for her research and community work in palliative and end-of-life care. Julianne is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.