Professor Carolyn Sue, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, is an internationally recognised clinician-scientist, a leader in Parkinson’s and mitochondrial disease and a medicine alum of UNSW who trained at Prince of Wales Hospital and at Columbia University in the United States.

Professor Sue was the head of the Departments of Neurogenetics and Neurology at Northern Sydney Local Health District and she also holds leadership roles at Movement Disorder Society of Australia and New Zealand, International Parkinson’s disease and Movement Disorder Society.

Melissa is a clinician, educator, author, entrepreneur and thought leader. Recognised as a Specialist Neurological Physiotherapist in 2010 by the Australian College of Physiotherapists, she holds this title as one of only 8 in Australia. Academically, she also holds a Master of Health Science (Neurological Physiotherapy) and Grad. Certificate in Public Health. Melissa has been very active in the Australian Physiotherapy Association and currently sits on the NSW Branch Council as well as the Executive Committee of the International Neurological Physical Therapy Association (INPA) for the World Confederation for Physical Therapy. She was awarded Australian Physiotherapist of the year in 2019 and Small Business Champions Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020.

Colleen Kerr has worked as a Speech Pathologist for forty years with extensive experience in adult communication and swallowing disorders in acute, rehabilitation and community settings. Her interests include Traumatic Brain Injury, Stroke, Parkinson’s Disease and Voice Disorders. Colleen is a registered SPEAK OUT! © Provider and was the first to bring this treatment approach to NSW. She has additional certification in a range of interventions for voice clients. She has worked as a Lifetime Care and Support Dispute Assessor in Traumatic Brain Injury, and has published internationally in this field. She is a clinical affiliate of both the CCRE Aphasia and Moving Head CRE Brain Injury.

Colleen has provided medicolegal expert opinion for clients with Traumatic Brain Injury in addition to assisting with legal representation of clients with aphasia.

Colleen has been Director of Optimal Speech Pathology for more than twenty years and is driven to integrate research findings into clinical practice. She is enormously proud of the Optimal SP Team and is committed to providing innovative and evidence driven interventions for Optimal SP clients. In recent years Colleen has worked alongside international research and clinical communities, and in 2025 her team will launch new therapies for management of dysphagia and conversational participation for Australians living with PD.

Dr. Richard Gordon leads a multi-disciplinary, industry-partnered research program in Translational Neuroscience which integrates immunology, drug development, pharmacology, metabolomics and microbial metagenomics. His group aims to understand and therapeutically target key pathological mechanisms which drive the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Dr. Gordon’s research has contributed to ground-breaking advances in the field of neuroinflammation and Parkinson’s disease, including discovery of a novel signalling paradigm for prokineticin signalling during neurodegeneration, and inflammasome activation as a driver of synuclein pathology and disease progression in PD.

Dr James Peters is an Australian-based health professional. James is trained as a Neurologist (Brain Specialist). He is a Neurologist and Movement Disorders Fellow at St Vincent’s Health Campus Sydney. Dr Peters was the recipient of the Brain Foundation 2023 research grant award for Bilateral MRI guided focused ultrasound for tremor.

Dr Paulo Pelicioni has a background in physiotherapy and conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of neurorehabilitation, human movement sciences and neuroscience, focused on preventing falls in people with Parkinson’s. Paulo’s current focus is on examining ways to increase access to care for people living with Parkinson’s, with a focus on underrepresented populations. Paulo also teaches neurological clinical practice at UNSW, and is a support group coordinator for Parkinson’s NSW and a member of the Parkinson’s NSW research advisory group.

Professor Glenda Halliday, Senior Principal Research Fellow (Honorary) is an Australian Professor of neuroscience leading researchers tackling non-Alzheimers neurodegeneration that stems from her work on frontotemporal and motor neurodegenerative syndromes, and Parkinsons disease.

Prof Halliday has shaped international standards for the neuropathological diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Lewy body diseases and frontotemporal dementias, changing the way clinicians diagnose these disorders.

Rachael trained at Royal North Shore and has more than 30 years of nursing experience across clinical nurse education, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Urology, Ophthalmology, and Cardiac Angioplasty.

She has worked in the UK and New Zealand in addition to Australia. Rachael is a member of the Australian Neurological Nurses Association, NSW Nurses Association, and the Movement Disorder Society both the ANZ and International chapters

Rachael is currently working at NeuRA (Neuroscience Research Australia) following her clinical nurse consultant position co-funded by the Mid North Coast Local Health District and Parkinson’s NSW.

Dr Martin Ostrowski is an accomplished Marine scientist with over 20 years of experience working in the Tertiary Education sector. He is also Chief Science Officer of the Walking Tall research group, established to develop the Walking Tall mobile phone-based application. It is a gait re-training tool which allows people living with Parkinson’s to set their own training time and pace before delivering a rhythmic metronomic beat designed to trigger movement. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017 and has a long family history with the disease.  He has first-hand experience of the positive impact that education and integrated care can have on the long-term outcomes for people living with Parkinson’s and their families. Dr Ostrowski is a current board member at Parkinson’s NSW.

Emma Tinkler regularly shares her experience of living with both MS and Parkinson’s, the challenges of misdiagnosis, and the mind and body based interventions she has found helpful.

“Learning to live with PD and MS is like trying to tame a beast. It has its ups and downs and is constantly changing. Mentally you have to be extremely resilient and strong. You also have to make friends with the beast – because ultimately it is part of you. “