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Dr Hayley Thomas is a General Practitioner who works clinically on the north side of Brisbane, and academically as a clinical senior lecturer with the General Practice Clinical Unit. She is currently the academic co-coordinator for the General Practice course in the MD program. Hayley's research interests include whole person care and the GP-Patient relationship.

Dr George Thomas is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Health and Wellbeing Centre for Research Innovation at the University of Queensland and a member of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child. George has a PhD in behavioural sciences and his research has focused on better understanding digital technology use among children and how such engagement impacts on their health, wellbeing, and development. He has worked in public health and behavioural sciences for over 10 years, starting with a government taskforce on Weight Management, providing healthy lifestyle programs for school children and families. He has taught research methods and public health to undergraduate paramedic and sport and exercise science students and received excellent student ratings. He has supervised over 25 student research projects. George is a passionate advocate for the promotion of healthy behaviours and is committed to translating evidence into community settings.

A/Prof Sarah Wallace is a two-time NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (2020-24; 2025-29) and Certified Practising Speech Pathologist. Her research interests include communication disability in ageing and enabling and measuring meaningful change in post-stroke (language/communication impairment following stroke) aphasia. Sarah uses qualitative and participatory methods to understand the lived experience of communication disability. She works in partnership with people with lived experience, clinicians and community members to co-produce interventions, systems and standards that improve quality of care and outcomes.

Sarah's research themes include: (a) Design and implementation of a national audit system to drive quality improvement in post-stroke aphasia services; (b) Development and implementation of methodological standards to improve aphasia research quality and reduce research wastage; (c) Development of technology-enhanced interventions to support self-management, promote equitable access to information and services, and empower people with aphasia; (d) Development of fit-for-purpose training and resources for aged care workers to help older Australians have better conversations about aged care.

Sarah leads the Lived Experience Lab (LexLab), the Qualitative Collective, and the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Communication Research and Engagement Theme (CommRET). She is a UQ Research Integrity Advisor. Sarah leads four current MRFF-funded projects:

• Bridging the Digital Divide: Building Health Self-Efficacy through Communication-Accessible Online Environments

• Unspoken, Unheard, Unmet: Improving Access to Preventative Health Care through Better Conversations about Care

• The Right Treatment for the Right Person at the Right Time. Driving High-Value Aphasia Care through Meaningful Health System Monitoring

• Measuring, Monitoring, and Motivating Adherence to Self-Managed Aphasia Treatment

Professor James Ward is a Pitjantjatjara and Narungga man, and a national leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research. He is currently the Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Queensland. As such he leads a research program focused on urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and an infectious diseases research program and associated issues. Having held various roles in Aboriginal public health policy for both government and non-government organisations, in 2007 he was appointed as the Inaugural Program Head of the Aboriginal Program at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales. In 2012 he moved to Alice Springs to become Deputy Director of the Baker Institutes' Aboriginal Health Program, after which he joined the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. James has been awarded funding applications totalling $23M since 2013; including $7.14M as CIA on NHMRC funded grants and has authored 160 publications. He has led national research projects on health services research http://cre-ash.org.au/participating-sites/clinical-hubs/; in health promotion www.youngdeadlyfree.org.au; and methamphetamines https://wecandothis.com.au/ to name a few.

His work has influenced policy and practice significantly contributing to national guidelines, policy and practice. During 2020 he has contributed to the national COVID—19 response nationally through membership of the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Taskforce.

Yanfei has a discipline background as a physiotherapist. She completed her PhD at The University of Queensland in October 2021. Her PhD involved ultrasound shear wave elastography, quantitative sensory testing, and physical and psychological measures to uncover potential biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying work-related neck pain and disability in a high-risk occupation group. After her PhD, she was awarded a competitive UQ postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research related to musculoskeletal pain and injury at RECOVER Injury Research Centre. Her current research focuses on uncovering the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying musculoskeletal pain and injury, developing, and implementing effective and tailored pain treatments. She also has interests in occupational health and health equity. She has a broad range of research skills applicable across methodologies, including randomized controlled trials, case-control, and longitudinal study designs, systematic and scoping reviews, and meta-analysis. Yanfei has presented her work at national and international conferences and received several presentation awards.

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently hold positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

My research program aims to improve nutrition care in Australian hospitals to prevent avoidable hospital-acquired complications and optimise patient outcomes, particularly for older inpatients. My research program consists of extensive observational research to establish the size and impact of the problem, qualitative research to understand patient, caregiver and staff perspectives and opportunities, and pragmatic implementation research to test, compare and evaluate different models of nutrition care in practice. Through my research, I am to improve care of people accessing health services across the continuum of care, with a particular interest in frailty, preventing delirium and functional decline, and person-centred care.

My research has been of interest nationally and internationally, receiving Research in Practice awards at national Dietitians Australia conferences, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. My leadership and contribution to the dietetics profession was recently recognised through receiving the prestigious Barbara Chester Memorial Award.

I have an interest and developing expertise in consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and I am regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. I am proud of work I co-led with a health consumer to develop a co-design framework in Metro North Health. This framework is freely available online for anyone to use: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

I am an implementation scientist and have facilitated workshops on this topic at UQ, QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. I was part of the team that developed the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice.

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, I have supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (5 of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 4 early career research fellows and nearly 40 dietetics research honours students.