Dr. Claire Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in the School of Justice, Faculty of Law at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane Australia. Claire’s work seeks to bridge the gap between academic research and forensic case work in complex death investigations. While she has published over 40 academic articles in many traditional journals, she also uses the research to inform training and expert consultancy for assisting police, attorneys, and Coroners investigating missing persons, equivocal deaths, and suspected homicides.

Dr Jillann Farmer commenced as the Deputy Director-General of Clinical Excellence Queensland in June 2020, returning to Queensland Health after employment as the Medical Director of the United Nations, based at the headquarters in New York for 8 years. During tenure in this role, she was responsible for the health, safety and wellbeing of all UN personnel deployed throughout the world and was also responsible for the standards in healthcare facilities operating under UN the UN flag.

Prior to serving in the UN, she was the Medical Director of the Patient Safety Centre in Queensland Health, and the inaugural Director of the Clinician Performance Support Service.

In her earlier career, Jillann worked as a GP, and also for the Medical Board of Queensland, building the Health Assessment and Monitoring Program for management of registrants with illnesses that impact on their ability to practice. She has been a Director of Medical Services at a mid-size acute Hospital, and a Senior Medical Officer Emergency Medicine. She holds fellowships of both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.

My clinical role has been a Paediatric Intensive Care Specialist for more than 30 years.  Other positions include national examiner for two Australasian colleges – Intensive Care and Physicians (Paediatrics).  I have an interest in population health and epidemiology, and hold a Master’s in Public Health degree, and my current research focus is Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI).  I have chaired the Queensland Paediatric Quality Council since 2012 and the Council is investigating SUDI, as well as lessons learned from adverse events in hospitalised children.   

Michael Buckland is a senior staff specialist and Head of the Department of Neuropathology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He is also a Clinical Associate Professor in Pathology at the University of Sydney. A/Prof Buckland provides diagnostic neuropathology expertise to all three NSW forensic centres, operates the state CJD reference laboratory, and has busy ‘second opinion’ service for brain biopsy diagnostics.  A/Prof Buckland also has a strong research interest in the cellular and molecular changes underlying neurological disease. He is the Director of the Australian Sports Brain Bank, co-director of the MS Research Australia Brain Bank, and has published over 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers. These papers include the first reports of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired players of rugby league and Australian rules football.

Avelina is a Wangkamadla woman from Central-West Queensland and is the President of the Indigenous Lawyers Association of Queensland.  Avelina was admitted to the profession in 2009 and called to the Queensland bar in 2017. She has a general practice with focus on coronial, health, regulatory and administrative law jurisdictions. Before joining the private Bar, Avelina worked as a Government Legal Officer for the Coroners Court of Queensland, Office of the Health Ombudsman and Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

Klaire is the principal lawyer and Director of the Coronial and Custodial Justice Practice at Caxton Legal Centre. She is responsible for the management of the Queensland Coronial Legal Service which is a program operated by Caxton Legal Centre and Townville Community Law. The Queensland Coronial Legal Service provides legal advice and support to families at all stages of the coronial process including representation at inquests. Klaire has significant experience working with families in the coronial jurisdiction as well as expertise in human rights, administrative law and other civil law areas. Klaire has worked in community legal centres and at Legal Aid Queensland for her entire career and has a passion for social justice and human rights issues.

Kylie is a barrister at the Victorian Bar and Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School where she teaches in the Masters program on human rights law in Australia.

Kylie is widely published on the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities, including co-authoring the Annotated Victorian Charter of Rights (Second edition, Lawbook Co, 2019).

In addition to her practice at the Victorian Bar, Kylie provides training to government and public authorities on administrative law and the Charter.

She holds first class honours undergraduate degrees in Law and Commerce from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Law (first class honours) from the University of Cambridge.

Prior to being called to the Bar, Kylie was Associate to the late Honourable Justice David Hunt AO QC at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and a Research Fellow for the Honourable Professor James Crawford AC SC FBA (now a Justice of the International Court of Justice) from 2002-2005.

Professor Jeanine Young is a registered nurse, midwife, and neonatal nurse.

Jeanine’s has a special interest in the development of evidence-based, culturally appropriate and practical strategies and educational resources to support families with young infants to incorporate Safe Sleep recommendations into the care of their baby. A particular focus is the development of individually tailored, community based, wrap around care interventions to address the multiple disadvantages experienced by families with social vulnerabilities who experience the greatest burden of infant mortality.

Jeanine is a ministerial appointment to the Queensland Child Death Review Board, and member of the Red Nose National Scientific Advisory Group, and Queensland Paediatric Quality Council.

Jeanine was awarded Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2020 for her significant contributions to medical research, tertiary education and nursing.

Lindy Willmott is a Professor of Law and member of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research in the Faculty of Business and Law at the Queensland University of Technology. She researches extensively in the end-of-life field, particularly in relation to assisted dying. She has co-authored multiple texts as well as the website ‘End of Life Law in Australia’, and is involved in empirical research projects funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. Lindy co-leads a project funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health to provide legal training to medical specialists, nurses and allied health professionals and projects funded by the Victorian and Western Australian Departments of Health to provide legal training to medical practitioners on voluntary assisted dying. She was formerly a  Board member of Palliative Care Australia and Commissioner with the Queensland Law Reform Commission.