Iris CHI

Professor Emeritus of Social Work

University of Southern California

Professor Iris CHI is the Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Southern California (USC). Before that, she held the Chinese American Golden Age Association/Frances Wu Chair for the Chinese Elderly for 18 years at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Prior to joining USC, she taught at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for 17 years and was the founding director of the Sau Po Centre on Aging at HKU. An expert in health care services and gerontology, Professor Chi has participated in more than 120 studies and published over 400 articles and book chapters. Professor Chi is an honorary professor, fellow, consultant, and advisor to many local and overseas universities, research institutes and professional associations. She also serves on the editorial board for numerous journals in health, gerontology, psychology, and social work.

Alice Ming Lin CHONG

Research Professor

Felizberta Lo Padilla Tong School of Social Sciences

Saint Francis University

Professor Alice M-L CHONG is a Research Professor of the Saint Francis University. Before that, she was Senior Researcher of the Labour and Welfare Bureau (2019-2022); an academic in the City University of Hong Kong (1991-2019), and a social work practitioner and manager in a few NGOs. She has an impactful career integrating practice, education and research in social work, social gerontology and caregiving. She was awarded more than 60 research grants, has published over 90 academic articles and presented over 90 conference papers.Prof. Chong participates actively in community services, being chair or board members of a few NGOs, and was invited to numerous government advisory committees. She was the Founding President of the Hong Kong Association of Schools of Social Work (2015-2019). She was awarded the Medal of Honor by the Government for her active community service and the Teaching Excellent Award by CityU and the University Grant Committee, respectively

Carol MA

Head

Gerontology Programmes

Singapore University of Social Sciences

Dr Carol Ma is a leading expert in Service-Learning (S-L) and Ageing in Asia, serving as the Head of Gerontology Programmes at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. She spearheads curriculum development, community engagement, and applied research in gerontology, advocating for transdisciplinary education to address ageing issues. She has led impactful projects in Singapore, including the development of the first geragogy guidelines, innovative dementia care programmes, older adults' functional capacity under the WHO ICOPE framework and set up the 1st community living lab with caregivers. She serves as an advisor for caregiver and eldercare services with the NCSS, a member of the Coordinating Committee for the Silver Industry of Enterprise Singapore, and an advisor for the International Longevity Centre Singapore and inclusive learning for the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.

Tim STAINTON

Emeritus Professor, the School of Social Work;

Co-Director, Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship

University of British Columbia

Tim Stainton MSW, PhD is Emeritus Professor at the School of Social Work and Co-Director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship, University of British Columbia. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics on disability rights and social policy. Prior to his academic career he worked on deinstitutionalization of people with disabilities in British Columbia and as head of Policy and Programs for the then Ontario Association for Community Living. He has consulted nationally and internationally on issues of system change. He has published widely on disability rights, policy and practice, history, ethics and services. He is an active consultant nationally and internationally on disability supports and services. He recently co-authoered a Human Rights Remedy for the province of Nova Scotia and is currently consulting on a complete remodelling of the disability support system.

Ingmar WEBER

Alexander von Humboldt Professor for AI

Saarland University

Ingmar Weber is an Alexander von Humboldt Professor for AI at Saarland University where he holds the chair for Societal Computing. His interdisciplinary research comprises (i) computing of society, i.e. the measurement of different social phenomena, in particular using non-traditional data sources, and (ii) computing for society, i.e. working with partners on implementing solutions to help address societal challenges. Analyses performed by his team and collaborators have been used in displacements contexts ranging from Venezuela to Ukraine. Prior to joining Saarland University, Ingmar was the Research Director for Social Computing at the Qatar Computing Research Institute. He studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge before pursuing a Ph.D. at the Max-Planck Institute for Computer Science.

Professor Patrick O'LEARY

Professor

School of Health Sciences and Social Work - Human Services and Social Work, Griffith University, Australia

Patrick O’Leary is an internationally recognised researcher on social work, gender-based violence and child protection having worked in numerous international universities as well as conducting complex research projects in over a dozen countries. Over the last 30 years he has being doing research with survivors of child sexual abuse with particular interest on male survivors and a focus on disclosure and life course effects. Professor O’Leary is currently Co-Lead of the Disrupting Violence Beacon at Griffith University, as well as a Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women where he leads a work stream on perpetrators and bystanders. He is the Co-Chief Editor of International Social Work published by SAGE it has become a Q1 journal and more than doubled its impact factor to 2.2.

Professor O’Leary has worked with UNICEF, Terre des hommes and Islamic Relief Worldwide. He was commissioned as an Expert Academic Advisor to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and was a member of the Queensland Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce. Professor O’Leary serves on numerous boards and advisory positions in the government and non-government sectors including being on the Advisory Group for National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse for the Australian Government, non-executive Director of DVConnect, and member of the Practice Advisory Committee for Survivors and Mates Support Network.