Dr Myfanwy Maple
Dr Myfanwy Maple is an Associate Professor and coordinator of social work in the School of Health at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. She is Deputy Lead of the Collaborative Research Network for Mental Health in Rural and Regional Communities thematic area on Self Care and Mental Health. Dr Maple's research focuses on the experience and needs of those who have experienced the suicide death of a loved one, with several active projects examining aspects of this experience with a variety of populations and sub-groups. She supervises both doctoral and masters students undertaking their research in the area of suicide, bereavement and mental health. In 2007, Myfanwy was awarded the Emerging Researcher Award from Suicide Prevention Australia on World Suicide Prevention Day for her work toward understanding the experience of family members affected by suicide death. She has published in national and international journals in the area of suicide bereavement. Myfanwy is serving her third appointed by the NSW Minister for Health as an Official Visitor under the NSW Mental Health Act (2007).

Associate Professor Jane Burns
Associate Professor Jane Burns is the Chief Executive Officer of the Young and Well CRC (YAW-CRC). The establishment of the CRC is a culmination of Jane's work in suicide and depression prevention over the last decade which has focused on international and national partnerships with academic, government, corporate, philanthropic, not-for-profit and community sectors. Jane holds a VicHealth Principal Research Fellowship at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and an Honorary Fellowship at the Brain & Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney. She was a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in 2004–2005 at the University of California, San Francisco. She joined beyondblue: the national depression initiative in its start up phase and established and managed the youth agenda. Jane completed her PhD in Medicine (Psychiatry and Epidemiology) at the University of Adelaide.

Carolyn Griffin (nee Thompson)
Caroline was born and raised in Darwin and is of Walpiri/Gurindji descent on her mother's side. She is a mother and grandmother. She has been with AIMHI since August 2003 as a Senior Indigenous Research Officer based at Menzies School of Health Research. Caroline has collaborated in the development of the AIMHI assessment and care planning tools and service provider training and has been influential in the success of the AIMHI NT project. For Caroline, the project represented an opportunity to create culturally appropriate resources with a view to helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to better understand and recognise mental illness.

Professor Diego De Leo
Professor De Leo's research expertise includes definitional issues in suicidology, culture and suicide, international trends and national suicide prevention programs.

He has published extensively with over 700 publications, including 230 peer–reviewed articles, 145 book chapters and 34 volumes. His H–graph is today 29, but has been consistently above 20 in the past five years.

He is Past President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the International Academy for Suicide Research. He serves as a board member of the Australian Suicide Prevention Advisory Council (ASPAC) and is Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Queensland Government Suicide Prevention Strategy. Prof. De Leo has successfully established and managed many high–level international collaborations, which have resulted in the creation of seven collaborative studies including the WHO/EURO Multicentre Study on Suicidal behaviour, the WHO/SUPRE–MISS (SUicide PREvention – Multisite Intervention Study on Suicide) and the WHO/START Study Project (Suicide Trends in At–Risk Territories).

He is founder/co-founder of the Italian Society for PsychoOncology, the Italian Association for Suicide Prevention and the International Academy for Suicide Research. He is the ideator and main promoter of organizing the World Day for Suicide Prevention, taking place every September 10th since its establishment in 2003.

He is currently the Editor in Chief of Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, and editorial board member of Suicide & Life–Threatening Behaviour, Archives of Suicide Research, Suicidology–on–Line and Advancing Suicide Prevention. He is Associate Editor of BMC Public Health, and Regional Editor of Behavioural Medicine. In addition, he is a member of the editorial boards of several other journals including Journal of Affective Disorders, Aging Clinical and Experimental and the Open Geriatric Journal, plus several Italian medical journals.

He is the winner of several national and international awards. He won the IASP Stengel Award when he was just 40-years-old, and Life Research Award (Suicide Prevention - Commonwealth of Australia) in 2007. He is a Gold Medal, Italians in the World.

Ernest Hunter
Ernest Hunter is an Australian medical graduate trained in adult, child and cross cultural psychiatry in the United States before returning to work in Indigenous health in the mid-1980s. He has undertaken research in the Kimberley and Far North Queensland and is currently Adjunct Professor with James Cook University and Regional Psychiatrist with the Remote Area Mental Health Service providing outreach to Aboriginal communities of Cape York from Cairns.

John Brady
John is married with five children. He has been with MATES in Construction Queensland for the past four years and is the Operations Manager. He helped develop the national award winning ‘MATES in Construction’ program in suicide prevention. John also coordinates a Life Skills Tool Box program which is a resilience building program for apprentices in the Queensland construction industry. John strongly believes that suicide is a preventable problem particularly if we can get ‘mates helping mates.’ John comes from a diverse work background. He has spent 20 years as a school principal. He owns a wine company, a leadership and management consultancy and has spent many years coaching young men in sport. John also spends 6 to 8 weeks a year in Central Africa conducting leadership programs and establishing micro economic projects in poor communities.

Jorgen Gullestrup
Jorgen Gullestrup was born in Denmark and migrated to Australia in 1988 where he worked on various construction sites in Brisbane, followed by 13 years as a union official with the Plumbers Union. During his period as Secretary of the Plumbers Union he became passionate about preventing suicide within the industry. Jorgen is CEO of MATES in Construction (MIC) which is a suicide prevention program developed by the Queensland building and construction industry for the industry.

General Peter John Cosgrove AC, MC
General Peter John Cosgrove AC, MC (born 28 July 1947) is a retired Australian Army officer. He was the chief of the Defence Force from July 3, 2002 to July 3, 2005, when he retired from active service. On March 23, 2006 Cosgrove was selected to lead the Queensland Government taskforce of rebuilding communities damaged by Cyclone Larry, a category five tropical cyclone that devastated the Innisfail region of northern Queensland. In recognition of the important contribution general Cosgrove made to the community of north Queensland following Cyclone Larry, on October 11, 2008 Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced that the new residential suburb in the Bohle Plains area of Townsville would be named Cosgrove.

Graham Martin
Professor Graham Martin OAM is Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The University of Queensland, and Clinical Director, Royal Children's Hospital and Health Service District, Child and Youth Mental Health Service (CYMHS). He is currently a member of the Lifeline Research Advisory Board, chairs the Research Advisory Committee for RUOK?, is on the Boards of Mates in Construction, the Inspire Foundation, the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research (UQ) and PsychWire. Graham is director of the Centre for Suicide Prevention Studies in Young People (UQ).
Professor Martin has been dedicated to suicide prevention since 1987, a member of the International Association for Suicide Prevention since 1997, and a member by invitation of the International Association for Suicide Research. He has been a member of the Advisory Council Australian National Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy and Evaluation Working Group (1994-99), writing team for the Australian Suicide Prevention Strategy (2000 and 2007), National Advisory Council for Suicide Prevention (2003-8), and is a National Advisor on Suicide Prevention to the Australian Government (2009 to date).
Graham was Suicide Prevention Australia (SPA) chairman (1995-2001), convened 6 national suicide prevention conferences, led the team developing the first Media and Suicide Resource Kit ('Achieving the Balance', 1998), and became a Life Member of SPA in 2004, He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (2006), a 'Jackstar' award for 10 years contribution to Inspire Foundation's 'ReachOut' program (2007), the 2008 SPA 'Lifetime Contribution to Suicide Prevention Research' award, and the Rowe-Zonta International Prize (2010).
Graham was an originator of the Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention program (Auseinet, 1997-2009), and Director until 2001. He is Editor in Chief for the online journal AMH (Advances in Mental Health, formerly the Australian eJournal for the Advancement of Mental Health http://amh.e-contentmanagement.com/). In his spare time Graham trained for 20 years in Karate, is a Nidan black belt with Hoshindo Karate International (grading in Japan - JKF, 2008). Two years ago he was paralysed from the waist down due to a spinal cord problem. The story of his recovery (a book called "Taking Charge: a journey of recovery" can be read here. He has dreams of returning to Karate. Graham has successfully advised 9 completed doctoral studies, and currently supervises 2 fulltime and 7 part time UQ higher degree students. He has an active research program focused on Non-suicidal Self-injury as a gateway to suicide prevention in young people.

Professor Helen Milroy
Helen Milroy is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia but was born and educated in Perth. She studied Medicine at the University of Western Australia, worked as a General Practitioner and Consultant in Childhood Sexual Abuse at Princess Margaret Hospital for children for several years before completing specialist training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Helen is currently Winthrop Professor and Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health at the University of Western Australia; and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the Specialist Aboriginal Mental Health Service, Department of Health, situated at Graylands Hospital, Perth. She is Lead Investigator of the Australian team on the NHMRC International Collaborative Grant "Educating for Equity" exploring how health professional education can reduce disparities in chronic disease.
Helen has been on State, National and College policy committees, Reference and Advisory groups. Helen is a current member of the NHMRC Australian Human Ethics Committee; the NHMRC Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Advisory Committee; DoHA Health and Wellbeing Check for Three Year Olds Expert Group; NHMRC Indigenous Mental Health Advisory Group; and NHMRC ADHD Expert Working Group. She has most recently been appointed to the Board of Closing the Gap Clearinghouse with the Department of Indigenous Affairs.
Helen is conjoint award recipient of the World Council for Psychotherapy's Sigmund Freud Award 2011 for contributions to the field of psychotherapy. She was also 2011 Yachad Scholar. She served as a headspace Board Director; a member of the Western Australian Indigenous Implementation Board; and Past President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association (AIDA).
Helen's work and research interests include holistic medicine, child mental health, recovery from trauma and grief, application of Indigenous knowledge, Indigenous health curriculum development, implementation and evaluation, Aboriginal health and mental health, and developing and supporting the Aboriginal medical workforce.

Sandra Palmer
Sandra Palmer is the Clinical Manager of CASA's Community Postvention Response Service (CPRS) in New Zealand, which is a Ministry of Health funded service. Her team's focus is on supporting communities when there are emerging or actual suicide clusters or suicide contagion. This team is one of the only national teams responding to national clusters and they are developing a wealth of information, knowledge and experience in this cluster response area. Sandra has been working in the postvention area for six years and has a strong belief in the notion of postvention being a strong suicide prevention tool. She has also worked in the field of suicide prevention as part of the Towards Wellbeing programme funded by CYFS (Child Youth and Family Services ) in New Zealand. Her current roles combine her clinical passions - working in postvention, working with communities and focusing on the wellbeing of young people and youth. She graduated from the University of Auckland in 1992 with a MA (Hons) in Psychology.