Luther Cora (Aboriginal name Bullam, which means Black Cockatoo), along with his family and Dance Troupe, The Yugambeh Dancers. Luther comes from the Bungarre family of the Yugambeh language group.

Yugambeh People – Yugambeh language region.

The Yugambeh language area included roughly 8 clans united by a common language and collectively they are known as the Yugambeh people.

The Yugambeh people lived in one of Australia’s most scenic and fertile regions – the areas now called Logan, Gold Coast and the Scenic rim from The Logan river in the North to the Tweed River in the south, west past Beaudesert and bordered in the East by The Pacific Ocean.

Jess Corones is a highly experienced sport scientist with a deep understanding of high performance for the coach and athlete. Having worked in the Australian sporting system in a number of different high performance roles from biomechanics and performance analyst to talent identification and development to the elite level performance. She has implemented and driven a number of innovation and technology projects in the Australian Swim Team.

Jess led the performance support team on Australia’s most successful ever Olympic Swim Team campaign at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Her current role is leading the newly formed Performance Insights Team at Swimming Australia as well she will continue to lead the performance support team for the Olympic programs’ international campaigns.

She has recently returned from the 2022 World Championships and Commonwealth Games on another highly successful campaign with the Dolphins Swim Team.

Kate has worked in elite sport both domestically and internationally and has a passion for establishing high performance environments specifically catered to athlete needs. With a Sports Physiotherapy and exercise science background, Kate has worked extensively with female athletes and teams including with the Australian Women’s Cricket team as physiotherapist and sports science and sports medicine manager women’s cricket, as Head Physiotherapist at the Australian Open, and at tennis tournaments around the globe with the Women’s Tennis Association and with the Australian Olympic Team in Tokyo 2020 as COVID Liaison.

In 2019 Kate completed a Churchill fellowship investigating best practice sports science and sports medicine of the female athlete. Kate is a member of the advisory committee to the AIS Female Performance and Health Initiative and initiated the development of the world’s first female specific cricket shoe. In 2021,

Kate was appointed Executive General Manager of the Sydney Swans responsible for the establishment of the clubs first AFLW team to enter the competition in Season 7.

Dr David Hughes is a Sport & Exercise Medicine Physician with over 30 years' experience working in high performance sport. He is currently Chief Medical Officer of the AIS and National Network Lead for Medicine. Sport sector experience includes International Rugby, the NRL and English Premier League football. David attended London 2012 as Team Physician for the Opals. He was the Medical Director for the Australian Olympic Team for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

He is a former President of the Australasian College of Sport & Exercise Physicians (ACSEP). Key areas of David’s current work includes optimising collaboration, information exchange and peer support within the National HP Sport CMOs Group, and delivering system-wide protocols to address athlete health/safety and ethical/integrity challenges in high performance sport. David leads the Concussion and Brain Health Project.

A highly respected, well regarded transformational leader within the Australian High-Performance Sport System with 30yrs experience in both Sport and Business, Kim is a purpose driven, inspirational, strategic, values-based, people focused leader with an in-depth knowledge of global sport system opportunities, challenges, and trends particularly in Olympic / Paralympic Sport and the urban / lifestyle Action Sports Industry.

Within our HP Sport System, she has held leadership and management roles at the Australian Institute of Sport, NSW Institute of Sport, Queensland Academy of Sport, and in three National Sporting Organisations as National High-Performance Director; Surfing Australia, Hockey Australia and now Paddle Australia where she leads the Sprint, Slalom, and Para High-Performance Programs preparing for Paris 2024.

Kim is an entrepreneurial, contemporary, innovative thought leader who brings a wealth of executive experience and sharp focus to the performance requirements of our sport system, organisations, culture, programs, partnerships, and people.

Belinda Clark is an accomplished senior leader with executive experience in sport. Shaped by personal experience juggling a university degree in Physiotherapy, a career in sport administration and an on field playing career she has a desire to help females be ready and inspired to take on leadership opportunities. Belinda deeply understands the challenges of leading teams in both the sporting and business context having Captained the Australian Cricket Team for more than a decade and held executive roles in sport covering the full pathway from community to high performance.

She was responsible for leading the integration of men’s and women’s cricket in 2001 with the objective of laying a platform for future generations to enjoy the sport. Utilising broad lived experience as a successful athlete, captain, administrator and executive has recently turned her attention to help others find their way to be an effective leader.

Belinda has been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.  In 2019, the Australian Financial Review Top 100 Women of Influence Awards recognised Belinda as the winner of the Arts, Culture and Sport category.

Javelin Thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber has built a reputation as one of Australia's greatest clutch performers. In 2022, Kelsey became the first woman to defend the World Title, with a dominant performance, matching Cathy Freeman as the only Australian athlete to go back to back. With an Olympic Bronze and a set of Commonwealth medals, Kelsey is on track to become one of Australia's most decorated Athletics athletes.

Kelsey is the ultimate professional and credits much of her success to the strong relationships she builds with her support team.

Jonah Oliver is one of Australia’s leading performance psychologists. Combining his training in sport psychology and neuroscience, Jonah brings a unique, simple and effective approach to facilitating peak performance. Over the past decade he has worked with a wide variety of clients: ranging from professional golfers, Olympic athletes, professional soccer teams, AFL clubs, elite tennis players and coaches, indigenous performing artists, and endurance tri-athletes.

Jonah is renowned for his ability to present complex psychological theories in readily accessible ways, with his energetic and engaging presenting style. He continues to author publications and present at conferences around the world.

Benita has relocated to Queensland from her role as Performance Support Manager at Australian Sailing, where she recently led a highly successful performance support team and hub during a difficult build-up to the Tokyo Games where the squad won two gold medals.

She brings more than 15 years of experience working in high-performance environments, predominantly as a Sports Dietitian with professional teams including Essendon AFL, Penrith NRL, Cricket Australia, and Tennis Australia. She also recently completed her PhD on the association between sleep, well-being, travel, and training load in elite team sport athletes.

Ben is an APA Titled Sports Physiotherapist. Having grown up at the foot of Victorian alpine region in Bright, Ben developed a passion for Snowsport at a young age. His current role with Snow Australia spreads broadly across all aspects of Performance Health, along with the development and implementation of a whole of sport Talent Identification & Development Framework. He works very closely alongside program staff, performance support teams, athletes, and coaches.

During the Northern Winter, Ben assists the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia as a travelling team Physiotherapist. He looks forward to sharing some insights into the build-up to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games along with some of the behaviours that assisted him and his colleagues to sustain their wellbeing and perform to their potential in a challenging time.

Melanie is the Wellbeing & Engagement Manager at Athletics Australia.  She has an MSc in Sport and Exercise Science and worked for 15 years in Mental Health before moving into her current role in High Performance sport.

Melanie is passionate about supporting athletes to connect with what matters in order to thrive.

Leonie is a member of the AIS Career Practitioner Referral Network (CPRN) and has led and equipped teams and individuals to achieve business outcomes and personal success in a variety of contexts throughout her 30+ year career.

Leonie combines her expertise in career development, communications, and training to assist individuals to maximise their impact through personal and professional growth. As a coach and facilitator, she supports the reflective practices that build clarity and confidence in taking the next career step.

Leonie’s qualifications include a Masters in Career Development (ECU), Graduate Certificate in Online Learning (ECU) and Bachelor of Social Work (UMelb). Leonie is a professional member of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA), a former CDAA NSW Division President and a current National Executive Member.

Adam is a highly experienced sports administrator having held Performance Director positions across Gymnastics (Sydney 2000, London 2012, Rio 2016), Volleyball (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008) and Shooting (Tokyo 2020).

His career in high performance sport was shaped by his own experiences as athlete and coach in Gymnastics for more than 20 years. Adam recently transitioned to the role of Chief Executive Officer with Shooting Australia (SA). SA is the recognised national sporting organisation for Olympic and Paralympic target shooting in Australia. Adam cares deeply about challenging and supporting people to find and bring their best to the achievement of performance excellence – athletes, coaches and performance services and support staff.

He believes strongly in the power of high-functioning multi-disciplinary teams and throughout each of his roles, has remained curious about the different ways that he can enable individuals from diverse backgrounds to work better together.

Lindsay studied a Bachelor of Physiotherapy at the University of Queensland, before working in private practice and with sporting teams before moving to the UK. Whilst in England, Lindsay worked as a Physiotherapist for Bristol City Football Club, Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Upon returning back to Australia, Lindsay completed a Masters in Sports Physiotherapy and commenced work at the Gold Coast Suns. The 2022 season was his 10^th with the club, whilst being the Head Physiotherapist over the last 4 seasons.

Zara Gomes has been Head of Performance Health at Queensland Ballet since 2011. She coordinates and leads the health team in providing services to the 60 professional Company dancers, including Dance Physiotherapy, Pilates, strength and conditioning, sports dietetics, massage therapy, sports medicine, psychology and podiatry.

Zara has worked as a Dance Physiotherapist for 25 years, with multiple ballet and contemporary dance companies in Australia, the UK and Germany before joining Queensland Ballet. Zara is passionate about enabling dancers to perform at their peak physically and mentally, thereby enhancing and prolonging their artistic careers and wellbeing.

Nicolai is Physical Performance Manager with the Hockeyroos. She is an Elite L3 ASCA strength and conditioning coach with a Masters in strength and conditioning, with over 15 years experience. Previously working with High Performance Sport New Zealand, her most recent roles were as a strength and conditioning coach for NSWIS, lead S&C for the NZ National Hockey Team (the Blacksticks) and Rowing NZ in preparation for the Tokyo Games.

Prior to this Nicolai was a Senior S&C at Sydney Uni, Head S&C with the Australian Men’s Beach Handball team and NSW Women’s Origin team.

Sonia started her career in the field of global health policy working for over 13 years in government multilateral and bilateral relationship management, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific Region and the World Health Organisation. This experience has given Sonia an excellent understanding of the diverse and complex factors that can impact on an individuals health and wellbeing, and she has worked extensively throughout her career to advocate for the importance of health promoting behaviours to improve health outcomes. Sonia believes health literacy, educating and empowering individuals and their communities to take an active role in their health, as being critical to this.

A move to New Zealand in 2018 provided Sonia with the opportunity to work within the High Performance Sport environment. Taking on the role of Women in High Performance Sport Project Manager with High Performance Sport New Zealand enabled Sonia to translate her skills from global health into sport, with a particular focus on gender equity, diversity and inclusion. Now back in Australia, Sonia’s role as National Wellbeing Manager at the AIS combines her experience and passions - sport, health and wellbeing and supporting individuals and teams to thrive.