Associate Professor Rachael McDonald is a clinical, research and teaching Health Professional with an interest in enabling people with lifelong disabilities to participate in life situations. She has worked extensively in this field, within both children’s services and adult settings, and has worked in the area of wheelchair and seating provision and evaluation for over 20 years across the UK and Australia. She supervises research (honour’s, MSc and PhD) students specialising in the care of people with complex disability, and has published widely. She previously held a joint appointment with the Department of Occupational Therapy and the Centre for Developmental Disability Health Victoria at Monash University. Her role at CDDHV included health professional education and leading research activities, however her interest in using technology as an enabler but also as a tool for collecting objective evidence was a feature of her occupational therapy research. This interest has led to her recent appointment as the Chair of the Department of Health and Medical Science at Swinburne University of Technology, where this research is developing further and she is looking forward to more in depth applications of technology to improving the experience of people who use seating and wheelchairs.

Liz Turnbull is an Occupational Therapist with more than 30 years of experience across acute care, rehabilitation, community practice, and specialist assistive technology services in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Since entering the field of complex wheeled mobility and postural management in 2007, she has worked in a range of clinical, coaching, and leadership roles, supporting independence, participation and wellbeing through effective assistive technology and mobility solutions that enable people to participate in the activities and roles that matter most to them.

Liz has been actively involved in service development, professional forums, workforce capability initiatives, and national working groups within the wheelchair and seating sector.

Since joining Seating To Go as Service Manager in 2021, Liz has led a multidisciplinary team delivering assistive technology services ranging from specialist seating, wheeled mobility, repairs and training nationwide. Throughout her career, Liz has developed a passion for advancing seating and mobility services, clinical practice, and workforce capability.

She is honoured to serve as New Zealand Chair of the Oceania Seating Symposium, 2027 in Melbourne.

Beth Sheehan is the Programme Manager for the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP) and has over 20 years’ experience as an exercise physiologist.  Beth has had a wide variety of opportunities working both in Australia and across the globe.

Over the last 15 years Beth has developed her passion in the field of assistive technology working with NGOs and as a consultant in a wide variety of countries helping to build capacity of rehabilitation professionals to ensure access for service users. Beth’s passion for improving capacity also has led her to a variety of roles that also support service users and the development of rehabilitation professionals. In her current role as ISWP’s Programme Manager, Beth focuses on advocacy and building capacity through training wheelchair professionals particularly in LMICs. Beth also remains active in the academic space working as an Associate Lecturer into the exercise physiology program at the University of Queensland.

Rachel Hibbs, DPT, NCS, ATP/SMS is an Associate Professor and Director of Continuing Education in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. In her academic role, she teaches in the Master of Rehabilitation Technology and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and provides clinical care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Center for Assistive Technology and the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute.

Dr. Hibbs is Co-Director of the International Seating Symposium. She is active in the adaptive sports community as member of the Pittsburgh Steelwheelers Board of Directors, a Classifier for the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, and a member of the Pittsburgh Marathon Handcycle Assistance Team. 

Mark Schmeler, PhD, OTR/L, ATP is an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair for Clinical Services & Policy in the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also the co-director of the International Seating Symposium. He has 35+ years of clinical experience and serves as the Director of the Center for Assistive Technology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. 

He is the co-developer of the Functional Mobility Assessment and oversees a national registry of large data related to mobility outcomes to assess the effectiveness of mobility assisted devices to more scientifically demonstrate what interventions work best for what types of people under varying disability and environmental conditions. Publications of his work are used to inform both practice and policy as well as to advocate for people with disabilities who use wheelchairs. He is a Fellow of the Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America.

Andrew Congdon is an occupational therapist based in the Northern Territory, Australia with a keen interest in the delivery of services in rural and remote settings. He has worked in the seating and mobility field for over 20 years in various locations across Australia working for private, government and non-government organisations. Andrew has completed assistive technology (AT) sector development work in the Northern Territory  exploring the feasibility of AT service delivery and the coordination of repairs and maintenance services in remote settings. He also has experience working in less resourced settings in the Asia/Pacific region and has contributed to the development and delivery of various training resources including the WHO Wheelchair Services Training Packages.

Harman Phillips is a physiotherapist and Assistive Technology Clinical Lead at Superyou Therapy in Perth, Western Australia. He has a particular interest in complex seating, wheeled mobility and postural support, working with people of all ages who have neurological conditions and complex disabilities. In his leadership role, Harman oversees the development of assistive technology services, driving clinical governance, quality improvement and workforce capability across his organisation.

He is passionate about equipping clinicians with the knowledge and confidence to deliver high-quality, evidence-informed assistive technology services. Harman values collaboration with clinicians, suppliers and people with lived experience, believing that the best outcomes are achieved through shared expertise and a person-centred approach.

Kate Pain is an Occupational Therapist, specialising in wheelchair seating and positioning, in her role as Assistive Technology Consultant/Clinical Educator with GTK.  Kate completed her Bachelor of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy) at the University of Sydney in 1999 and has gained experience in both Australia and the United Kingdom in a variety of settings including hospitals, rehabilitation units, community and private practice. 

Kate has focused on wheelchair seating and positioning for children and adults with complex postural support and pressure care requirements over the past decade and is passionate about supporting therapists to increase their knowledge and skills in postural assessment and prescription of postural supports.

Masha is a Program Manager at Swinburne University of Technology. 

Further details coming.
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We are excited to join the team and deliver OSS 2025 in Rotorua.  

Marleen Goedhart & Dean Bradley 
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