Dr Jacob Dye is a survivor of sepsis and a Senior Research Fellow at The George Institute. After going into septic shock in 2023, and spending weeks in the ICU, Jacob began to research the psychological outcomes of sepsis.

66-year-old with 46 years' experience working at the Florey Neuroscience Institute. Single father of 23 and 21 year-old daughters and live in Melbourne outer east. Survived severe septic shock after being placed on ECMO 14 years ago. Complete recovery and I am still working full time. Member of several Sepsis support groups and a passionate supporter of medical research.

Mary lost her son Preston James to sepsis 22 years ago when he was just two and a half. She established the Preston James Fund with the Mater Foundation, supporting significant advancements in respiratory research. Since 2019, Mary has advocated for sepsis awareness and treatment. She serves on the Queensland Sepsis Steering Committee and chairs the George Institute for Global Health’s Consumer and Community Advisory Committee.

Professionally, she is a communication strategist and director of STEELE Comms & Engagement, consulting to Sepsis Australia since February 2024.

A Sepsis survivor with Post Sepsis Syndrome. Lynda has been a consumer advocate in the public and private health sectors for 20 years, and involved in research for 10 years. She was appointed by the Health Minister to the Aged Care Council of Elders in December 2023.

Simon is a Professor of Critical Care in Sydney, a founding member and is a past-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Clinical Trials Group, past chair of the International Sepsis Forum, and past Vice President of the Global Sepsis Alliance. He is the Director of Sepsis Australia and the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance.

Kimberley Haines is a mid-career researcher and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, at The University of Melbourne. A/Prof Haines is also the Physiotherapy Research Lead and Senior Critical Care Physiotherapist at Western Health, Melbourne, Victoria. Kimberley is currently undertaking her NHMRC Investigator Grant, to continue her post-doctoral research in ICU recovery.

A/Prof Haines is an emerging national and international leader in the field of critical care survivorship and health services research – with particular expertise in consumer engagement, co-design, and qualitative methods in vulnerable cohorts.

Associate Professor Naomi Hammond is an intensive care nurse researcher. She works part-time as the Critical Care and Sepsis Australia Program Head at The George Institute for Global Health and part-time as the Executive Director, Research for the Northern Sydney Local Health District.

Naomi holds several other appointments including NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow; Conjoint Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales; Treasurer of the Asia Pacific Sepsis Alliance, and Chair of the Australian Critical Care Nurses Research Advisory Panel.

Professor Yugeesh Lankadeva is a NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow and a National Heart Foundation Future-Leader Fellow and leads the Critical Care Research Department at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. His research aims to understand the pathophysiology of sepsis. Armed with this knowledge, he hopes to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics to improve patient-centered health outcomes.

Dr Stephen Macdonald is an Emergency Physician based in Western Australia. He has a research interest in acute sepsis care which was the subject of his PhD awarded in 2018. He remains actively engaged in sepsis research including co-leading a major multi centre randomised trial of resuscitation strategies in septic shock. He has been involved in a number of sepsis advocacy and policy areas over the past decade. In 2019 he was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study best practice approaches to sepsis care in the USA, Canada and United Kingdom.

Melissa McDonnell is a proud Kamilaroi woman, is a dedicated researcher in the Guunu-maana (Heal) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at The George Institute for Global Health. With over 30 years of experience in Aboriginal health, Melissa has been a relentless advocate for equity and transformative change for Aboriginal people and communities. She brings invaluable lived experience of the systemic disparities affecting Aboriginal people. These experiences have shaped her passionate commitment to driving meaningful, long-term improvements in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through innovative, sustainable, and culturally grounded research.

Alex is the program manager of NCCR at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre at Monash University

Alex holds a PhD from the school of medicine at Adelaide University. He has been a Research and Project Manager of critical care research projects and programs with studies published in high impact journals. Alex also has a keen interest in translating research in to practice and has worked in evidence synthesis with National Clinical Evidence Taskforce

Manoj is a senior intensive care physician (St. George Hospital, Sydney) and a senior lecturer (The George Institute for Global Health, UNSW).

Manoj’s research interest is in large-scale clinical trials that provide robust and reliable patient-centred evidence on thermoregulation and circulatory management in patients with acute serious illness requiring invasive organ support. He has completed a PhD and NHMRC Early Career fellowship on Thermoregulation for Acute Critical illness, including sepsis and acute brain injury.

Dr Paul Secombe is a senior intensivist based at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. He spent more than a decade working in the intensive care unit of the Alice Springs Hospital, a unit which sees a disproportionate amount of sepsis. He is a PhD candidate within the the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, and is awaiting the outcome of his thesis examination.

He is also the clinical lead for the ANZICS CORE Adult Patient Database, and a member of the ANZICS National Outlier Management Committee.

Dr Kelly Thompson is a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, Emerging Leadership Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. Concurrently she is Director of Research Operations at Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District.

She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Public Health from the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW, Sydney. She is a Registered Nurse, with clinical experience in intensive care.

Kelly’s primary research interest is in health and gender equity in the clinical area of infection and sepsis. She uses population level data to understand and improve equity in health outcomes for survivors of sepsis and critical illness.

Andrew is Head of Research at The Alfred ICU, Melbourne VIC, and Deputy Director, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre - Monash University.

His research interests include sepsis, traumatic brain injury, neurocritical care, and extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation. He is passionate about supporting trainees/early-career clinician-scientists, and increasing diversity in clinical research. Andrew is Vice-Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) - Clinical Trials Group (CTG), and is a proud product of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Li has been working as an intensive care doctor for 8 years in China and 11 years in Australia before he became a General practitioner at Hawthorn East Medical & Aesthetic Clinic. He has special interest in acute renal failure in sepsis, and septic shock, and published more than forty papers in this area.

Jonathan has been a JLA Adviser since April 2019, and supports several JLA Priority Setting Partnerships. After spending many years as a biomedical researcher, Jonathan moved into research management and has worked in Research Council, University and NHS settings. He joined the NIHR Clinical Research Network in 2007, holding a number of different roles encompassing 26 different clinical specialties over a period of 12 years. With over 25 years of experience networking with charities, the public and private sectors, Jonathan is passionate about improving the access of patients, their carers and the public to research which makes a real impact on people’s lives.

Rose worked with the Australian New Zealand Consortium in Paediatric Oncofertility (ANZCO) guidelines group. She also worked as Administration Officer for the Monash University Clinical Trial Centre (MUCTC).

Rose has experience coordinating primary endpoints for the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE XT) trial and holds a First-Class Honours in the field of Cardiovascular Pharmacology at Monash University. She studied a Bachelor of Pharmacy at Heinrich Heine University, Germany.

Eloise is an executive generalist, a consultant with more than 25 years experience in high-profile, multi-national and not-for-profit organisations in various strategic communications, stakeholder engagement, public relations and project management roles. She has experience both in-house and agency with a unique understanding of a number of industries; including health, sport, publishing, government, education, property and automotive.

She has worked on several recent projects within the School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine at Monash University including the National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce and SPHERE.

Simon is a strategist/designer/illustrator and consultant who specialises in visualising information, concepts, space and data. Often these pieces require broader strategic design to find their audience and be useful. This practise employs strategy, symbolism and codification to make simple informative accessible (mainly digital) experiences

Dr Kristina Staley is Director of TwoCan Associates, a small consultancy specialising in promoting and supporting patient and carer involvement in health and social care research. Over the last 25 years she has worked with a wide range of organisations in the voluntary and statutory sector to develop policy and practice, and to evaluate the impact of involvement. She has worked with more than 30 James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships as an information specialist and carried out one of the first evaluations of the impact of Priority Setting Partnerships.