Dr Rhys Jones – University of Auckland
Moving backwards into the future: Indigenising the health professional curriculum 

Rhys is a Māori public health physician and a Senior Lecturer in The University of Auckland’s Te Kupenga Hauora Māori (TKHM/Department of Māori Health). He has taught at the University since 2002 and has a leadership role in Māori Health teaching and learning across the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences (FMHS). He leads strategic planning, Māori health curriculum development and implementation; and oversees broader curricula in FMHS programmes and capability building for Māori Health teaching and learning. His work extends into clinical programmes including Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. 

Rhys is recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in Indigenous health education and research. In 2005-06, he was a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy based at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. He was International Lead Investigator of Educating for Equity, a multi-centre collaborative research project, resulting in Educating for Indigenous Health Equity: An International Consensus Statement, which was published in Academic Medicine, the world’s leading medical education journal (Jones et al, 2019). He has received a number of teaching and learning awards, including the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Excellence in Tertiary Teaching in 2020. 

Dr Dinesh Palipana – Queensland Health 
Why we need to create the social leaders of tomorrow 

Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM is a senior resident at Gold Coast University Hospital and a researcher in spinal cord injury. Following a car accident in 2010, Dinesh became a quadriplegic. He has since completed his medical studies and a law degree. His own injury and his struggle to get a medical internship inspired him to become an advocate for medical students with disabilities. 

As a co-founder of Doctors with Disabilities Australia, Dinesh has worked with the Australian Medical Association to create national policies for inclusivity in medical education and employment. In his research at Griffith University, Dinesh has contributed to advances in the treatment of spinal cord injury and restoring function to people with paralysis. 

He is also a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans Physical Disability Rugby League team and has received numerous awards, including Junior Doctor of the Year and the Order of Australia for service to medicine.