Ben Meadley has more than 24 years’ experience as a paramedic, gaining expertise in prehospital critical care, paramedic education, and clinical guideline development. Additionally, Ben is an established researcher, with interests in clinical, health and human performance research. Ben currently works as the MICA Operational Improvement Lead at Ambulance Victoria, where he is also a senior Intensive Care Flight Paramedic (MICA). He has a passion for systems improvement, to ensure paramedics are best prepared to deliver high-quality care. Ben is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Paramedicine.

Dr Steve Rashford has been the QAS Medical Director since 2005. He has worked in aeromedical retrieval and prehospital care for nearly 30 years. At QAS he has overseen critical enhancements in trauma care, including point of care ultrasound, advanced procedural sedation, prehospital anaesthesia the aggressive use of blood products in urban environments and the use of high performance teams to improve outcomes.

Matt served 7 years in the Australian Army, working across a number of combat corps roles and graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon and the Australian Defence Force Academy. In 2006 he transitioned to the Ambulance, and worked across multiple services as a Special Operations Intensive Care Paramedic and Special Operations Team Instructor. He jointly established the Tactical Medical Operations capability in NSW Ambulance and was integral in raising the first full-time Tactical Paramedic Team in Australia, moving on to become the service's inaugural Clinical Training Officer for Tactical Medicine. Matt was the founding President of the Australian Tactical Medical Association and 2015 Churchill Scholar researching best practice across the UK, USA and Canada in Tactical Emergency Medical Support.

Casey Lewis is a critical care paramedic with Queensland Ambulance Service. Over the past 16 years he has worked in various capacities in paramedicine across Australia and the Pacific region including critical care, aeromedical operations, rural and remote care provision as well as aid and development. Casey has also taught into paramedic programs at Queensland University of Technology, Australian Catholic University, and the University of Southern Queensland. Informed by his experience across the sector, Casey is passionate about disaster management, capacity development and systems strengthening and has a particular interest in how these are applied in lower resource settings.

Joff van Ek has been volunteer and full time firefighter for the past twenty years. During this time he was assigned to many rescue units. He responded to a variety of incidents from vehicle collisions, complex transport incidents, domestic and industrial rescue and numerous fire scenes. Joff has worked with rescue and medical professionals all around the world. Travelling the globe has challenged the thought process of how we do rescue operations in Australia. He continues to work closely with various emergency services, medical professionals and the state and federal government to strive towards better patient outcomes for the communities nationwide.

Alex is the current QAS Director of Patient Safety & Quality. His portfolio oversees the provision of clinical care by paramedics, pharmacy, infection control, professional standards and aims to ameliorate patient outcomes and reduce patient harm. Alex has extensive clinical experience having worked as a paramedic for 15 years before transitioning into an executive role. Alex holds a Graduate Diploma of Intensive Care Paramedic Practice and a Master of Business Administration. He has recently accepted a Healthcare Improvement Fellowship with Clinical Excellence Queensland, commencing in early 2022.

Dr Jessica Forbes is an Emergency Physician and Trauma Consultant at the Gold Coast University Hospital, and a Medical Officer with the Queensland Ambulance Service High Acuity Response Unit. Her real prehospital talent is singing tunes from 'Hamilton' in the car, and priming the blood warmer - a skill she has carried over from her previous career as an ED nurse.

Brigid is a Critical Care Paramedic based in Brisbane. Over the past twenty years she has gained extensive EMS experience in both Australia and Ireland. She is interested in educating and developing paramedics to empower them to perform at their best. Her superpower is in cultivating professional relationships to achieve the best patient outcomes.

Paula Sinclair is the first female Director of the Fixed Wing & Aeromedical Control Centre. She has an extensive career with NSW Ambulance spanning over 28 years. During this time, she has worked in a variety of different roles. This includes working as an on-road intensive care paramedic, operations manager, and critical care paramedic in helicopter operations. Paula has also significantly contributed to developing NSW Ambulance’s staff wellbeing and support programs. Paula also developed an extremely successful forum for paramedics to discuss challenging patient presentations. This initiative, called ‘Coffee and Cases’, provides a safe platform for paramedics to discuss cases, share knowledge and acquire clinically relevant feedback required for ongoing professional development.

Professor Vivienne Tippett is the Discipline Leader Paramedic Programs at QUT. Prior to joining QUT in 2012, she was the Director of the Australian Centre for Prehospital Research at QAS. She has extensive experience as a researcher and consultant in the emergency pre-hospital, health and emergency health systems and is widely published. Her work has been recognised with an OAM for services to para-medical education (2018); a Distinguished Service medal from QAS (2012) for services to paramedic research and a CRC Association national award for research innovation (2019). She is a Fellow of the Jamieson Trauma Institute at RBWH.

Critical Care Paramedic with 20 years’ service throughout the great state of QLD, from Metro and regional areas to rural and remote locations and now in the role of managing the design, development and delivery of contemporary education programs for frontline QAS officers.

Dr Jason Bendall is a specialist anaesthetist, specialist paramedic and specialist prehospital & retrieval medicine physician. Jason works clinically as an anaesthetist at one of Australia’s busiest trauma hospitals with subspecialty interest in orthopaedic trauma. Jason is NSW Ambulances Director of Medical Service & Research and is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Newcastle Department of Rural Health.

Tash is a critical Care Paramedic with the Queensland Ambulance Service, currently working between the Logan POD and the Kedron High Acuity Response Unit. Tash has a Master in health care leadership and a master in traumatology. Tash is interested in all things education, professional development, and leadership development as well as a keen interest in progressive trauma care.

Alex (Sandy) MacQuarrie is a transplanted Canadian trained to the level of Critical Care Paramedic (flight). He has worked in paramedicine since 1993 in urban, rural, and remote environments including HEMS and senior management positions. He has a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Business Administration and has completed a PhD. Currently, he is Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine at Griffith University on the Gold Coast. He also has over 20 years as a firefighter in suburban and rural settings in three Canadian provinces and one Australian state.

Andy has an extensive history in clinical education, paramedicine, higher education and clinical research. He has over 20 years’ experience in various forms of educational formats, including outdoor education, clinical education, tactical medicine, search and rescue and educational design. He is a registered paramedic with Aphra and has worked in a variety of unscheduled clinical environments including a jurisdictional ambulance service, tactical training organisations, event medical services and private consultancy roles for the past 14 years. He is currently a confirmed PhD candidate looking at deconstructing the contemporary Paramedic education paradigm and building frameworks for the evolution of professional Paramedicine into the future. He holds a Masters degree in clinical education and has a number of published journal articles addressing various aspects of Paramedic education. His other research interests include investigating the nexus between physiological, psychological and sociological variables and their impact on quality of performance and operator well-being in high stress, time critical occupations.