Broken Sleep? 2021

Dr Helen Ball is professor of anthropology and director of the Infancy & Sleep Centre (DISC) at Durham University. She founded Basis, the Baby Sleep Information Source in 2012 as an outreach project of DISC, for which she was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further & Higher Education in 2018. Her research examines the sleep ecology of infants and their parents including attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep and sleep safety, behavioural and physiological interactions of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural and biological sleep needs. Much of her research has focussed on bed-sharing and breastfeeding. She has conducted research in hospitals, the community, and her lab, and she contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care. Helen served as a board member of ISPID (International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths) from 2018 to 2022, is chair of the grants/research committee, and a member of the scientific advisory group for the Lullaby Trust, and serves on the qualifications board for Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative. She was also an associate editor for Sleep Health, journal of the US National Sleep Foundation 2020-2024 (all voluntary positions). In 2025 her popular science book How Babies Sleep will be published by Penguin Random House.

Dr Julie Smith is an awarded Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Honorary Associate Professor at the Research School of Population Health, Australian National University. She is also a Fellow of the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute at the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy.

Her research focuses on gender analysis, taxation policy, and economic aspects of breastfeeding, with more than 45 peer reviewed articles, book chapters and books. She has been an expert advisor to national and international governments and NGOs.

She is a co-founder of WBTi Australia, and a former ABA director.

Tracy Cassels is the director of Evolutionary Parenting, a resource she founded in 2011 after the birth of her daughter Maddy. It began whilst she was in graduate school and has continued and grown as she completed her PhD and moved towards more direct work with parents and families. She has a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of British Columbia. The focus of her dissertation work was on empathy and theory of mind in young children. Her academic works have been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Psychological Assessment, PLoS One, Personality and Individual Differences, Midwifery, and more. Tracy serves as an adviser to the Children’s Health & Human Rights Partnership, a non-profit agency dedicated to ending routine infant circumcision. She has previously worked in the non-profit sector in agencies focused on education and/or social and emotional development.

Sarah Ockwell-Smith is a well-known parenting expert and popular childcare author who writes about the psychology and science of parenting. Sarah’s background is in psychology, clinical research and antenatal education. Sarah specialises in ‘gentle parenting’ (she is often credited as being the founder of the movement) and childism (the unconscious discrimination of children in society). Sarah has authored 16 books, translated into over 30 languages, which have sold over half a million copies, including the bestselling The Gentle Sleep Book.

Nathan Wallis has a professional background in child counselling, teaching and social service management. He was a board member and senior trainer with the national body responsible for the dissemination of neuroscientific research to professionals.

He has a reputation as an engaging speaker who uses humour and plain language to make this complex topic come to life. Nathan has appeared on radio and TV shows in New Zealand.

His consultant practice delivers professional development training in the area of neuroscience discoveries and the practical implications for everyday practice.

Jennie Rosier is an associate professor of communication studies at James Madison University, director of the Relationships, Love, Happiness Project, host of the Love Matters podcast, and author of a textbook, 3 popular press books, and several digital workbooks.

As an expert in romantic and parent-child relationships, Jennie focuses on helping others create more realistic expectations while enhancing the communication skills needed to maintain these bonds including empathy, respect, and attachment; often with an emphasis in interpersonal neurobiology.

Dr David McIntosh is a paediatric ENT surgeon and an adjunct associate professor based in Queensland.

He specialises in managing upper airway obstruction in children and adults. He is an internationally recognised specialist in the field of the interplay between ENT and dentistry. He lectures internationally on the topic of snoring and its deleterious effects on health and wellbeing.

Dr Vincent Ho is a clinical academic gastroenterologist and leads the Translational Gastroenterology Research program at the School of Medicine focusing on basic science and clinical research in the gut.

He has a particular interest in the gut microbiome. Vincent is the gastroenterology education content convenor for the School of Medicine, has written extensively for The Conversation (over 6.3 million views) and has been interviewed on radio, television and newspapers.

Greer Kirshenbaum is an author, neuroscientist, doula, infant and family sleep specialist and mother. She trained at the University of Toronto and Columbia University with additional training at New York University and Yale University.  Greer has combined her academic training with her experience as a doula and mother to lead The Nurture Revolution. A movement to nurture our babies’ brains to revolutionise mental health and impact larger systems in our world. Greer wants families, professionals, and workplaces to understand how early caregiving experience can boost mental wellness and diminish depression, anxiety, and addiction in adulthood by shaping babies’ brains through simple intuitive enriching experiences in pregnancy, birth and infancy. Her book is called The Nurture Revolution: Grow Your Baby’s Brain and Transform Their Mental Health Through the Art of Nurtured Parenting.

Karen has been an IBCLC since 1991 and has worked in both private practice and hospital settings. She became a La Leche League (LLL) Leader in 1975, forming the first LLL group for mothers of multiples, after the birth of her twin sons.

She wrote the book “Mothering Multiples: Breastfeeding and Caring for Twins or More”, co-authored the book “Keys to Parenting Multiples” plus numerous articles and chapters about breastfeeding and caring for multiples. 

She co-founded a local group, RISCS (Resolving Infant Sleep Controversies Safely). A former ILCA president, she was designated Fellow of the International Lactation Consultant Association (FILCA).

Levita is a registered Counselling Psychologist and Lecturer within the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her research interests are in the area of perinatal psychology, adverse childhood experiences and its impact on attachment patterns and subsequent parenting practices. Within this space, her current research projects are looking at fathers transition to fatherhood, father’s engagement in night-time infant care, and factors influencing parenting choices in relation to night-time infant care and uptake of safe sleep messages.

Shel Banks is an UK-based IBCLC, specialising in the unsettled baby with symptoms of colic, reflux, allergy and faltering weight. She also works in the NHS as well as working and volunteering for various national and international organisations in the world of infant feeding and early parenting. She was involved in 3 x infant feeding-focussed NICE Guidelines - including NG75 on Faltering weight in Infants and Young Children. In addition, Shel is clinical director for the mobile app - Anya, working to support improved pregnancy, parenting and infant feeding outcomes for families everywhere. Shel is currently undertaking her doctoral study on supporting parents of unsettled babies with colic, reflux and allergy, through the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture (MAINN) Group at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), UK. She is the author of the book Why Formula Feeding Matters (2022).

Kumi obtained her medical degree in 1997 later followed by a year of psychiatry internship and PhD at Osaka University in 2002.

She studied the neural mechanism of parent-infant relationship as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Michel Meaney at McGill University and then at RIKEN Brain Science Institute. She has been the head of the Laboratory for Affiliative Social Behavior at RIKEN since 2008. She is a mother of four boys.