BappScOT, NZROT, Training Lead, Seating To Go, New Zealand

Deb Wilson is an Occupational Therapist with over 30 years clinical experience. She is the Training Lead of Seating To Go, part of the Geneva Healthcare Group and a leading wheelchair and seating assessment, training and repair service in New Zealand.

In 2009, she helped develop the NZ Ministry of Health wheeled mobility and postural management credential for occupational therapists and physiotherapists. She is the NZ Chair for OSS and has contributed to capacity building in the Pacific Islands with Motivation Australia. Deb is currently a member of the ISWP Wheelchair Educators Package Development Group

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.

Since qualifying as an Occupational Therapist in 1997, Liz has worked in several practice areas including acute care and rehabilitation in hospital settings and community rehabilitation in both New Zealand and the UK. 

Having enjoyed assistive technology thorough out her career, Liz began working in the field of complex wheelchairs and postural management in 2007.  Since then, she has worked in clinical, coaching and leadership roles within the wheelchair and seating. She has been involved extensively in service development, working groups and professional forums within the sector and is a member of the national Enable Panel for the credentialing of therapists in Wheeled Mobility and Postural Management – Level 2 and complex custom fabrication and has been a member of the planning committee for Oceania Seating Symposium - NZ.  Liz joined the Seating to Go team as Service Manager in 2021.

BOCCTH, NZROT, Clinical Services Advisor, Enable New Zealand, New Zealand

Rachel  graduated as an occupational therapist in 1995. She has worked in a variety of adult and paediatric services within New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Most of her practice has been in community settings and included wheelchairs and seating. Rachel has been in her current role  since 2010. This role involves her running wheelchair, seating, and lying support outreach clinics in the lower South Island of New Zealand. In addition to this, she provides clinical advice for requests outside of the outreach setting. Rachel has published two articles on lying supports, one on back supports, and has presented on these topics, multiple sclerosis, and motor neuron disease at other symposiums.

Rachel was on the External Review Group for the World Health Organization Wheelchair Provision Guidelines that were published in 2023.

In 2022 she participated in a research study entitled Tele-delivery of complex wheelchair assessment: a comparative case study which was run through the University of Otago, in  New Zealand.

Dr. Fiona Graham teaches postgraduate courses in interprofessional rehabilitation with the University of Otago and supervises students through masters and PhD studies. Her research interests focus on relational interventions in rehabilitation, such as coaching; telehealth in rehabilitation and implementation of evidence-based rehabilitation.

Rachel Hibbs is an Assistant Professor and Director of Continuing Education in the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology at the University of Pittsburgh, and Co-Director of the International Seating Symposium. Additionally, she provides clinical care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Center for Assistive Technology and the UPMC Rehabilitation Institute.

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

Marleen Goedhart & Dean Bradley 
Icon Conference & Event Management Ltd

Phone - 09 845 5540

Mail - PO Box 44195, Pt Chevalier, Auckland 1246  

Physical - Unit 3, Level 3, 58 Surrey Crescent, Grey Lynn, Auckland