Yasmi O Crystal Yasmi got a DDS degree from Technologic University of Mexico; a Pediatric Dentistry certificate from Eastman Dental Center, University of Rochester, and DMD degree from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.  She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and has been in private practice in New Jersey since 1996, where she  has been voted by her peers as one of the Best Pediatric Dentists in New Jersey Magazine.   Yasmi has been an Executive Board member and lecturer for the Society for the Advancement of Anesthesia and Pain Control from 1986- to date.  She was Co-director of Continuing Education for the New Jersey Society of Dentistry for Children from 1988 to 2003 and Co-director of Continuing Education for the New Jersey Academy of Pediatric Dentistry from 1988 to the present date.  She was President of NJAPD from 2000 to 2006, and expert Consultant to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Council of Clinical Affairs from 2000 to 2003.   Currently, Yasmi is a Media Spokesperson for the AAPD and District II Trustee (covering Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, members in the Federal Services and foreign countries not specifically cited).  She is a long time member of the AAPD, the International Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the International Association of Dental Research.  She has lectured for numerous groups including the Greater NY Dental Meeting and the AAPD College of Diplomates, and has various publications in scientific journals.

Mala Desai BDSc, Grad Dip Clin Dent, MDSc.  Paediatric Dentist Mala graduated in Bachelor of Dental Science from the University of Melbourne in 1988. She spent several years in hospital and private general dental practice in both Melbourne and abroad before completing her Graduate Diploma in Clinical Dentistry in 1995 and her Master’s Degree in Paediatric Dentistry in 1997 at the University of Melbourne. Mala has a busy private specialist practice restricted to paediatric dentistry in Balwyn North, Victoria. She has held positions on various committees including previously having been the Executive Secretary of the Australasian Academy of Paediatric Dentistry and the President of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Paediatric Dentistry, Victorian branch. She is a Consultant Paediatric Dentist at the Royal Children’s Hospital where she treats children with salivary drooling and oro-motor dysfunction. In her part time position as a Clinical Demonstrator and Lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry, she is also actively involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate training at the University of Melbourne and the Royal Dental Hospital Melbourne. Mala’s research interests include dentistry for children with disabilities and special needs, dental erosion, dental trauma, and pulp therapy in the primary and young permanent dentition. She has presented widely both in Australia and overseas. Her audiences have been diverse and range from international paediatric dentists and other dental specialists to more local groups such as toddlers at the local kindergarten or new mums at the maternal and child health centre. Her interests outside dentistry are varied and revolve around a busy family life - she is married and has three young sons.

Cameron Grant Regretabbly Dr Grant has had to cancel his participation at the Convention.    Nicky Kilpatrick will present on a similar topic.

David Healey David graduated with a BDS from Otago in 1989.  He then worked in Australia, Wales, Zambia and Zimbabwe before returning to the three year MDS Orthodontic training program at Otago, from which he graduated in 1997 with distinction.  From 1998 to 2001 he worked in the South of England in private and hospital orthodontic practice before returning to NZ to take up an academic career.  He successfully sat his Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Examinations in 2004.  After eight years as a senior lecturer in Orthodontics he is taking a few years off to complete his PhD “Expectations and satisfaction with orthodontic treatment” and perfect the art of being a house-husband.  His areas of academic interest include quality of life outcome assessment, craniofacial morphology, sleep apnoea, cleft lip and palate and forensic identification. He also enjoys photography, cooking and wine.

Sally Hibbert Sally is employed as a Staff Specialist in Paediatric Dentistry at Westmead Centre for Oral Health and the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and is also postgraduate course coordinator for Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Sydney.    She was born in the UK and completed her BDS at Liverpool in 1986 and then worked in hospital practice for 2 years before moving into general dental practice and the community dental service for a further 5 years.  She completed her FDS RCS Edinburgh in 1993 and was employed as lecturer in Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Liverpool from 1994 – 2002.  During that time she completed a training pathway in Paediatric Dentistry and was awarded the Intercollegiate Speciality Fellowship in 2002.   Her main research interests whilst employed as a lecturer were the genetics of cleft lip and palate and she was awarded MPhil for an investigation into the inheritance of familial cleft lip and palate.  She has lectured widely in the Australia and UK on the issues of management of anxiety in children, dental trauma and care of the primary dentition.   Sally has a great love of travel – the remoter the better!  She also has interests in a variety of sports, especially golf, and enjoys wine tasting.  She is therefore looking forward to sampling both Otago’s fine wines and golf courses, but ideally not at the same time!

Professor Jules Kieser Jules was born in 1950 in Pretoria, South Africa.  After obtaining a BSc from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1971, he qualified as a dentist in 1975.  Having completed his compulsory Army year, he went into practice first in the outback of South  Africa and subsequently in London and Johannesburg.  While in practice, he received a PhD in 1989 and was appointed as Reader in Craniofacial Biology and also Honorary Professor of Anatomy at Wits.  In 1996 he was appointed to the Chair, and Head of the Department of Oral Sciences, University of Otago, a position that he held until 2009.  He subsequently obtained a DSc in 2001 and was awarded an ad hominem Fellowship in Dental Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.    Jules was recently elected as a professional Fellow of the Forensic Science Society (UK). Currently, he is the Director of the Sir John Walsh Research Institute at the Faculty of Dentistry.

Celia Lashlie Celia is a researcher and social commentator who has worked for 15 years within the Prison Service, starting in December 1985 as the first woman to work as a prison officer in a male prison in New Zealand.  Her final role within the Service was as Manager of Christchurch Women’s Prison, a position she left in September 1999.   Celia, who has a degree in anthropology and Maori, is the mother of two adult children. She now works on a number of projects, all of which are linked to improving the lives of at-risk children and empowering families to find their own solutions to the challenges they face.   In September 2004, she completed the ‘Good Man’ project. The project, which facilitated discussion within and between 25 boys’ schools throughout New Zealand, aimed to create a working definition of what makes a good man in the 21st century.   What arose from the project was a significant insight into the minds of teenage boys, and what they are feeling at this period in their lives.  There are also some challenging suggestions for parents, as well as a call for women in particular to rethink the way they interact with the men in their lives — their sons and their husbands— if they want to see their sons become the good men they want them to be.   She has written two books; The Journey to Prison: Who goes and why, and He’ll Be Ok: Growing Gorgeous Boys into Good Men.