Associate Professor in Mathematics and Mathematics Education, University of Technology Sydney After completing a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma in Education at University of Sydney, I taught Mathematics in Secondary Schools in Sydney for ten years. I then taught Mathematics and Mathematics Education for a couple of years and completed a Masters of Education, then a PhD in Mathematics Education. I have been at UTS since 1990.
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Dr. Silveira is a clinician researcher and palliative care provider at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Medical Center. Her research interests are in palliative care, cancer pain, and survivorship
Associate Professor, Institute of Marine and Environmental Law, University of Cape Town Melanie Jean Murcott is an associate professor of law at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law, University of Cape Town. She holds an LLB from the University of Cape Town, and an LLM (Constitutional and Administrative Law) from the University of Pretoria (both with distinction). She obtained her LLD (Constitutional Law) from North-West University in 2020. Before joining academia in 2012, Melanie practised as an attorney, including at Hogan Lovells (South Africa) where she was a partner. From 2012 to 2023, Melanie taught and engaged in research at the University of Pretoria. She authored Transformative Environmental Constitutionalism (Brill, 2022), a significant monograph which develops a novel approach to the adjudication of disputes concerning environmental protection, given that we face a planetary crisis with myriad justice implications. Melanie believes, as Maya Angelou says: “no one of us can be free until everybody is free”. Importantly for Melanie, a flourishing environment creates the necessary conditions for freedom since humans and the environment are fundamentally connected.
Professor of Psychology and Assistant Dean of Research: Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand Prof Maria Marchetti-Mercer is a professor of psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and currently serving as assistant dean of research for the Faculty of Humanities. She served as the head of the School of Human and Community Development at Wits from 2012 to 2016. Prior to that, she was the head of the Psychology Department at the University of Pretoria from 2001 to 2011. She has been involved in the training of professional psychologists especially with regard to family therapy for nearly 30 years and her doctoral thesis was on the Milan School of family therapy. She has also received advanced post-graduate family therapy training in Italy. Her current area of research focuses on the impact of migration on South African families and most recently the use of ICTs in African migrant families. Her new co-edited book, “Transnational Families in Africa: Migrants and the Role of Information Communication Technologies” has just been published. She also co-authored a book, “The Italian Diaspora in South Africa: Nostalgia, Identity, and Belonging in the Second and Third Generations" (Routledge) with A. Virga in 2023. She is a C1 NRF-rated researcher and has published widely both nationally and internationally in the field of migration and families, the training of professional psychologists, and family murder. In 2008 she received an award from the Institute for School-Based Family Counseling and the University of San Francisco Center for Child and Family Development for outstanding international contributions to school-based family counselling presented at Brasenose College, Oxford University. She was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy in 2022 for her professional contributions from the president of Italy.
