Harry McConnell

Physician, Clinical Neuropsychiatrist, Inclusive Community Health and Disability Advocate, Australia

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Professor McConnell is a neuropsychiatrist specializing in developmental disorders and brain injury with more than 30 years of experience in both the clinical and public health aspects of health and disability. He has trained in both neurology and psychiatry as well as in disability medicine, pain medicine epileptology and psychology. He has published five textbooks and worked as Clinical Editor at BMJ Clinical Evidence (the British Medical Journal of Clinical Evidence). Professor McConnell has worked extensively with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Bank Institute (WBI), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other key national and international agencies. He trained at healthcare centers of excellence in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. Professor McConnell has also edited seminal texts concerned with synthesizing research and establishing the evidence-based practice of psychiatry, and he is the co-editor of arguably the leading texts for evidence-based practice in medicine, with major contributions to the industry-standard reference Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines and such highly regarded journals as BMJ Clinical Evidence and Evidence-Based Mental Health. In Australia he has been the Director of Neurosciences at St. Vincent's Hospital, Brisbane; Neuropsychiatrist at the Northern Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service; Clinical Sub-Dean and Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Neurodisability at Griffith University School of Medicine; Chair of the Queensland Disability Advisory Council, South East Region; Chair of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) Neuropsychiatry Committee; and Director of the Institute for the Clinical Advancement of Neuroplasticity (I CAN!). Professor McConnell has also been an advisor to many ministers in various governmental departments of health and disability both at a national and state level and Expert Advisor to the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration as well as a major contributing member of the Australian Advisory Committee on Prescription Medicines (ACPM). He has worked with regional Public Advocate offices in Australia and with key advocacy organizations for human rights and advocacy issues related to disability, being passionate about developing integrated evidence-based services for people with neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. He has developed highly successful national referral centers in Australia and in the USA and is widely known for his commitment to integrated values-based approaches to health and disability. On the basis of his global reputation and achievements in academic medicine, clinical neuropsychiatry and public health, Professor McConnell is one of a very small handful of Queensland physicians who have been awarded MO4 (International Pre-eminence) status with Queensland Health and an even smaller handful who have been awarded International Eminence (Category III) Fellowship from RANZCP. Professor McConnell has provided consultancy to many national governments and Royal Commissions and has worked directly with heads of state and health ministers internationally. He played an instrumental role with the African Union in the development of the first Africa-wide policy on HIV, malaria, TB and other broadly spread debilitating diseases, significantly contributing to the great reduction in the incidence of those diseases in Africa over the past decades. Professor McConnell has also been involved in both volunteer and paid capacities in special education and in the Special Olympics and recreational programs for people with intellectual and neuropsychiatric disabilities. Professor McConnell is a Master Certified Medical Examiner (MCIME); a member of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN); an associate member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists (ANZAN); a member of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN); and a Fellow of RANZCP and of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM) as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC).  Professor McConnell has earned Certification with the US Boards of Pain Medicine, Medical Psychotherapy, Disability Medicine/ABIME (American Board of Independent Medical Examiners) and Psychiatry. He has been distinguished for convening two debates between the candidates running in the 2003 and 2006 election of the new WHO Director-General. He is the founder of a unique inclusive community for people with disability and their families focusing on lifestyle medicine principles in Australia as Chair of  I CAN! (the Institute for the Clinical Advancement of Neuroplasticity).

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Sandra Regina Schewinsky

Neuropsychologist in Cognitive and Behavioral Rehabilitation and Specialist in Hospital Psychology, Brazil

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Certified as Specialist in Hospital Psychology by the Conselho Regional de Psicologia de São Paulo (CFP – São Paulo Regional Council of Psychology), Professor Schewinsky earned her Master’s Degree in Developmental Psychology at the Universidade São Marcos (UNIMARCO – University of São Marcos) and her PhD in Social Psychology at Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC SP - Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo). Professor Schewinsky is in private practice in psychological counseling while serving in the positions of Psychologist-In-Charge at the Rehabilitation Medicine Institute of the Hospital das Clínicas (Clinical Hospital) of the University of São Paulo Medical School, Neuropsychologist at Hospital Sírio Libanês (the Syrian Lebanese Hospital), and Professor at the Núcleo de Estudios e Pesquisa em Psicologia Hospitalar (NEPPHO – the Center for Studies and Research in Hospital Psychology).

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Alberto Zani

Psychologist and Neuroscientist specializing in brain-mind interaction, Italy

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Professor Zani currently holds the position of Professor of General and Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy. For some 25 years Professor Zani has held positions as a leading researcher in several institutes of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR – National Research Council of Italy), including: the Institute of Psychology, where he was Director of Cognitive Electrophysiology (IP-CNR); the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology, where he was Director of the Electro-Functional Brain Imaging Unit (EFBIu) in the Cognitive Electrophysiology Lab (IBFM-CNR); and the Institute of Molecular Bioimaging and Physiology, where he was a member of the steering scientific board concerned with the investigation of the relationships between brain and mind from a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Since 2012, Professor Zani has continuously served as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and concurrently serves as a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals such as: Psychology and Psychiatry, Psychology and Behavioral Science International Journal, and Brain Sciences, etc. Among the five published books Professor Zani has authored, he has co-authored 3 monographs with Alice Proverbio (Milan Center for Neuroscience, University of Milano-Bicocca), entitled The Cognitive Electrophysiology of Mind and Brain (Foreword by Michael Posner), Cognitive Psychophysiology (Psicofisiologia cognitiva: i substrati neuro-funzionali della mente umana – Foreword by Michael Gazzaniga), and Instrumental Research Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience: EEG and ERP  (Metodi strumentali nelle Neuroscienze Cognitive: EEG ed ERP) – the latter two published in Italian. Professor Zani has also authored some 110 research articles in the areas of performance-related human information processing, visual attention, object perception and categorization, language, and sociorelational neurocognition in such respected peer-reviewed journals as Perceptual and Motor Skills, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Scientific Reports - Nature, Behavioral and Brain Functions, and PLOS One. Having an extensive interest in brain and mind functions, Professor Zani investigates the localization of dynamic activations of neural networks subserving such cognitive domains as vision, visual perception, attention, and polyglotism, and more widely investigates general concepts and principles in cognitive, social and educational neuroscience.