Ray Jongs is a Hand Therapist with a passion for the sciences underlying his practice. He is the lead clinician at the Royal North Shore Hospital, with 16 Years experience in Hand Therapy. His analytical approach to splinting was used in a randomised controlled trial, and he continues to investigate hand therapy techniques through research. He will bring an enthusiastic approach to a thought-provoking session on simple orthoses designs based on torsional springs.

Jennifer is an Occupational Therapists and Certified Hand Therapist with 20 years specializing in hand therapy in USA and Australia including acute trauma, burns, sports injury management, musicians’ injuries and hand writing. She trained as a Prosthetist Orthotist before training as an OT.  She has recently been a member of the Australian Hand Therapy Association (AHTA) management Committee.

Simon completed his degree in Occupational Therapy at Curtin University, Western Australia, in 1994. He has worked within the health, not for profit and private sectors in the area of hand and upper limb rehabilitation since graduating, with a particular focus on neurological impairment.

Simon is a Senior Occupational Therapist within the Cerebral Palsy Mobility Service at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. His role is to assist with the management of complex movement disorders, upper limb spasticity and upper limb surgical intervention for children with cerebral palsy.

Simon completed a Masters of Health Services Management in 2003. He is currently completing his PhD at Australian Catholic University. His research is focusing on “Clinical decision making about upper limb orthosis prescription for children with cerebral palsy”. He is a full member of the Australian Hand Therapy Association and a member of the Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

Tanja has worked as the Burns Occupational Therapist at the Adult Burns Unit for South Australia at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for the past 12 years. In the latter half of that time her job description has increasingly added work in hand therapy at RAH. She has been actively involved in ANZBA (Australian & New Zealand Burns Association), is a member of the ABA (American Burns Association) and an Associate member of the AHTA.

Tanja has presented numerous times at ANZBA conferences and at the ISBI (International Society of Burn Injuries) conference. She presents annually the Burns Therapy workshops to OT students of the University of South Australia and Flinders University.

She has been co-author to a couple of burns related journal articles and is the primary author to a recently published systematic review protocol. Another article is currently awaiting publication in the journal ‘Burns’. The systematic review protocol is part of her current Masters of Clinical Science being conducted at the University of Adelaide in conjunction with JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute).

Tanja has endeavoured to explore her horizons beyond the RAH burn unit and has visited burn units in USA and around Australia. However, there is still so much more to learn, research & grow…

Associate Professor Tony Pohl prior to his retirement was the Director of Orthopaedic Trauma at Royal Adelaide Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, University of Adelaide.

Having completed his basic medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Associate Prof Pohl immigrated to Australia approximately 40 years ago.  He completed the Advanced Orthopaedic training program in Adelaide in 1987, before taking a full time position at Royal Adelaide Hospital and was awarded his Doctorate of Medicine at the University of Adelaide in 1991.

He has a major interest in pelvic and acetabular fractures, fracture healing and external fixation of fractures, an active involvement in instrument design and technology and an avid interest in teaching.

On nine occasions since 1990 Associate Professor Pohl has been the recipient of the Mark Bonnin Prize, (voted best clinical teacher, Adelaide University Medical Faculty).

During 2001 he was also the recipient of The Stephen Cole The Elder Prize for Excellence in Teaching, (award for best postgraduate lecturer), Adelaide University, and in 2008 he was awarded the inaugural Derek Frewin Award For Excellence in Clinical Teaching for outstanding contributions to clinical teaching in the School of Medicine as nominated by students of all years University of Adelaide .

During 2009 Associate Professor Pohl also received The Australian Learning and Teaching Council “2009 Citation Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning”.

Tim graduated from the University of South in 1998 with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Physiotherapy). He commenced work in private practice immediately after graduating and spent the next 8 years “really learning about life and people” in the outer, industrial suburbs of Adelaide.

In 2005 Tim started delivering pain education program to clients of a local government agency which assisted injured job seekers find employment. In 2006 Tim was enticed to join the organisation, CRS Australia, to develop and deliver a range of health education programs. A move back to private industry in 2008 as an allied health consultant culminated in Tim being nominated for and winning the Health and Rehabilitation Individual Achievement award at the state wide WorkCover SA Recovery and Return to Work Awards. 

Tim joined NOI full time in 2014 where he continues to teach Explain Pain and Graded Motor Imagery courses around Australia, write for the NOI blog noijam.com, assist with research and development of NOI books and products, and contribute hand made sushi to NOI lunches on a regular basis.

Tim is interested in the philosophy of mind and consciousness and was invited to present a movie and discussion on this topic at the (in)famous Monday Mind Flick movie nights organised by the Body in Mind crew in 2013. Tim was born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia and continues to reside there with his wife, three children, two cats and a dog.

Kathryn Phillips (BScOT) became a full Member of AHTA in 2013. She has many years of varied clinical experience in public and private hand therapy settings in both Perth and London. Kathryn has delivered the undergraduate OT Hand Therapy unit at Edith Cowan University, Perth.

After completing a Grad Cert (Soft Tissue Injury Management) in 2013 Kathryn now works as an Integrative Soft Tissue Occupational Therapist at Health Central Occupational Therapy International in Perth, addressing both upper limb and 'rest of body' acute and chronic conditions. She recently completed Level 1 Fascial Manipulation (Stecco Method), gaining new insights regarding the anatomy and role of fascia in nerve function/dysfunction and pain in general.  Her clinical caseload utilises various hands-on therapy methods and she focus heavily on educating patients about postural awareness, breathing techniques, as well as considering water/diet intake and overall stress levels.