Speakers

Maria Pedavoli is a Distinguished Toastmaster (10 years +) as well as an Educator, Careers Advisor and Vocational Education specialist living in Sydney Australia. Her area of expertise is in Generational Differences in the workplace and developing strategies for engagement between differing generations for a more harmonious and productive workplace. She has a Bachelor's degree in Education and Master’s degree in Education with a specialisation in Career Development and is currently undertaking further graduate study in Workforce Transformation. 

Jemma Louise Geoghegan is a Scottish-born evolutionary virologist, based in New Zealand, who specialises in researching emerging infectious diseases and the use of metagenomics to trace the evolution of viruses. As a leader in several government-funded research projects, Geoghegan became the public face of genomic sequencing during New Zealand's response to COVID-19. Her research has contributed to the discussion about the likely cause of coronavirus and the challenges around predicting pandemics. She was a recipient of the Young Tall Poppy Award in 2017 and the Rutherford Discovery Fellowship in 2020. Geoghegan is a lecturer at Otago University (New Zealand).