Professor Manohar Pawar, Professor at Charles Sturt University, Australia and a member of the Institute for Land Water and Society. He has more than thirty years of experience in social work education, research and practice in Australia and India. Earlier he has taught at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and La Trobe University. He is the lead chief investigator of research funded by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Project, which focuses on virtues and social work practice. In addition to coordinating PhD and DSW programs, he teaches several subjects relating to social work and social policy, international social development and field education in international contexts, and undertakes research that integrates his teaching and practice interests.

Professor Mariko Kimura, Regional President, International Federation of Social Work Asia Pacific Region and Professor of Social at Japan Women’s University and currently Regional President, International Federation of Social Workers Asia Pacific Region. She has been an active Member-at-Large of IFSW and Board member of Japanese Association of Psychiatric Social Workers and Chair of the International Committee of JAPSW, Policy Committee on Social Welfare of persons with disabilities of Kawasaki city as well as Board member of Stride Clubhouse in Tokyo. Mariko is on the editorial board of Japanese Journal on Psychiatric Rehabilitation and International Social Work Journal. Her publications include: Art therapy with immigrant children. Vancouver Art Therapy Institute; and “Psychiatric social workers in U.S., Canada, and U.K.,” In Mental Health Services in the World, Shinfuku and Asai (Eds.). Tokyo: Health Press. Professor Kimura will speak on the implications of the newly adopted Global Definition of Social Work Profession for social work practice.

Prof Vimla Nadkarni is Chairperson, Centre for Teaching-Learning Support to Network for Enhancing Social Work Education, School of Social Work, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her teaching and research focus is on health social work, community health and social work education. After heading the department of medical and psychiatric social work at TISS, she has served as founder Dean of the School of Social Work. She has also worked as the Secretary General of the Family Planning Association of India and is setting up a National Network of Schools of Social Work in India. She is the Vice-President of the Bombay Association of Trained Social Workers. Prof Vimla speaks on social work education and its contribution to social transformation.