Founders

Ana Catarina Queiroga

PhD - Portugal
Catarina is a Microbiologist with a PhD in Biology and has since 2006 been engaged in several lifesaving projects as well as teaching. She has a special interest in drowning research and prevention issues and in promoting water safety in developing... See more

David Szpilman

MD - Brazil
Graduated in medicine in 1982, worked from 1990 to 2010, as a doctor with lifeguards at the Drowning Resuscitation Centre (Fire Department of Rio de Janeiro). This Centre is a pre-hospital emergency facility at the Rio de Janeiro Beaches, specially... See more

Jonathon Webber

DProf - New Zealand
Jonathon Webber is an Advanced Qualified Lifeguard, and Life Member of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club and Surf Life Saving Northern Region (New Zealand). An Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Anaesthesiology at the University of Auckland... See more

Joost Bierens

MD, PhD - The Netherlands
Dr. Joost Bierens, MD, PhD MCDM, MCPM, was trained as anesthesiologist in Leiden (NL) and emergency physician in Leuven (Belgium). After he completed these trainings, he worked as anesthesiologist and Intensive Care physician (Venlo, NL) and head of... See more

Michael Tipton

PhD - United Kingdom
Educated at the Universities of Keele and London, Professor Tipton joined the University of Surrey in 1986. After 12 years at the Robens Institute and European Institute of Health and Medical Science he moved to the University of Portsmouth in 1998... See more

Justin Sempsrott

MD - USA

Justin has been an Ocean Lifeguard since 1996 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. While attending medical school at the University of South Florida in Tampa, he had the opportunity to see firsthand the immense need for lifeguard and drowning education in... See more

Roberto Barcala Furelos

PhD - Spain

Professor Barcala-Furelos has a Ph.D. in Sports Sciences (University of Vigo, Spain). He has a Bachelor in Sport Sciences (PE) and Bachelor in Nursing (RN). Professor Barcala-Furelos is a lifeguard and lifeguard instructor. Currently is a professor ... See more

Invited Honorary

Linda Quan

MD - USA

Linda Quan MD is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a pediatric emergency medicine phy... See more

Andreas Claesson

PhD - Sweden

Dr. Andreas Claesson has been teaching swimming, ice-rescue and lifesaving courses at the Tylösand SLSC since 1996 and has a PhD... See more

Paddy Morgan

MD - UK

Paddy is a Consultant Anaesthetist and Trauma Team Leader based in Bristol (UK) where he is also a Pre-Hospital Critical Care Doct See more

Billy Doyle

New Zealand

Billy Doyle has over thirty years’ experience as a volunteer lifeguard in New Zealand at Piha beach where he is a qualified advanc... See more

Shayne Baker

PhD, OAM - Australia

Shayne Baker is an experienced lifesaver and water safety advocate/educator that has been involved in drowning prevention strategi... See more

Peter G. Wernicki

MD - USA

Dr. Wernicki graduated from the University of Virginia, and Rutgers Medical School. He completed his Orthopedic Surgery Residency... See more

Richard Franklin

PhD - Australia

Richard Franklin PhD, FPHAA, FARL, MSocSc has worked in Public Health with a focus on the area of Injury Prevention and Safety Pro... See more

Allart Venema

MD - The Netherlands

Allart Venema, MD, is an anesthesiologist at the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands with a special interest in... See more 

Amy Peden

BA, MPP - Australia

Amy Peden has extensive experience in the field of drowning prevention research, policy and practice. She is currently employed as... See more

Andrew Short

MA, PhD, OAM - Australia

Andrew Short is a surfer and marine scientist specializing in coastal processes and beach dynamics. He has degrees from the Univer... See more

Gavin Perkins

MD - UK

Gavin Perkins is Professor of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Warwick.  He leads the emergency and critical care group... See more

José Palacios Aguilar

PhD - Spain

Coordinator of the Research Group “Aquatic Activities and Lifesaving “. Department of Physical Education and... See more

Jennifer Blitvich

PhD - Australia

Associate Professor Jenny Blitvich is Deputy Head, School of Health Sciences and Psychology at Federation University Australia. He... See more

G Keith McElory

BA, DPE, MEd - Australia

Keith is a Senior Research Associate in the Faculty of Health at Federation University, Australia, where he worked for over 30 yea... See more

Tessa Clemens

PhD - Canada

Dr. Tessa Clemens is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Global Child Health at SickKids Hospital in Toronto. Her area of focus is... See more

Teresa Stanley

MBSt, PG Dip BA, BSc, Dip Tchg - New Zealand

Teresa is Research & Development Manager at WaterSafe Auckland in New Zealand. The key goal of this role is to develop researc... See more 

Andrew Schmidt

MD - USA

Andrew is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, FL. He st... See more

David S. Warner

MD, - USA

Dr. Warner is Professor of Anesthesiology, Neurobiology, and Surgery at Duke University. In addition to being a practicing neuroan... See more

Adam Wooler

MPhil - United Kingdom

Dr. Tessa Clemens is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Global Child Health at SickKids Hospital in Toronto. Her area of focus is... See more

Rob Brander

PhD - Australia

Originally from Canada, Associate Professor Rob Brander is a coastal geomorphologist and surf safety educator based at the Univers... See more

Jenny Smith

PhD - United Kingdom

Dr Jenny Page is a senior lecturer and chartered psychologist based at the University of Chichester. Jenny’s research focuse... See more

Brendan Donohoe

BSc, MSc. - Ireland

Brendan Donohoe BSc, MSc, is a computer analyst employed by Local Authorities, where he is working in the area of Geographic Infor... See more

Dan Graham

LLB (Hons) - United Kingdom

Dan Graham has taught water safety and rescue skills in a variety of environments for over fifteen years.  He is currently a Rescu... See more

Aminur Rahman

MD, MME, PhD - Bangladesh

Dr. Aminur Rahman is a renowned child drowning prevention expert nationally and internationally. Currently he has been work... See more

John Connolly

B.Ed, MA in Education (Hons) - Ireland

John Connolly is a retired Primary School Head Teacher with over 40 years lifesaving experience as a voluntary and professional li... See more

Barbara Byers

BBA - Canada

Barbara Byers brings over 10 years of marketing and advertising experience to her current roles as the Public Education Director... See more

John Pearn

MD, PhD - Australia

Professor Emeritus of Paediatrics and Child Health, The School of Medicine, The Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Quee... See more

Kevin Moran

PhD, ONZM - New Zealand

Kevin is a Principal Lecturer in Physical Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Auckland. Kevin has had a lifelong... See more

Tom Mecrow

MPH - United Kingdom

Tom  Mecrow is a public health researcher and programme practitioner, with a focus on drowning prevention in low-income countries... See more

Stathis Avramidis

PhD - Greece

Stathis Avramidis, DipEd, BEd, MSc, PhD serves water safety as an athlete, lifeguard, instructor, academic, and media professional... See more

Afilliated

Silvia Aranda García

PhD - Spain

Silvia Aranda-García is graduated in Physical Activity Sport Sciences and studied PhD about exercise and health. She is a First aid and pathologies teacher in the National Institut... See more

Martin James Barwood

PhD, BSc, FHEA - United Kingdom

Dr Barwood completed his PhD with Prof. Mike Tipton and was part of Prof Tipton’s internationally recognized extreme environments research group at Portsmouth University for 8 year... See more

Lauren Nimmo

MPH, BHSc - Australia

Lauren has extensive experience in drowning prevention practice and research, spanning over more than 12 years. She began her water safety career as a beach lifeguard and swimming... See more

Justine Leavy

PhD, MPH, BSc - Australia

Justine Leavy is a Teaching and Research Academic and completed her PhD in 2013 titled: An evaluation of a Western Australian state-wide physical activity mass media campaign from... See more

Heather Massey

BSc, MSc, PhD - United Kingdom

Heather was educated at Loughborough University, UK, during this time she worked as a swimming teacher, pool and open water lifeguard, before joining the Institute of Naval Medicin... See more

Gemma Crawford

PhD - Australia

Gemma has more than 15 years of experience in the practice, advocacy, teaching and research of health promotion and public health. She is currently a Teaching and Research Academic... See more

Daniel Hartmann

PhD - Israel

Dr. Daniel Hartmann holds a Dipl. Geol. (M.Sc. in Geology) from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (1980), and Ph.D. in Geology from Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark, 1989)... See more

Cristian Abelairas Gómez

PhD - Spain

His academic background is rooted in social sciences, albeit with a strong multidisciplinary character. Cristian Abelairas-Gómez is graduated in Physical Activity and Sport Science... See more

Luis M Pascual

Spain

Technical Manager of Escuela Segoviana de Socorrismo (ESS-Segovia Lifesaving School) Research Director of AETSAS (Spanish Association of Professional Lifesavers) (1960, Segovia, Sp... See more

Seth Hawkins

MD - USA

Dr. Seth Collings Hawkins is one of only a few American physicians holding dual board certification in both emergency medicine and EMS, and has worked for over twenty years in wild... See more

Audrey Giles

PhD - Canada

Audrey is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. For over ten years, she has conducted research with Aboriginal peoples in Canada’s nor... See more

Collaborator

Danny Ayling

I have a personal interest with drowning research as for the past 10 summers I have been employed to provide a sea and beach safety service working with the council beach patrol te... See more

Jo Talbot

Royal, Lifesaving Society, UK
I am very interested in drowning research. I work as the Commercial Director for Royal Lifesaving Society UK, I oversea the development of over 16 qualifications, teaching individu... See more

Ramses Martin i Biosca

MSc - Spain

More than twenty years  as a lifeguard, Lifeguard chief, RIB pilot, lifesaving instructor and water rescue instructor. Renowned specialist in aquatic safety and advisor in beach sa... See more

Bridget Velasco

MPH, PT - United States of America

Bridget Velasco is a public health educator with the Hawaii State Department Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch. She has been the Drowning and Spinal Co... See more

Leonardo Manino

MSEM - Argentina
Leonardo Andres Manino is a Chief Lifeguard of Rosario City in Argentina. He´s Emergency Medical Technician – Paramedic, EMT-P and a Civil Protection and Emergency Technician. Also... See more

Ashley Ridge

BHSc (Hons) - Australia
Ashley is an early career researcher with more than 5 years’ experience in research and program delivery and evaluation in the field of health promotion and public health. She is... See more

Victoria Laxton

BSc, MSc - United Kingdom

Victoria is a PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, in the United Kingdom. Her research aims to explore the role of lifeguard surveillance, with the aim of testing and traini... See more

Olga Marques

PhD - Portugal

My name is Olga Marques, I graduated in Physical Education and Sports in 2010 and Master’s Degree in Exercise and Health in 2012. I was a professor in the Sports and Health... See more

Cody L. Dunne

MD, BSc - Canada
Cody is currently completing his Emergency Medicine residency at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.  Before pursuing medicine, Cody founded The Lifesaving Team, a corpor... See more

Nina Nytrai

B, Soc,Sc - Australia
Nina’s background education is Human Movement & Recreation and she is currently completing her PhD in Aquatic Education: Drowning Prevention (through the University of Newcastl... See more

Jamie Linnea Luckhaus

BSc - Sweden

Jamie Linnea Luckhaus (MPH candidate, NC-EMT) is a second-year master’s in public health student at Lund University in Sweden with a background in water safety and serving at-risk... See more

Hannah Calverley

MSc - Australia

Hannah is currently studying a PhD at Federation University Australia. Her research will focus on the impact of alcohol on youth drowning, with the aim of developing the education... See more

William Koon

M.P.H. - USA
William Koon is an ocean lifeguard and public health researcher and practitioner from California, USA.  William has worked as an ocean lifeguard with California State Parks since 2... See more

Gary Johnson

Australia
Gary is the Director of the Australian company See Clearly Now, and more widely known as the creator of Pool Super Vision™; a program that assists lifeguards and their organisation... See more

Leonardo Springer

PhD - Portugal

Born in Lisbon – Portugal. Trained as a firefighter, first responder, rescue diver, lifeguard and lifeguard instructor, accumulates over 20 years’ experience in rescue. He holds a... See more

Rebecca Sindall

PhD, South Africa

Becky works as a public health engineer and researcher in South Africa. She is a trustee of Nile Swimmers and leads their Research and Vulnerable Communities programmes.  On behalf... See more

Institutional

EPSA

Lifesaving Professional Team Argentina
EPSA, is a non governmental organization founded in 1996 in Argentina and its a full member of the International Life Saving Federation since 1997. The EPSA mission is to lead the... See more

StarGuard Elite

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StarGuard ELITE (SGE) is an aquatic risk prevention agency that is internationally recognized for its elite training, certification, and consulting programs serving lifeguards, man... See more

Lifeguard Without

Borders - LWB

We are a non-profit organization composed of lifeguards and health care professionals who are devoted to doing their part, through domestic and international training, program deve... See more

Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto

Portugal

The Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto (ISPUP) is dedicated to creating and disseminating high quality and competitive knowledge in the broad field of public hea... See more

SOBRASA

Brasil
SOBRASA Sociedade Brasileira de Salvamento Aquático – www.sobrasa.org  Drowning is a major public health problem in Brazil where 16 people die daily, four of them children un... See more