Alicia Koedijk co-facilitates the Groote Schuur Hospital Pain Clinic’s THRIVE TRIBE, Peer Support Group. She has 20 years of lived experience with neuropathy and is an advocate for persons living with chronic pain and disabilities. She is an IASP member and a Global Alliance of Partners for Pain Advocacy (GAPPA) Advocate. Alicia is also a South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) Peer Support Group Leader for Students Living with Disabilities. Currently in her second year as a BA Anthropology & Psychology student at the University of South Africa, Alicia wants to specialise in Pain Management.

Fiona Talkington is a distinguished BBC radio presenter, best known for hosting the award-winning program Late Junction. She has presented live concerts from venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall and produced documentaries and talk shows for the BBC. Fiona holds a Master of Arts in Literature and the Visual Arts and a Master of Science in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP). She received the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit for her contributions to the arts and an honorary doctorate (D.Litt) from the University of Reading.  

Drawing on her personal experience with chronic neuropathic pain, Fiona serves as a patient partner in PAINSTORM and co-produces its podcast, PAINCAST.  

She has also participated in numerous SIGs for IASP and has facilitated numerous workshops for students and research groups with her focus on the communication and expression of chronic pain for individuals and in healthcare settingsand expression of chronic pain for individuals and in healthcare settings. In addition, Fiona has a forthcoming publication with Bloomsbury on the role of creative arts in enhancing communication between patients and clinicians. 

Jan Dirk Barreveld lives with his wife and two daughters in Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he works as a comic artist and illustrator of children’s books. He suffers from Primary Erythromelalgia as a result of a sodium channel gene mutation. When his hands warm up they become red and painful.

Jo Josh is a freelance communications professional specializing in translating medical and research information into plain language for mainstream audiences. Her background includes news and feature production for print and broadcast media, brand marketing, and crisis management. Since 2018, Jo has worked with the British HIV Association (BHIVA) on communications and advocacy with media, health systems, government, and HIV community organizations.  

She suffers from HIV-related peripheral neuropathy and edited language for “ACT OPEN,” a randomized controlled trial of online acceptance and commitment therapy for neuropathic pain in people living with HIV. In 2022, Jo provided plain language translations of research papers for IASP and is one of three patient partners for the PAINSTORM consortium (https://www.painstorm.co.uk), a three-year research project into the causes and mechanisms of neuropathic pain. She is a member of the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP).  

Jo’s roles include Data Safety Monitoring on the RIO study (bNAbs), CONNECT research into digital communications in sexual health, and patient communications for Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust as a member of its Council of Governors. She is a former Vice Chair of a NICE committee. 

Philip Cornish is a Consultant Anaesthetist & Specialist Pain Medicine Physician in Adelaide, South Australia. In 2015, he published an account of complete long-term relief of phantom limb pain. This was followed by publications detailing complete, long-term relief of pain in multiple presentations of chronic pain, along with detailed scientific explanations for these results. These findings lead to a different understanding of pain and a different approach to it. 

Stephen Hart's neuropathic pain is diabetes related. He spent three years training to be a nurse but then a year after qualifying gave it up to become an actor/ YouTuber/ radio presenter and HIV advocate. Stephen speaks publicly about living with HIV as one of the Positive Voices speakers for the HIV charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust. He is also a singer in an HIV choir, the Joyful Noise Choir, and has previously worked professionally in both London’s Westend and Broadway.  

Toufieka Kanasashi is a patient at Groote Schuur Hospital and an active THRIVE TRIBE member. She has lived with neuropathy since the age of 7, caused by aggressive Keloid scarring. Toufieka is an advocate for patients living with this rare condition.

Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is an Assistant Professor at the Washington University Pain Center and the Division of Clinical and Translational Research at the Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch has a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. During her Ph.D, she worked with Dr. David Yarnitsky and specialized in pain modulation mechanisms in adults with chronic pain. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with Dr. Robert Coghill where she studied the neural changes in pediatric patients with chronic pain and after interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. In her Pain Across the Lifespan (PAL) lab, she focuses on studying the impact of sex hormones on pain specifically in adults and adolescents with migraine, endometriosis and arthritis. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is involved with IASP and USASP and seeks to promote early career programs and is the past president for the IASP Early Career Network.  

Dr. Marie-Eve Hoeppli is a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Susanne Becker at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In her current research, she focuses on the study of mechanisms, in particular brain mechanisms, underlying functional disability.

Dr. Hoeppli completed her PhD in Dr. Petra Schweinhardt’s lab at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). For her PhD, she worked on behavioral responses and cerebral representations of muscle pain and fatigue in healthy individuals. She then completed a first post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Robert Coghill at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She worked extensively on the brain mechanisms of individual differences in the experience of pain. She also conducted and collaborated on studies investigating mechanisms of pediatric chronic pain conditions and recovery from these conditions.

Dr. Hoeppli is the current Chair of the Early Career Network and a committee member of multiple committees and task forces within IASP. She is very invested in supporting and promoting early career members of IASP in their professional development within and outside the association

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Harrison is a doctoral candidate at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). His PhD focuses on applying and advancing causal inference methods to strengthen the use of observational data in guiding evidence‑based management of musculoskeletal conditions. He is passionate about supporting early career researchers and trainees and has been a member of the Education Committee of the IASP ECN since 2023.

Dr. Michele Sterling is a Professor at the RECOVER Injury Centre, Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence: Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury at the University of Queensland, an NHMRC Leadership (L2) Fellow, and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Michele’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain injury, predictive algorithms for outcomes, and developing effective interventions for musculoskeletal injury and pain. Michele has served the IASP in many roles, including as a Section Editor of Pain and Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2024 World Congress on Pain in Amsterdam.  

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Adam Hirsh, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University (Indianapolis) and a licensed clinical psychologist. He leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on preventing and managing chronic pain through patient-centered coaching, clinician training, investigations of pain-related injustice, music-based interventions, and virtual patient/clinician and AI applications. Using clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic approaches, his work identifies psychosocial mechanisms and translates them into pragmatic, scalable interventions. He also mentors numerous PhD students and early-career scholars through NIH-funded training grants and holds leadership roles in national and international organizations. 

Aayushi is currently an MD-PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD is being conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Department of Paediatrics at the UoM. Her topic will be covering chronic pain characterisation in children with cerebral palsy. Aayushi has completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine with a Major in Neuroscience at the UoM and is part way through her medical degree. She is keen on becoming a clinician & researcher in the future with a key focus on paediatric pain, neurodisability & rehabilitation.

Kelly Nguyen is a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Kelly’s research interests include the use of digital and non-pharmacological interventions to promote self-management and pain management in children with chronic health conditions. Her decision to pursue a PhD was inspired by her previous research work involving children with arthritis and her clinical experiences as a nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Winfried Meissner was appointed Head of Jena University Hospital’s Pain Unit in 1994, and Head of the Palliative Care Department in 2009. The Pain Unit covers all areas of pain management (acute pain service, outpatient service unit, inpatient consultation service, multimodal pain management program, interdisciplinary pain conference). Meissner and his group have initiated two large pain registries, QUIPS in Germany and PAIN OUT international, to improve postoperative pain management and to facilitate health service research. These projects resulted in more than 100 publications, including a couple of landmark papers. He was coordinator of European Commission funded IMIPainCare and subproject PROMPT (Providing Standardized Consented PROMs for Improving Pain Treatment).

In 2020, Winfried received the Robert G. Addison Award by the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Winfried was President of the German Pain Society from 2021-2022 and Past President from 2023-2024. He is member of several national and international societies including ESAIC and IASP.

Winfried volunteers with the Johanniter Unfallhilfe (St John Ambulance), a humanitarian organisation affiliated with the Brandenburg Bailiwick of the Order of St John. Recently, he  raised funding for PAMELA, a project aiming to prevent and treat phantom limb pain in Ukraine.

Winfried is married and has five children.

Dr Dominic Aldington, originally a consultant anaesthetist,  currently works  exclusively on pain management, with expertise in acute and chronic pain, including migraine. He has authored over 75 publications in leading journals and presented internationally. A member of the British Pain Society and IASP, he serves as Chair of IASP’s SIG on Pain of Torture, Organised Violence and War.

David Holloway joined the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePPOC) as Director in May 2022, after an extensive career in both the public and private sector, most recently as Director of Quality and Safety for an Australian community nursing and aged care organisation. ePPOC has been collecting pain outcomes data for more than a decade across Australia and New Zealand and is currently progressing towards the third iteration of its dataset. 

David has held a varied range of operational management and clinical governance roles covering both face-to-face and telehealth delivery models and completed his PhD thesis on the efficacy of virtual environments in increasing competence and confidence of nursing students in relation to medication administration.

Andrew Rice is Professor of Pain Research at Imperial College London and President of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). He earned his medical degree from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1982 and his research doctorate from St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in 1991. Andrew underwent specialist training in Oxford and at St Thomas’ Hospital before joining Imperial College in 1995. He led the Pain Research Group at Imperial College from its inception in 1995 until 2026. His research spans neuropathic pain in infectious diseases (HIV, Herpes Zoster, HTLV-1, leprosy), diabetic neuropathy, and peripheral nerve trauma and amputation, with a focus on improving translational research and evidence synthesis.  

Andrew chaired the IASP Presidential Task Force on Cannabis and Cannabinoid Analgesia and the Scientific Programme Committee for the 2020 World Congress on Pain. He previously served as an IASP Councilor and was elected President-Elect in 2022. Andrew is an Honorary Consultant in Pain Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, stepping aside from clinical practice in 2023 to fulfill his presidential duties. 

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/a.rice

Dr. Tankred Stöbe is a specialist in Internal, Intensive and Emergency Care Medicine. His first project with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Germany was in Thailand/Myanmar in 2002. Since then his has taken part in more than 30 missions with Doctors Without Borders in  Syria, Haiti, the Gaza Strip, Ukraine, and Sudan.  Tankred Stöbe has also held various positions within Doctors Without Borders, including serving on the German board in 2004 and serving as president of the German section from 

Professor  Burkhard Gustorff is Chair the  Department for Anaesthesia, Intensive care and Pain Medicine at the Ottakring Clinic in Vienna. He has been active in pain therapy and pain research for over 20 years with a  focus on neuropathic pain, pain diagnosis using QST and invasive pain therapy. Burkhard has gained  considerable experience in postgraduate education and university teaching and sees himself someone who can bridge over  between knowledge gained from research and the clinical routine.  Collaborating  with colleagues in Ukraine, including the rehabilitation center Superhumans, Burkhard  has set up the Ukrainian-Austrian Pain Management School.   They plan to hold the school at least twice a year, engaging multidisciplinary professionals,  including physiatrists, rehabilitation experts, anaesthesiologists, neurologists. The goal is to establish a sustainable national pain management system grounded on a multidisciplinary approach and aligned with European clinical standards.

Professor Sascha Tafelski is a senior consultant, clinical scientist, anesthesiologist, and specialist in pain medicine.  Sascha has over a decade of experience at the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at Charité Medical Center, Berlin. Starting in April this year, he will take up a professorship focused on postoperative neuropathic pain at the University Hospital Greifswald in northeastern Germany

Dr Jennifer Ernst is Director of the Innovative Amputation Medicine, Department of Trauma Surgery, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (MHH). Jennifer is a specialist in Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery. She has expertise in modern surgical techniques such as targeted muscle reinnervation (TMR), osseointegration, and Agonist-Antagonist-Myoneuronal-Interface (AMI).

Dr Volodymyr Romanenko is a neurologist, Headache and Pain Specialist, Consultant at the Institute of Family Medicine. He serves as President of the Ukrainian Headache Research Society, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Association for the Study of Pain, and European Pain Federation EFIC Councillor for Ukraine. Volodymyr’s areas of clinical and scientific interest include headache, neuropathic pain, and low back pain. He co-leads the PAMELA project with Winfried Meissner. 

Vitalii Marchenko is a senior physical therapist at Superhumans Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, Ukraine. Vitalii works with amputees, helping them to adapt to prosthetics and restore function. 

Dr. Jan van der Merwe has been active in the private and public sectors as a Clinical Psychologist for over 30 years. Jan was the clinical lead psychologist of interdisciplinary pain management teams at  King Edward VII’s Hospital in London (Veteran-Specific Pain Management Programme); Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London; and the Real Health Institute, London. Jan has contributed to scientific meetings and has published research articles, chapters and studies over the years, and continues to be engaged in such activities.

Dr Harriet Kemp is a Senior Clinical Lecturer within the Division of Anaesthetics Pain Medicine & Intensive Care. She is an Honorary Consultant in Pain Medicine at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust where she leads a specialist neuropathic pain service. Harriet’s main research interests are the long term, pain-related, outcomes associated with traumatic injury and critical illness. Harriet sits on the Project Board of the Armed Services Trauma and Rehabilitation Outcome (ADVANCE) study which investigates the physical and psychosocial outcomes of combat injury (www.advancestudydmrc.org.uk). She leads the pain research for ADVANCE to understand pain-related outcomes in veterans and armed forces personnel. Her studies include sensory profiling through quantitative sensory testing, identification of blood and tissue-based markers and patient reported outcome measures. She has also led systematic review work identifying pain prevalence and risk factors for pain following traumatic injury.

Ruth Zaslansky, DSc. Trained as a pain neurophysiologist. Currently Scientific Director of PAIN OUT, an international quality improvement and research network working to improve management of postoperative management.  PAIN OUT has been involved in many projects in low resource countries – working with local healthcare providers to assess  pain-related patient reported outcomes, treatments for post-operative pain and implement quality improvement projects.  In IASP, Ruth is secretary of the Pain Registry SIG.