Dr Jo Taylor

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Newcastle, Australia

Dr Jo Taylor is a dedicated Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle. She is a highly accomplished mixed methods, public health specialist who has made significant contributions to improving the health outcomes and wellbeing of vulnerable populations and communities, including Aboriginal women in contact with the criminal justice system. Dr Taylor’s research is distinguished by her multidisciplinary and collaborative partnering with government and non-government organisations, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, consumer groups and community. Her research centres on critical issues such as health equity and access, co-design, models of service delivery, health systems, innovative care models, prevention strategies, implementation, effectiveness and evaluation. Dr Taylor's research has led to significant improvements in healthcare practices and policies, particularly for vulnerable populations, through innovative public health strategies and collaborative projects. Collaborating with esteemed partners such as the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network, Corrective Services NSW, Cancer Council NSW and Cancer Council Victoria.  Jo's research delivers high-quality, tangible outcomes that impact communities and healthcare systems. Dr Taylor has also made contributions to the Global Burden of Disease studies that informs future policy, resource allocation and health systems planning.

Professor Elizabeth Sullivan

Clinical Research Lead in Custodial Health | Professor of Equity and Health, Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network | The University of Newcastle, Australia

Georgia Dagger

PhD candidate / Associate Lecturer, University of Newcastle, Australia

Georgia is a PhD candidate and Associate Lecturer in Health Behaviour Science at the School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Australia. Georgia has a multidisciplinary background in Social Science Psychology, Social Work and Public Health and is a qualified social worker. She has extensively worked as a sexual assault and domestic violence counsellor, a case manager for children and young people in out-of-home care, and in youth mental health. Grounded in an intersectional feminist framework, Georgia is passionate about advancing gender equity through policy reform and evidence-based interventions, with a particular focus on strengthening systems that impact women’s safety, wellbeing, and access to justice.

Maja Zawadzka

Vice-director for Penitentiary Science Institute for international, state cooperation and scientific research projects, University of Justice, Poland

A psychologist specializing in health and clinical psychology, she is a certified cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist (PTTPB) and EABCT, and an EMDR therapist. She has professional experience in occupational medicine, social welfare, public and private mental health clinics, and academic and military teaching. She completed internships, including a professional internship at a prison hospital and a clinical internship at the Psychiatry Clinic of the 10th Military Clinical Hospital and Polyclinic in Bydgoszcz. She has obtained certification in transport psychology, psychological assessments of individuals applying for firearms licenses, the use of clinical test batteries in the diagnostic process, and the assessment of officers' suitability for service in specific positions or units of the Prison Service. She completed postgraduate studies in crisis intervention, CBT (University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw), transport psychology (University of Warsaw), and penitentiary studies (University of Justice).
As part of her therapeutic training, she completed additional training courses, including Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Emotional Schema Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - Level 1 and Level 2. She currently serves as a lecturer and assistant professor at the University's Institute of Penitentiary Studies. Since 2024, she has served as Deputy Director of the Institute of Penitentiary Studies for National and International Cooperation and Research Projects. Her research interests include comparative therapeutic, preventive, and resocialization interventions in various prison systems, burnout, and preventive health care among Prison Service officers.

Caleb Barr

PhD Candidate, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

I am a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. My research, conducted in collaboration with the New Zealand Department of Corrections, focuses on applying different machine learning methods to predict recidivism. I have primarily worked with the RoC*RoI, the New Zealand Department of Corrections' tool for assessing the Risk of Reconviction and Risk of Reimprisonment. This has included evaluating fairness in predictive power of the RoC*RoI across ethnicity and gender, as well as developing approaches to enhance predictive performance.

Tosha Big Eagle

Lead Coordinator and Graduate Research Lead, Washington State University, United States

Tosha Big Eagle is a justice-impacted Indigenous Ph.D. graduate student in the Prevention Science program at Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV). She currently serves as an Outreach Coordinator and Research Support Specialist for the PRISM Collaborative at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. Her research interests include health equity, harm reduction, mass incarceration, gender development, aging, death education, and Indigenous Ways of Knowing.
Tosha is a direct descendant of Wanbdi Tanka (Chief Big Eagle), a Hunkpati Dakota War Chief who was incarcerated under the orders of President Abraham Lincoln. Her passion for this work is deeply rooted in her family’s history—spanning five generations of incarceration, including her great-great-great-grandfather, grandmother, father, and herself. Her research is shaped by these intergenerational experiences, as well as by her personal journey of healing from childhood trauma, addiction, mental health struggles, and incarceration.
Tosha earned her undergraduate degree in Human Development, Psychology, and Addiction Studies in 2022, and her M.S. in Prevention Science in 2025, both from WSUV. Beyond her academic and professional work, her most cherished role is being a mother to two beautiful children, ages 7 and 3.

L. Elizabeth Shatswell

Correctional Education Manager and Academic Partner (UPS), JSTOR Labs Ithaka and University of Puget Sound, United States

L. Elizabeth Shatswell is passionately committed to community building and generational sustainability, viewing access to healthcare and education as vital pathways to fellowship, the preservation of essential knowledge for future generations, and a powerful form of reintegration in the face of legislative, systemic, and cultural erasure. A leader in the higher education space, Elizabeth is a strategic analyst and policy consultant with experience in change management, program design, and product development.
 
After serving 23 years of a juvenile life-equivalent sentence, Elizabeth was granted juvenile parole in 2023. While incarcerated, she faced several health and educational challenges, such as restrictions due to her sentence length, battling cancer, and learning disabilities. Instead of letting these obstacles hold her back, she used them as motivation to create alternative pathways for education and healing practices to support others in similar situations. She now holds three Associate’s degrees in Education, Business, and Liberal Arts, as well as a Bachelor’s degree with a focus on Religion and Bioethics.
 
Today, Elizabeth serves as the Correctional Education Manager with JSTOR Labs at ITHAKA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving global access to education, where she focuses on the JSTOR Access in Prison Initiative. She is the founder of the HOPE Team, an intergenerational end-of-life care program at the Washington Correctional Center for Women, and partners academically with both Washington State University and the University of Puget Sound to research the intersections of healthcare access and pedagogical development. In her spare time, she spoils the family dog, Sunshine.

KeWee Roselle

Director of Multi-Systems Development and Community Support Specialist (TBRC) and Program Lead for Liberation Scholars Student Success (Evergreen), The Black Rose Collective and Evergreen State College, United States

Sayed Mawismi Sayed Mohamad Mustar

Senior Associate Social Development Officer, Department of Social Welfare, Malaysia

With a background in Social Work, Psychology and Disability Studies, Sayed has been a practitioner for almost 16 years in the correctional field in both institutionalized and community-based settings. Focusing on rehabilitation services for youths aged 14 to 21, he has been handling individual and family intervention, initiating community integration, managing, and delivering rehabilitation programs, and involving directly in policy making. Currently integrating interdisciplinary knowledge of Adolescence Psychology, Criminology and Disability Studies in doing research on Youth Justice Systems, especially for youths with cognitive and intellectual impairments. 
Sayed has been invited to be a panel in developing National Youth Rehabilitation Policy, specifically in drafting the Standard Operating Procedures for Community Services under Department of Social Welfare, focuses on children and youths in conflict with laws. He was selected as Supervisor for delivering Community Services programs in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Also, being elected as an auditor for Community Services implementation standard in 2018 and 2019. At the same, he had been given trusts and responsibilities to deliver talks and sharing sessions that focus on the issues of Youth Correctional Settings in Malaysia and recently was invited by Malaysia Human Rights Commission to be one of the panelists to review on reintegration program of released prisoners to be integrated in the community. With relevant experience, it helps to develop his interests in doing research and coming out with proper and justifiable programs related to those within the justice system, specifically on juvenile, those within neurodevelopmental divergent groups and people with disabilities.

Erna Compuesto

Psychologist, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Philippines

Ms. Erna C. Compuesto, RPsy, RPm, is a Licensed Psychologist and Psychometrician at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology – National Headquarters for over two decades. She completed her Master's studies in Psychology with a specialization in Clinical Psychology at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Manila. Erna specializes in the psychological assessment of personnel and persons deprived of liberty (PDL) in jail. She conducts psychological first aid, stress debriefing, stress management seminars, counseling, and psychosocial support to individuals. She likewise develops different psychological intervention programs for personnel and PDL. She is currently the head psychologist of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.

Ndeyapo Emma Nafuka

Director of Rehabilitation, Namibian Correctional Service, Namibia

Ndeyapo Emma Nafuka obtained her PhD in Psychology with a specialization in Forensic Psychology at the Walden University, United Stated. She is currently the head of the Directorate Rehabilitation in the Namibian Correctional Service and has 17 years of experience in working in a correctional environment. She enjoys training correctional officers in Namibia and in other African countries on modern correctional reforms and their practical implementation in an African correctional environment. Ndeyapo has presented various paper at international conferences including the International Correctional and Prison Association, 2012 and 2024, and the Prison Association and African Correction Services Association in 2012. She an agent of change who has a keen interest in contributing towards the development of African literature on offender treatment and the advancement of society.

Hugh Lester PhD.

Architecture Director, Corrections & Secure Psychiatric, STV, United States

Hugh D. Lester has national design, planning, and business development responsibilities in the justice practice at STV, Inc., leveraging his portfolio of jails, prisons, courthouses, and other justice projects ranging from $1.5M to $2.9B. The focus of his work is improving conditions of confinement through architecture and security systems engineering, with an overall goal of improving outcomes for the justice system involved as well as staff. He is pursuing a doctorate in Sociotechnical Systems at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, supplementing his bachelor’s degrees in psychology and architecture and a master’s in criminal justice.