Leslee J. Shaw, PhD is a leading clinical researcher whose major focus is clinical diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, including a special focus on sex differences. She is an endowed chair and tenured professor of Cardiology. She is the Director of the Blavatnik Family Institute for Women’s Health Research. Dr. Shaw has published more than 1,000 publications and presented more than 500 abstracts in major scientific meetings in the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America. She has been ranked as one of the top 1% of clinical researchers with the most highly cited publications (awarded by Thomson Reuters), with an H-index of 154. Based on her scientific contributions, in 2009, Dr Shaw was recognized with the Simon Dack Award for academic excellence from the American College of Cardiology and, in 2013, the Coalition to Reduce Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Award for her research contributions in racial and ethnic differences in cardiovascular disease. In 2013, she received the Women’s Day Red Dress Award for her scientific contributions to women’s health. In 2020, she was awarded the Bernadine Healy Leadership Award in Women’s Cardiovascular Disease from the American College of Cardiology. Also, in 2020, she received the Nanette Wenger Award from the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, and the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. Dr. Shaw is a past president of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology and the Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. The only individual having served as president of two medical societies within cardiovascular medicine.

Associate Professor Sonya Burgess is an Interventional Cardiologist, Consultant, and academic cardiologist. She is a SCAI Emerging Leader Fellowship Program recipient, with a PhD studying STEMI, incomplete revascularization, multi vessel disease, and multiple publications on women’s cardiovascular health and disparities, and the under-representation of women in cardiovascular workforces and research. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications including first author publications in NEJM, JACC, JAMA Cardiology and Circulation, the AHJ and IMJ, her research is cited in ESC 2023 guidelines. Dr Burgess is 1 of only 19 female interventional cardiologists in Australia and New Zealand, she chairs the CSANZ women in cardiology group.

Gemma is a Professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney and an Interventional Cardiologist at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She is the Chair of the University of Sydney’s multi-disciplinary Cardiovascular Initiative. Gemma is committed to improving the care for heart attack patients, unravelling key mechanisms underlying susceptibility and response to heart attack, with studies extending from the bench to large cohort studies and clinical trials. Discoveries in her Laboratory have been published in leading journals including the Lancet, Circulation, JACC and European Heart Journal, with > 250 publications. Gemma is a principal investigator on grants >$42 Mill. Her discoveries and innovative strategies have resulted in a US patent, and 5 provisional patents spanning diagnostic and therapeutic fields. Gemma is founder and CSO for Australian start-ups Prokardia and Kardiomics, and the not-for-profit CAD Frontiers Pty Ltd. She was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Excellence Award for Top Ranked Practitioner Fellow (Australia- 2018), NSW Ministerial Award for Cardiovascular Research Excellence (2019) and was the second female to be awarded the prestigious Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand RT Hall Prize for outstanding and sustained research achievement (2023). Gemma serves as a member of the Editorial Board of leading international journals including Circulation and Cardiovascular Research and an Associate Editor for Heart, Lung and Circulation. She is a passionate advocate for cardiovascular research, working as President of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance with a national team to secure $220 Million Federal funding for the Mission for Cardiovascular Health, and to build new pathways for research to best serve the unmet health needs of Australians. She chairs the MRFF Mission (CV) Expert Advisory Panel. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and serves/has served as a non-executive Director on multiple community Boards, including the Heart Foundation. In 2023, Gemma was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in the Australia Day Honours.

Julie is a Professor of Cardiovascular Care at King's College London, specialising in cardiac surgery outcomes, and the President Elect of the ESC Association of Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions (ACNAP).