Professor Melinda Webber is of Ngāti Hau, Ngāti Kahu, and Ngāti Whakaue descent. Melinda teaches and researches at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at The University of Auckland. She leads a number of research projects focused on better understanding the effects of Māori student motivation and academic engagement, culturally sustaining teaching, localised curricula, and enduring school-family-community partnerships for learning. 

Dr. Sarah Ferguson is the Executive Director of Breathe Repeat. She holds a PhD in Computational Optics from the University of Georgia as well as two BSc (Cum Laude) in Physics. Her passion is for learning and understanding how things work, and this especially applies to wellness in relation to peak performance. She spent many years working with the best and the brightest in her field and can speak first-hand to the symbiosis between personal and professional flourishing.