Lucia (Lou-see-yah) is a Speech Pathologist at NeuroBloom Speech Pathology. She studied her Bachelor of Speech Language Pathology in Albury NSW. Lucia was awarded first class Honours for her research on parents and caregivers role in early intervention. Lucia’s honours research included a national survey of 435 Australian parents and caregivers. Lucia presented her research at the Asia Pacific Society of Speech Language and Hearing Conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2023 and in Bangkok, Thailand in December of 2025. Lucia is neurodivergent herself! Feel free to ask her about her special interests (she has many). Lucia was born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. Lucia has an instagram page @thecleftspeechie, where she shares posts about cleft and facial difference advocacy, neurodivergence and evidence based practice.

Sarah Verdon is an Associate Professor in Speech Pathology at Charles Sturt University. She is a neurodivergent speech pathologist, early childhood researcher and mother of 3. Her research across 6 continents focuses on embracing the diversity of children from different cultures, languages, geographic areas, socioeconomic backgrounds and levels of ability to create equitable opportunities for all children to have a strong start to life. Sarah represented Australia on the World Health Organisation Development Group for Autism, oversaw development of the Speech Pathology Australia national position paper for “Culturally responsive practice in speech pathology” and is country liaison for Australia to the Asia Pacific Society of Speech Language and Hearing. Sarah hosts the “Talking Children Podcast”, a podcast designed to share evidence-based information on communication development and neurodiversity. Sarah runs a speech pathology practice in rural NSW to provide much needed services to geographically isolated children with communication needs.