12th

Joint

World Congress

on Stuttering

and Cluttering

Catherine Theys is Professor in the School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing and Deputy Director of the Child Well-being Research Institute at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She is a speech-language therapist and neuroscientist whose research aims to improve understanding, assessment and treatment of communication difficulties. Her research combines behavioural, neuroimaging and clinical approaches, with a particular focus on developmental and acquired stuttering.

Dr Michelle Swift is a Senior Lecturer in the Speech Pathology Program at Adelaide University and Principal Speech Pathologist - Stuttering and Cluttering at Elcies Speech Pathology. Her work includes research on stuttering treatment processes, social anxiety in people who stutter, cluttering, and implementation of research evidence into clinical practice.

Sue trained and worked as an occupational therapist before completing a master’s in public health. Following her Master's degree, she worked as a research fellow in the Department of Primary HealthCare at the University of Otago (Wellington) for many years before taking up a role as a Senior Lecturer. She started a part-time PhD in 2024 focusing on cluttering, inspired by the difficulty with identifying and obtaining a diagnosis of cluttering for her eldest child.

Professor Janet Beilby is a speech pathologist, academic, and researcher whose work focuses on communication disorders, collaborative models of care, and improving the lives of people who stutter and clutter. With extensive experience across clinical, educational, and research settings, and having supported thousands of individuals who stutter throughout her career, she is committed to advancing evidence-based, person-centred practice and fostering partnerships that enhance communication, participation, and wellbeing.

Marie-Christine Franken is Associate Professor at Erasmus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Trained as a speech-language therapist, she has combined clinical practice and research throughout her career, with a particular focus on developmental stuttering in children. Her work has contributed to research on early intervention, treatment outcomes, and factors associated with the onset and persistence of childhood stuttering.