Lisa Kervin AM is Professor in Early Childhood at Monash University. Lisa has been researching in literacy education, play theory and digital technologies using qualitative and mixed methods for over 20 years. Lisa served as the NSW Director for ALEA from 2009-2015 and was the recipient of the 2016 ALEA Medal. In 2024 Lisa became a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of her research in early childhood and digital literacies.

Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor and Head of the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia, and Docent in Education at the University of Helsinki. She is a Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and the International Academy of Education. Her research explores how literacies become entangled with imagination, care, and agency across human and more-than-human worlds. Drawing on sociocultural, posthuman, and design-based perspectives, she investigates how learners engage in worldmaking through digital, material, and ecological literacies. Through creative methodologies, including augmented storying, makerspaces, and participatory arts, her work reimagines literacy as a relational and transformative practice that nurtures new possibilities for learning and coexistence. Kumpulainen’s scholarship has shaped international conversations on digital literacies, learning ecologies, and participatory pedagogies, inspiring educators and researchers to envision literacies that empower imagination, responsibility, and collective futures of care.