Keynote Speakers
Dr Carolyn Shaw
Dr Carolyn Shaw (she/her) is a New Zealand Registered Music Therapist, supervisor, disability advocate, and teaching fellow at the New Zealand School of Music, Te Kōkī, Victoria University of Wellington, Aotearoa. Since graduating in 2007, she has worked predominantly with children, adolescence, and their families in multiple areas of practice, such as, mental health, disability, ACC rehabilitation, palliative care, and education.
Carolyn believes in the importance of ongoing research and learning, and this is reflected in the subjects she teaches at university (music therapy research methods and supervising postgraduate students’ research projects). Carolyn is passionate about disability advocacy and in addressing ableism through her writing, research and practice.
Her PhD study developed ‘Post Ableist Music Therapy’ to help make this a central focus in her work. She draws on critical approaches, posthumanism and disability studies. Carolyn has been involved in Music Therapy New Zealand council, the standards of practice working party NZ, and is an article editor for ‘Voices: a world forum for music therapy’.
Jennifer Bibb
Jen is a Registered Music Therapist with expertise working with people living with mental ill health. She has worked in Victorian mental healthcare services for over 10 years.
During this time, she has established new music therapy programs in three of the biggest mental health services in Victoria and her advocacy work has been instrumental to the growth of the profession. In her role as Mental Health Advisor for the Australian Music Therapy Association (2017-2020) She has led submissions to the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) and the Victorian Royal Commission into Mental Health to lobby for the inclusion of music therapy within national and state government mental health funding models. Jen is now the Editor-In-Chief of the Australian Journal of Music Therapy and an Operational Committee Chair for the AMTA.
Jen is also a researcher and currently holds a Research Fellow position at The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation at the University of Melbourne. The ALIVE Centre is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) as part of a special initiative in mental health. It is the first government funded research centre in Australia to be led by priorities informed by people with lived experience and to have lived experience embedded at all levels of the governance structure. Within the ALIVE Centre, Jen specialises in co-design and participatory approaches to research, using creative arts methods to support people with mental ill health to transform the Australian mental health system.
She is the author of 22 publications and has presented her work at national and international conferences. Jen’s research interests are around supporting improved health outcomes through music use for people with lived experience of eating disorders and mental ill health.
