Professor Dr. Maya Khemlani David (Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya) received the Linguapax Award in 2007 and   is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, United Kingdom and an Honorary Member of the Foundation of Endangered Languages. As a sociolinguist, Dr. David has a special interest in discourse analysis, languages in Malaysian minority communities, and the role of language in establishing and maintaining national unity within and across cultures. She is a Visiting Scholar, College for Women and also consultant (ELT) for Kinnaird College, both in Lahore, Pakistan. She also is Hon. Academic Consultant, London College of Clinical Hypnosis. She holds an Executive Diploma in Coaching and also in Counselling.  Her publications include Malaysian Indian: Sociocultural Assimilation towards the Malay Majority (2012, Tanjung Malim, UPSI), Leadership Discourse of Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad (2010, Shah Alam, UPENA ), Code-Switching in Malaysia ( 2009,Frankfurt, Peter Lang) and The Sindhis of Malaysia: A Sociolinguistic Account (2001, London, ASEAN), and her co-edited and edited publications are National Planning and Language Shifts in Malaysian Minority Communities: Speaking in Many Tongues(2011,IIAS/ICAS, University of Amsterdam Press), Politeness in Malaysian Family Talk (2008, Serdang: UPM), Language and Human Rights: Focus on Malaysia (2007, Serdang: UPM), Language and the Power of the Media (2006, Frankfurt, Peter Lang), Language Choices and Discourse of Malaysian Families: Case Studies of Families in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2006, Petaling Jaya, Strategic International and Research Development Centre), Teaching of English in Second and Foreign Language Settings: Focus on Malaysia (2004, Frankfurt, Peter Lang) and Developing Reading Skills (2002, Kuala Lumpur: Melta/Sasbadi). Dr. David can be contacted at: mayadavid@yahoo.com Areas of Specialisation • Cross-Cultural Communication • Discourse Analysis • English for Specific Purposes • Language Maintenance and Language Shift • Language of the Elderly • Language and Human Rights

Dr. Mumtaz Aini Alivi is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Media and Communication Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She earned her Bachelor of Art (Hons) with a double major in (i) Language and Malay Linguistics and (ii) Journalism from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She earned her Master of Corporate Communication and Doctor of Philosophy (Mass Communication) from the same university.Her research interests and focuses are mainly in Journalism, Broadcasting, News, Online Media, Political Communication, and Mass Communication. Apart from her academic qualifications, Dr. Mumtaz also has broad experiences in journalism, news, broadcasting, and media industry management. She was a media practitioner for twenty-two years in a government television station, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM). For almost twenty years, she was attached to the News and Current Affairs department, where she was involved with multitasking work in her position as Broadcast Journalist, Newscaster, News Editor, and News Producer. Her service to RTM exposed her to many challenging assignments, including following the prime minister and country leaders for international news coverage abroad, doing live news coverage and news reporting from the parliament, and other important events in the country, apart from daily news coverage. Upon completion of her PhD, Dr. Mumtaz was given a different task in RTM as Assistant Director for the Policy and Research section. Later, she held the same position in the Strategic Planning section before being transferred to the Quality Control for Creative Content Unit as Evaluation Officer. These three different sections are under the Strategic Development Department, where she spent another two more years in RTM. During her service in RTM, she also worked for a few months in Malaysian National News Agency (BERNAMA) as a journalist under the government staff exchange program between RTM and BERNAMA. She gained valuable experiences through the BERNAMA newswire service and BERNAMA TV. Prior to joining RTM, she completed her internship in a private TV station, Sistem Televisyen Malaysia (TV3). In total, she has extensive exposure and experience in the media industry, particularly in the news department, mainly in TV, some experience in radio, and in managerial and management duties. Her passion and enthusiasm for journalism finally culminated to winning the Best Broadcast Journalist award in 2001 at the national level.Being in the media industry for more than two decades and having academic qualifications in the same field, she was also appointed by few organizations for various tasks and consultancy work. Dr. Mumtaz was appointed as one of the panel of judges for the prestigious Malaysian Journalism Award organized by Malaysia Press Institute (MPI), panel for Pitching Evaluation (Private) and Panel for Screening (Syndicated) for programs in RTM, think tank member of Ciber Generation Laboratory in Institute for Social Science Studies (IPSAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia, and expert advisor for Promotion and Publicity in the University of Malaya. She is also on the editorial board of the Malaysian Journal of Media Studies.Dr. Mumtaz decided to shift from being a media practitioner to an academic staff at the University of Malaya in 2021 and begin a new career path with a bigger mission. She believes the educational field is the right platform to share all her knowledge and experience for the nation’s development and shape future leaders.

Rafidah Atan is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya and Consultant Intensivist in the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. Rafidah graduated with MBBS in 1996 and Master of Anaesthesiology in 2003 from Universiti Malaya, and for the latter she was also awarded the K. Pathmarajah Gold Medal. She went on to earn the Fellowship of Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthesiologists (FANZCA) in 2006, European Diploma in Intensive Care (EDIC) in 2012 and PhD (Monash University) in 2018. Her academic career saw her serving in Monash University Malaysia, from 2006, as one of the pioneer staff members of its Clinical School Johor Bahru, until 2020 when she joined Universiti Malaya. In Monash University Malaysia, she was actively involved in educational roles, co-ordinating the MBBS Final (Pre-intern) Year and the Patient Safety Unit. For the Patient Safety Unit, she notably received the Monash University’s Purple Letter for outstanding student evaluation results in 2011, 2014 and 2015. Her clinical career, on the other hand, ranged from Registrar to Consultant appointments at various hospitals in Malaysia (Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Hospital Sultanah Aminah, Hospital Sultan Ismail and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre) and in Australia (Royal Melbourne Hospital and Austin Hospital, Melbourne). Rafidah is a simulation enthusiast and frequently convenes simulation workshops, as well as accepting speaking engagements on this topic. She was a member of the protem committee in setting up the Malaysian Society for Simulation in Healthcare (MaSSH) and thereafter was its Vice Chairman from 2019 to 2021. Her experience and leadership in simulation combines well with her other passion - teaching and promoting Patient Safety and crisis management skills to medical undergraduates and other healthcare professionals. After joining Universiti Malaya, she was appointed Lead of the Writing Committee for the National Postgraduate Medical Curriculum: Patient Safety Core Curriculum that was released in 2021.  Rafidah has other educational passions including teaching of evidence-based medicine (EBM) and critical appraisal of literature. She has been involved in numerous EBM workshops conducted on a national and regional level. Of special note, since 2016, she has been involved as one of facilitators for the highly regarded Asia-Pacific Evidence-Based Medicine and Nursing (APEBMN) Conference conducted annually in Singapore. Her ventures in education include being a member of Medical Humanities and Ethics Unit (MedHEU) for which she leads the Medical Language and Linguistics section. Activities of this unit include conducting webinars on topics relating to difficult conversations in various clinical settings and inclusion of humanities component of the undergraduate medical curriculum. She is currently the Personal and Professional Development (PPD) coordinator for the undergraduate Universiti Malaya Medical Programme. Rafidah also participates in clinical research in Intensive Care Medicine. Her PhD research is on high cut-off hemofiltration and cytokine removal in critically ill patients. She is currently involved in a few collaborative research projects on topics related to intensive care. Rafidah currently heads the Department of Anaesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine Universiti Malaya.