Dr. Helen Lingard currently holds a Distinguished Professorship in construction work health and safety at RMIT University. Helen started her post-doctoral career working on-site in large scale civil engineering infrastructure projects. Since moving to Australia, Helen has worked with clients in the mining, telecommunications and construction sectors to develop, implement and evaluate initiatives to improve workers’ safety, health and wellbeing. Helen’s research has been funded by a wide variety of private and public sector organisations, industry associations and trade unions. Helen leads the Construction Work Health and Safety Research @ RMIT group and is Executive Director of the newly formed RMIT Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe).

Associate Professor Rita Peihua Zhang is the Deputy Director of Construction Work Health and Safety Research @ RMIT, where she works closely with industry partners to deliver research with strong practical applications. Her work has explored various aspects of work health and safety (WHS) in construction, including the influence of organisational culture and leadership on WHS outcomes, the development of an integrated supply chain approach to WHS , the management of WHS in subcontracting arrangements, and strategies to improve health and safety for vulnerable groups including young workers and women in construction. Rita is a core member of RMIT’s Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe), and she was the academic lead on SHINe’s inaugurate project investigating safety clutter in construction health and safety management systems.