Dr. Sachin Kumar holds qualifications in Geography, Education, Counselling Psychology, and Training & Development. With approximately three decade long experience in higher education, teacher and counsellor training, and career guidance, he has served on state-level focus groups on Guidance and Counselling in Schools and the Emerging Role of Community in Education under NEP 2020. Author of more than 45 publications, he is also Co-Editor of the Indian Journal of Career and Livelihood Planning and represents India on the Board of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG) and an invited member of International Collaboration Working Group of APCDA. He is currently Principal of Wazir Ram Singh Government College, Kangra (Himachal Pradesh, India).

Dr. Hildah L. Mokgolodi is a Counsellor Educator at the University of Botswana with over 20 years of experience in professional career counselling. She holds a PhD from the University of Pretoria and a Master’s degree in Counselling and Human Services from the University of Botswana. Her teaching and research are multidisciplinary, with primary interests in career development, workplace issues, indigenous counselling, and indigenous research, monitoring, and evaluation. Dr. Mokgolodi has published in peer‑reviewed journals and books and has presented her work at local, regional, and international conferences. She teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Prior to joining the University of Botswana, she served for several years as an Education Officer in Botswana, experience that continues to inform her scholarship and practice. Dr. Mokgolodi is an active member of professional counselling and career development associations and serves on the University of Botswana Ethics Committee, contributing to the promotion of ethically grounded academic and professional practice.

Dr Lynette Reid was raised in Whāngārā-mai-tāwhiti, near Gisborne, NZ and is the eldest of six siblings. She was raised by her maternal grandparents and great-grandparents, grounded in whakapapa and aroha. She has dedicated more than twenty years to career development in Aotearoa, working as an employment advisor, career counsellor, senior lecturer, kaupapa Māori career development scholar, university leader, evaluator in the education and philanthropic sector, and currently as Impact Lead with Hāpai Tūhono. Career counselling will remain at the heart of her mahi. Lynette draws on a Māori worldview to understand career development practice and research. Through this lens, she contributes to reimagining and reframing career development as relational, place-driven, and grounded in collective wellbeing.

Tracy Te Wake is a vocational leader and change-maker at Waihi College, New Zealand, whose practice is rooted in a dual Māori (Ngāti Haua ki Taumarunui, Ngā Wairiki, Te Ātihaunui-a-Pāpārangi) and Pākeha heritage. Coming from a legacy of principals and educators, she is a mother of five and grandmother to 18 mokopuna. Her work is a profoundly intentional response to systemic educational failures, driven by a desire to "build a fence at the top of the cliff" rather than responding when Rangatahi are at the bottom. With over two decades of experience in Alternative Education, she leads the Te Ara Hou (‘A New Path’) initiative, a hybrid model that serves as a "passageway" between alternative and mainstream settings, supporting rangatahi with transitions in, through and onto future pathways. She recently completed a Master of Professional Practice (Otago Polytechnic), where her research used autoethnography to validate reformative practice that honours whanaungatanga, manaakitanga, and tino rangatiratanga. By weaving the "kākahu huruhuru" of intergenerational practice, Tracy advocates for a system where success is defined by Māori realities and collective wellbeing, ensuring a more equitable future for all generations of learners.