Rein Aksberg
Citizenship: Sweden

President

Sally Millar
Citizenship: UK

Secretary

Annalu Waller
Citizenship: Scotland and South Africa

Secretary

Annalu Waller (2025-2027) has a passion for Bliss and has been involved in various aspects of Bliss since 1986 when she met Shirley McNaughton at a conference in Montreal. She trained as a Bliss Instructor under Shirley and introduced Bliss throughout South Africa in 1987. Annalu has translated a children’s book “Julius and the Computer” into Bliss and was a co-author on the Blissymbolics Fundamental Rules with Michael Everson.
Annalu is currently the Executive Director for BCI and is excited by the opportunity to provide leadership for the organisation.
Annalu is a computer scientist and a Professor of Human Communication Technologies at the University of Dundee, Scotland. She teaches computing at Dundee and has undertakes research in Assistive Technology with a speciality in AAC, human computer interaction and natural language processing. Annalu is also the honorary treasurer for Blissymbolics Communication UK.

Andrius Raščius
Citizenship: Iceland and Lithuania

Secretary

Nadia Browning
Citizenship: Canada

Secretary

Nadia Browning is an occupational therapist with over 40 years of experience working with individuals with complex communication needs, their families and staff. She graduated in Occupational Therapist in Rio de Janeiro in 1978 and completed her Master of Science degree from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), London, Ontario, Canada (2001). In 1980, Nadia was trained by BCI to use and teach Blissymbols. She became the first trained therapist in Brazil. Nadia has worked in the field of AAC with multidisciplinary teams in a variety of organizations in Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom. Nadia has taught at universities in Brazil, Canada, Germany and Chile. Nadia continues to present national and international workshops. Nadia was the Chair of the Executive Council of the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC) from 2018 to 2021. She has been an active member of ISAAC since 1987. Currently serving on the BCI board of directors.

Ariné Kuyler
Citizenship: South Africa

Secretary

Dr Ariné Kuyler is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Inclusive Education at the University of South Africa. She is a speech-language pathologist and completed her Master's and PhD in Augmentative and Alternative Communication at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She has worked with children with intellectual, learning and physical disabilities in public schools in South Africa. Her research focuses on disability, AAC, and communication partner training in the context of school and health. She is particularly interested in profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, palliative care, AI, digital healthcare and the impact on communication and AAC. Her passion is also to incorporate Bliss to empower children with disabilities to access literacy, communication and to improve their participation in all contexts.

Jenny Kimhag
Citizenship: Sweden

Secretary

Jenny Kimhag is a Swedish speech language pathologist, master in children and Youth studies and a part time lecturer at the University of Uppsala. Her main work focus is children with DLD in inclusive preschool and primary schools. She is currently working with a research project investigating if Bliss can be used as a tool for word learning, as well as grammar learning for speaking children with DLD.

Louisa Alberts
Citizenship: South Africa

Secretary

Russell Galvin
Citizenship: Canada

Secretary

Russell Galvin, BSc (Physics, University of Guelph, 1992), is a retired software developer and industry executive. As a partner in SRG Software, the first Microsoft Solution Provider in Canada, he helped grow the company from five employees to over one hundred. As part of the aquisition agreement of SRG by Financial Models Company, Russell became Director of Software Development for FMC which was in turn aquired by SS&C, a Carlisle company. In a technical role, Russell was a C++ specialist and architected or co-architected several successful major financial services software applications that are still in use today such as Atlas II and FMCNet (now SSCNet).

Russell became involved with Blissymbolics and AAC over 35 years ago by volunteering to do Apple Macintosh programming for BCI after reading an interview with Shirley McNaughton in the Toronto Star. He subsequently spent three years with the Microcomputer Application Program at the Hugh McMillan Rehabilitation Centre (now Holland Bloorview) where he worked on applications such as IBM Speechviewer and WiViK (Windows Visual Keyboard) as well as doing exploratory prototypes for researchers such as Jutta Treviranus, Deb Fels, and Fraser Shein. Russell is currently a member of the W3C WAI Adapt Task Force as an invited expert helping to develop a standard for the personalized AAC symbol annotation of the web for those who would benefit from it.

Francesco Ganzaroli
Citizenship: Italy

Secretary

Francesco Ganzaroli, teacher for students with special needs in Upper Secondary School, a Teacher on the Master's program in Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Assistive Technologies at the Consorzio Humanitas in Rome, a cooperator for the NGO IBO Italia.

Peter Zein
Citizenship: UK

Secretary

Halla Harpa Stéfansdóttir
Citizenship: Iceland

Observer