Executive Director, Plain English Foundation, Australia

After a long career in government and the media, Neil James completed a doctorate in English and set up Australia’s Plain English Foundation with Peta Spear.

The Foundation combines plain English training, editing, and auditing with a public campaign for plain English.

Neil has published two books and over 50 essays and articles on language and literature. He speaks regularly about plain language in the media throughout Australia. In 2004 Neil was invited to give the keynote address at the Australian Style Council. In November 2005 he presented a paper at the Plain Language Association INternational (PLAIN) conference in Washington, DC.

Neil’s newest work, Writing at Work, a book on plain language and the professions, will be published by Allen and Unwin in 2007.

Plain language advocate, trainer, and writer, Cleardocs, Australia 

Christopher Balmford is an internationally recognised expert in making legal and related documents clear, accurate, and easy to use. Through his company, Words and Beyond, Christopher provides plain language training, advises on communication cultural change programmes, and rewrites documents. He is also the founder of Cleardocs, a company that offers online plain language document templates to accountants, lawyers, and financial planners.

A former lawyer, Christopher has worked as Head of the Plain Language Department at Phillips Fox, in-house plain language consultant to AMP, and Head of Plain Language Business at the Law Reform Commission of Victoria.

Christopher regularly speaks at plain language conferences and has many published articles. He was guest editor of an issue of Clarity — a plain language journal for legal professionals published by the international association, Clarity.

Plain language instructor, Department of Veterans' Affairs, USA

Melodee Mercer is a board member of the US-based Center for Plain Language and the Plain Language Action and Information Network. She was the Special Events Coordinator for the 2005 Plain Language Association INternational conference in Washington, DC. She has also moderated several plain language conferences. Melodee co-hosts an internet radio show featuring the Center for Plain Language.

Melodee is best known as Plain Language Instructor for the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Melodee’s award-winning satellite course, Reader-Focused Writing (RFW), has trained thousands of employees to write in plain language. Melodee has received many awards for her plain language work, including the IRS Deputy Commissioner’s Award, the US Distance Learning Association’s Outstanding Instructor in Government Award, and the International Communicator’s Crystal Award of Excellence.

Melodee is co-author of the 1999 article, ‘Changing a bureaucracy one paragraph at a time’, which was published in Clarity and the Michigan Bar Journal. The article documents the process VA went through to build and maintain their plain language programme.