Keynotes announced: Wounds Australia 2026 Conference
Friday, 7 November 2025

We're delighted to reveal the International Keynote Speakers headlining the Wounds Australia 2026 Conference in Adelaide in August. 

Each is a renowned leader in their field, and we are excited to hear these respected researchers and clinicians speak. More presenters will be revealed in coming weeks. Stay tuned to the official Wounds Australia fortnightly e-news, The Gauzette – subscribe here – or sign up to receive Conference-specific updates on its dedicated website: woundsconference.org. 

Professor Zena Moore, Ireland

Professor Moore is the Chair in Nursing at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland's (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Director of its Skin Wounds, and Trauma (SWaT) Research Centre. Her area of research interest is wound healing and tissue repair, and she has published over 380 articles, guidelines, consensus documents and book chapters in this field. She has received many professional accolades, including a lifetime achievement award from the World Union of Wound Healing Societies and inclusion in Stanford University's Top 2% Scientists List for 2025. 

Professor Moore is a past chair of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel's International Guideline Governance Group and a Past President of the European Wound Management Association. She is an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University and at Griffith University, an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff University, and an Adjunct Professor at Fakeeh College for Medical Sciences in Jeddah. 

We were delighted to host Professor Moore at the Wounds Australia launch of the updated Pressure Injury Guidelines: the International Guideline in Sydney in March 2025 (pictured) and look forward to welcoming her back.

Kara Couch, USA

Ms Couch has been a wound care Nurse Practitioner for 23 years. Currently, she works as the Director of Wound Care Services at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington DC. She is an Associate Research Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at George Washington University. Her wound care interests include caring for persons with limb loss/limb differences, complex abdominal wounds and use of technology in wound healing. Ms Couch is the President of the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care (AAWC). 

Ms Couch is the co-chair of the Wound Care Community for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She is an editorial board member of the International Wound Journal, Journal of Wound Management and WoundSource 2025. She has authored/co-authored over 30 papers in peer-reviewed publications and lectures internationally on wound care topics. 

AAWC is a valued Wounds Australia affiliate and our CEO Jeff Antcliff recently met Ms Couch at DFCon 2025 in Anaheim, California, to advance plans for joint research. They are pictured below alongside our final international keynote, who received the 2025 Edward James Olmos Award for Advocacy for Amputation Prevention.

Prof. Dr José Luis Lázaro-Martínez

Prof. Dr. José Luis Lázaro-Martínez is a Professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), Spain, Director of its Diabetic Foot Unit and leads research groups on diabetic foot at both UCM and the San Carlos Clinical Hospital Research Institute. He holds a Fellowship in Podiatric Surgery from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and an MSc in Health Research. 

Professor Lázaro-Martínez serves as Vice-Chairperson of the Diabetic Foot Study Group, Chair of the Diabetic Foot Committee of EWMA, and Honorary President of D-Foot International. He is former coordinator of the Diabetic Foot Group of the Spanish Diabetes Society and sits on the editorial boards of Journal of Clinical Medicine, Frontiers Endocrinology and Diabetic Foot & Ankle. He has delivered over 400 lectures at national and international congresses and has published more than 205 JCR-indexed articles, supervising 21 PhD theses. 

Meet Professor Lázaro-Martínez in this short video from EWMA about his work with its Diabetic Foot Committee.

The Wounds Australia 2026 Conference

Our biannual conference hits Adelaide between 23-26 August and promises to be the wound care learning event of the year. More speakers will be announced in coming weeks and registrations open in January 2026 with attractive early bird pricing and a payment plan. 

Abstract subsmissions are open now; read more elsewhere in the Wounds Australia News Centre.

Sign up for more details or explore the conference on its website: woundsconference.org.