Sonya Bettenay graduated with an honors degree in Veterinary Science from the University of Melbourne. She worked in small animal medicine, as an emergency vet, and in the nutrition industry; but for the past 30 years as a dermatologist and dermatopathologist (both academia and private practice). She obtained both her Membership in Feline Medicine and Fellowship in Dermatology with the ANZCVS and is a Diplomate of the ECVD. 

She was co-chair of the program committee for WCVD8, has been a member of multiple other national and international program committees and was a board member of the International Society of Veterinary Dermatopathology for 9 years. Her teaching activities now centre on the Distance Education in Dermatology program with the CVE at Sydney University and the dermatopathology training of ECVD residents. She has multiple publications including book chapters and has co-authored a book on basic Veterinary Dermatopathology with Dr. Ann Hargis. She has been an invited speaker at many international and national meetings in every continent except Antarctica. Sonya divides her professional time between her clinical dermatology referral practice and an independent dermatopathology service.

Dr. Marsella has a special interest in equine dermatology. She has led the International Committee which has published the Clinical Consensus Guidelines on Equine Allergic Skin Diseases published in 2023. She has also authored a book on equine dermatology which is geared toward equine clinicians that have a special interest in dermatology. She has devoted the last few years working on mechanisms of pruritus in horses and has been the only researcher investigating the ultrastructural abnormalities of equine allergic skin on electron microscopy. She is currently working characterizing the role of IL-31 in equine allergies and working toward novel treatment options. Dr. Marsella is an avid equestrian, rider and owner.

Bianca attended veterinary school at Munich and Zurich University and qualified from Munich University, where she also undertook a doctoral thesis on gene therapy. After working in mixed practice for two years, she completed an internship at the Royal Veterinary College in London and a residency in Equine Internal Medicine at the Vetmeduni Vienna. This was followed by time as senior clinician and partner at a private referral hospital in Germany. ​

Bianca is a Specialist in Equine Internal Medicine and has given many veterinary presentations at national and international meetings and now works as an Equine Internal Medicine Consultant. She is engaged in research focusing on different internal medicine subject and actively involved in ECEIM and WEVA. Her topics of interest include equine internal medicine and especially respiratory, neurological, and endocrine diseases.

Dr. Stephen D. White became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology (ACVD) in 1983. A graduate of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis, he did his internship and dermatology residency at Davis as well. He has held faculty positions at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, before joining the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California at Davis as a full Professor in 1998. 

Dr. White has thrice been a sabbatical professor at the National School of Veterinary Medicine in Nantes, France, and has served as president of the ACVD, three times as Secretary of the World Congress of Veterinary Dermatology, and is currently the Secretary of the World Association for Veterinary Dermatology.

Dr. White has published over 130 scientific papers in refereed journals, numerous book chapters, and has lectured throughout North America, Europe and Asia. His interests are dermatologic manifestation of internal disease, food allergy, and dermatology of equine, farm and exotic animals.

Dr. White received the ACVD’s Award of Excellence in 2000, the American Academy of Veterinary Dermatology’s Frank Kral Award in 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association Clinical Research Award in 2022 and has been accorded the UC Davis honorific title ‘Distinguished Professor Emeritus’.