Kendi Hensel, DO, PhD, FAAO, is a Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Family and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas.    She attended the Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, and is double board certified in Family Medicine and Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine, and has been involved in clinical practice, osteopathic medical education, and clinical research for 18 years.  She served as the 2019-2020 President of the American Academy of Osteopathy, the 2015-2019 chair of ECOP, and served 6 years as a Section Editor of the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.  She is currently involved in national efforts to improve the evidence base and utilization of OMT in patient care.  Her research interests center around mechanistic and clinical effectiveness studies of OMM.

Leah Frank, DO is a US-trained osteopathic physician, board-certified in Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine, who has been living in Germany since 2019. As such, Dr. Frank is in the unique position to see the similarities and differences in osteopathic education and practice between the two countries. She has attended courses with both osteopathic physicians and osteopaths in Portugal, the Netherlands, and Germany. She has had the privilege of participating in the International Consortium of Manual Therapies (ICMT), further widening her lens of understanding in the international osteopathic world. She presented a summary of the ICMT work at a meeting of the board of the European Register of Osteopathic Physicians (EROP) and connected to more osteopathic physicians in additional countries. Through attendance at several meetings of the OIA, she has heard about the struggles of obtaining legal regulation from various countries‘ organizations, and the challenges of standardizing osteopathic education to a level that prioritizes patient safety and efficacy.

Education has always been a priority for Dr. Frank. She first began teaching almost 30 years ago as a classroom assistant and tutor. In Kirksville, both as an academic fellow and as a resident with a faculty appointment, she interacted with hundreds of students as table trainer, lecturer, and remedial assistant. She also voluntarily regularly taught morning sessions of OMM for the other residents, as well as evening sessions for the students. Since moving to Germany, she teaches frequently for the DAAO and MWE, again interacting with hundreds of adult learners, and holds a clinical faculty appointment from Lincoln Memorial University-DCOM and the ONMM residency program at Advent Health East Orlando.

More than 25 years ago, Dr. Frank began her experience with leadership roles, first within student organizations and later in her local communities. Prior to medical school, she worked as a firefighter in a small town and was active as a board member of a local theater company, The MAD* Factory (*Music, Arts, Drama).
With both the fire department and the MAD* Factory, she was a part of successful strategic planning processes. As community outreach and education programs were priorities in both organizations, she also organized and planned many conferences and events.

Dr. Frank has served on many committees in her life. Currently, she is a part of the advisory board to the DAAO, and heads up the restructuring of their cranial curriculum. She has been active nationally on committees within the American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO) and Osteopathic Cranial Academy (OCA) for 12 years. In Kirksville, she headed multiple student organizations and was a key player in developing and implementing new curriculum for disaster awareness for students, which became nationally recognized. She learned over the years how to use Robert‘s Rules of Order to run an effective meeting, how to prioritize agenda items and redirect when members got off track. These skills come in useful today, as she works as practice manager of her private practice and in the committees on which she serves.
With her decades of experience in governance and education, Dr. Frank’s skillset is an asset to the OIA as it moves forward with standardizing education and establishing recognition at national and international levels. She looks forward to being part of the future of osteopathy internationally.

Obtaining a Masters in Health Science, Osteopathy, Ms Grbin completed a dual qualification from Victoria University in Australia in 2002. Concurrently progressing into both private practice and education across many allied health disciplines, including osteopathy, Ms Grbin continues to teach to this day. In 2010, Ms Grbin was elected to the professional association Osteopathy Australia, as the South Australian State President until a subsequent Ministerial appointment to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, the Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency, the national regulatory body set up to administer registration for health practitioners in Australia, as a member of the Osteopathy Board of Australia in 2012. Ms Grbin assumed the role of Chair in 2014, a position which was held for the maximum statutory term. In that time, Ms Grbin also Chaired the Registration and Notifications Committee and was closely involved with many working groups across a plethora of important policy areas in regulation, including governmental liaison, the Forum of Chairs, the WHO Western Pacific regulatory working group, the Accreditation Liaison Group and Inter-Professional Education and Clinical Practice groups. Most recently Ms Grbin was appointed to the Australian Osteopathic Accreditation Council in 2024, responsible for accrediting programs of study that lead to graduates being able to attain a qualification to register and practice as an osteopath in Australia. Nikole currently resides and practices in Adelaide, South Australia with her three very fluffy and much loved Siberian Huskies.

Patrick is a strategic academic leader, educator, and osteopath with over a decade of experience spanning clinical practice, programme development, and institutional transformation. He currently serves as Head of the UCO School of Osteopathy at the Health Sciences University (UK), where he provides leadership across academic delivery, clinical operations, research strategy, and external engagement.

Patrick’s professional journey began in the United States Navy and Marine Corps, where he served as a Hospital Corpsman and received meritorious recognition aboard the USS Ronald Reagan and during overseas deployments. After completing his military service, he worked as a wound care nurse in hospitals across the U.S., supporting complex clinical cases in interdisciplinary settings. His introduction to osteopathy came through Osteopathy in Britain by Dr Martin Collins, a former principal of the British School of Osteopathy, which inspired him to relocate to the UK to train and practise as an osteopath.

He holds a Master of Osteopathy and a Diploma in Naturopathy from the British College of Osteopathic Medicine, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Clinical Education. He is currently pursuing research on the integration of artificial intelligence into osteopathic education and clinical decision-making.
Internationally, he is actively developing educational exchange programmes, building cross-border partnerships, and contributing to the global benchmarking of osteopathic education. His regulatory and policy roles include active membership of the General Osteopathic Council’s Policy and Education Committee, and contributor roles to the Institute of Osteopathy’s Education Working Group and the Osteopathic Development Group. Across these contexts, he works to bridge pedagogy, regulation, and professional identity — always with a view to advancing osteopathy within a global health landscape.