Mission & History

The Concussion Legacy Foundation Australia (CLF Australia) was founded by Chris Nowinski, PhD, Michael Buckland, MBBS, PhD, and Alan Pearce, PhD. CLF Australia was launched in September 2022 by Executive Director Annitta Siliato.

In Australia, there have been widespread and growing concerns about concussions suffered in contact sports, like Australian Football League, Rugby Union, Rugby League and Soccer (or football) and it is now time to expand the CLF mission down under.

Initially, Annitta teamed up with the Concussion Legacy Foundation to understand how to support families and loved ones who had suffered a traumatic experience due to probable Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Since then, Annitta has developed and led the expansion of CLF’s work in Australia by building productive relationships with the sporting codes, government bodies and community interest groups to encourage better understanding and change.

CLF Australia is part of the broader CLF family, with links in Canada, the UK and the United States, and has partnered with leading brain banks to study CTE as part of the CLF Global Brain Bank.

CLF Australia supports concussion and CTE research while translating new research findings into education programs, policies, and initiatives to allow sports to be played more safely. To date, CLF has facilitated a wide array of social and scientific research on concussion and CTE in sport, including the lived experiences of concussion and CTE.