Council Highlights February 2021

The Chair welcomed everyone to the inaugural Council meeting in the history of the College conducted outside of Melbourne, held in Adelaide, with the replica mace present. The meeting was chaired and centred in Adelaide with hubs in Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington & via secure video conference on 25-26 February 2021. The current members are:

Office bearers:
Dr Tony Sparnon (President) 
Associate Professor Julie Mundy (Vice President)
Dr Greg Witherow (Treasurer)
Associate Professor Phillip Carson (Censor in Chief)
Dr Sally Langley (Chair, Professional Development & Standards Board)

Office holders:
Professor Christopher Pyke (Chair, Court of Examiners)
Dr Adrian Anthony (Chair, Board of Surgical Education and Training)
Dr Jennifer Chambers (Chair, Prevocational & Skills Education Committee)
Associate Professor Kerin Fielding (Chair, SIMG Assessments)
Professor Andrew Hill (Chair, Professional Standards)
Dr Lawrie Malisano (Chair, Professional Development)
Ms Ruth Bollard (Chair, Fellowship Services)
Professor Mark Frydenberg (Chair, Research and Academic Surgery)
Dr John Crozier (Chair, Surgical Audit)
Dr Christine Lai (Deputy Treasurer)
Miss Annette Holian (Chair, Global Health)
Professor Owen Ung (Chair, ASC, Conference & Events)

Fellowship Elected Councillors:
Dr Sarah Coll
Dr Rebecca Jack
Dr Maxine Ronald
Professor Henry Woo

Specialty Elected Councillors:
Professor Mark Ashton
Dr Mark Dexter
Professor David Fletcher
Professor Raymond Sacks

Co-opted Councillors:
The Hon Rob Knowles AO  (VIC Expert Community Advisor)
Ms Souella Cumming (Expert Community Advisor)
Dr Charles Jenkinson (Chair, RACSTA)
Dr Nishanthi Gurusinghe (representing Tasmanian Fellows)

Observers:
Dr Vanessa Beavis (ANZCA President)
Dr Upeksha (Pecky) De Silva (Chair, Younger Fellows Committee)

The meeting welcomed Charles Jenkinson, RACSTA Co-opted Councillor to his first Council meeting.

Congratulations to the following elected Councillors who take office at the conclusion of the Annual General Meeting on Thursday 13 May 2021 

President, Sally Langley
Vice President, Lawrence Malisano
Treasurer, Greg Witherow
Censor in Chief, Adrian Anthony
Chair, Professional Standards and Advocacy, Andrew Hill
Chair, Court of Examiners, Christopher Pyke
Chair, Health Policy & Advocacy, Mark Frydenberg
Chair, Board Surgical Education and Training, Annette Holian
Chair, Professional Standards, Kerin Fielding
Chair, Fellowship Services, Christine Lai
Chair, Professional Development, Maxine Ronald
Chair, Research and Academic Surgery, Henry Woo
Chair, Surgical Audit, John Crozier
Chair, Global Health, Owen Ung
Chair, Specialist International Medical Graduate (SIMG) Assessment, Ruth Bollard
Chair, Prevocational & Skills Education, Jenny Chambers
Chair, Annual Scientific Congress Planning & Review, Mark Ashton
Deputy Treasurer, Sarah Coll

Council approved the restart of the Melbourne site redevelopment project with the establishment of the working group and the development of the supporting business case that includes an evaluation across options for the site redevelopment. For further information, contact the Chief Operating Officer (COO). 

Council approved a name change for the New Zealand National Board to Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee (AoNZNC). For further information, contact the Executive General Manager Fellowship Engagement. 

Council approved the reappointment of: Mr John Batten Chair, Foundation for Surgery Board and Dr Ruth Mitchell Deputy Chair, Foundation for Surgery Board. For further information, contact the Chief Operating Officer (COO). 

Council approved the refreshed and renamed Equal Opportunity and Acceptable Workplace Behaviour Policy. For further information, contact the Executive General Manager People & Culture.

Council approved a joint anti-racism and cultural safety position statement and framework for safe engagement with Indigenous groups in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand between RACS, surgical societies and associations. For further information, contact the Executive General Manager Fellowship Engagement. 

Congratulations to the following RACS Award recipient.

Distinguished Awards
Gordon Trinca Medal
Mr Michael Howard Hunter FRACS

Congratulations to the following who have been admitted to Fellowship recently.

Vascular Surgery
Mr Animesh Singla
Dr Vivienne Moult
Dr Anastasia Dean
Dr Sameh Farah
Dr Simon Vun
Dr Timothy Shiraev

Urology
Dr Marlon Perera
Dr Anna Sliwinski
Dr Diwei Lin
Dr Andrew Keller
Dr David Habashy
Dr Francis Ting
Dr George Acland
Dr James Churchill
Dr Jared White
Dr Mahesha Weerakoon
Dr Marcus Handmer
Dr Nicholas Davies
Dr Paul Bergamin
Dr Sarah O'Neill
Dr Stephen McCombie
Dr Vincent Chong
Mr Patrick Preece
Mr Hedley Roth

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Dr Varun Harish
Dr Andrew Raymond
Dr Christopher Jardim
Dr Lipi Shukla
Dr Nathan Schaefer
Dr Seyed Sepehr Lajevardi
Mr Blair York

Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery
Dr Alastair Gliksman

General Surgery
Dr Joshua Hammerschlag
Dr Keh Min Ng
Dr Aemelia Melloy
Dr Virginia Lambert
Dr Emily Olive
Dr Hassan Malik
Dr Mitchell Gooch
Dr Marwan Idrees
Dr Ahmed Barazanchi
Dr Alayne Moreira
Dr Alicia Mackowski
Dr Amy Cao
Mr Andrew Chong
Dr Andrew Nathanson
Mr Benjamin Birch
Dr Calvin Peng
Dr Ferdinand Ong
Dr James Tan
Dr Joel Lewin
Dr Joshua Lansom
Dr Kar Yin Fok
Dr Marli Williams
Dr Michael Su
Dr Mohammed Khaleel
Dr Nicole Tham
Dr Peter Newton
Dr Simon Whitcher
Dr Su Kah Goh
Dr Suellyn Centauri
Dr Suheelan Kulasegaran
Dr Susan Hawes
Dr Zainab Naseem
Dr Paul Fagan

 

Council noted there were no new RACS publications indexed in the SCOPUS database since the January 2021 Board of Council meeting.