2025 ASO Skills Expo Programme

Co-Convenor — 2025 ASO Skills Expo

Former AMA Queensland and ASO President, Dr Bill Glasson, is Co-Convenor of the 2025 ASO Skills Expo in Brisbane.

You can learn more about Dr Glasson by visiting our speaker bios. 

Co-Convenor — 2025 ASO Skills Expo

Queensland ASO Board Director, Dr Louise Robinson is Co-Convenor of the 2025 ASO Skills Expo in Brisbane.

You can learn more about Dr Robinson by visiting our speaker bios. 

Welcome to Country

Associate Professor Kris Rallah-Baker will perform a Welcome to Country before the 2025 ASO Skills Expo officially begins.

Kris is Australia’s first, and currently only, Indigenous ophthalmologist. As a proud Yuggera/Warangu/Wiradjuri man, he is making a footprint not only on the Sunshine Coast, but also in the Northern Territory.

Kris is a highly respected ophthalmologist. He is the owner and principal of Sunshine Coast Ophthalmologists at Noosa and Nambour; visiting medical officer at Noosa, Nambour and Kawana Hospitals; Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne; Adjunct Associate Professor at the Queensland University of Technology; founding member and former President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association; current Zeiss Key Opinion Leader on Cataract and Comprehensive Ophthalmology; Director on the Board of the Nova Peris Foundation; Director on the Board of Vision 2020 Australia; Director on the Board of the First Nations Eye Health Alliance; Director on the Board of the Indigenous Eye Health Unit at the University of Melbourne; and is an immediate-past Director on the Federal Board of the Royal Flying Doctors Service.

As a RANZCO Fellow, he sits on RANZCO’s Federal Indigenous Committee and is Co-Chair of RANZCO’s Reconciliation Action Plan Committee.

Keynote Speaker — Dr Andrew Stewart Lecture  Panellist — Leaders Breakfast Forum

Australian Medical Association, Vice President, Associate Professor Julian Rait OAM will deliver this year's Dr Andrew Stewart Lecture (Saturday, 31 May 2025).

A/Prof Rait will also be a panellist at the Leaders Breakfast Forum (Sunday, 1 June 2025), which is being sponsored by Ramsay Health Care. It is Julian's first appearance at the Leaders Breakfast Forum.

History of the Lecture

Dr Andrew Stewart brought a larger-than-life personality to the ASO executive when he served on our Board of Directors for fourteen years from 1997 to 2011 representing ophthalmologists in Western Australia.

When Andrew passed away suddenly in 2015 following a serious mountain bike accident, the ASO deliberated hard about the ways we could honour his memory, service, and legacy — giving rise to the Andrew Stewart Lecture. The lecture is delivered with a focus on contemporary health policy and its opportunities and challenges, an area which Andrew was passionate.

The inaugural Andrew Stewart Lecture was held on 19 November 2016, as part of the then-annual ASO Skills Workshop held in conjunction with the RANZCO Annual Congress. It was presented by then-Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, the Hon. Ken Wyatt MP — a fellow Western Australian and the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the House of Representatives, to serve as a Federal Government Minister, and to be appointed to Federal Cabinet.

Today, the Andrew Stewart Lecture is delivered by the Keynote Speaker at our annual member event, the ASO Business Skills Expo.

Keynote Speaker — Leaders Breakfast Forum

Dr Jana Pittman will open this year's Leaders Breakfast Forum (Sunday, 1 June 2025) as our Keynote Speaker. The Forum is sponsored by Ramsay Health Care.

Two times world champion, four times Commonwealth champion — in the sport of athletics, Jana Pittman personifies resilience and determination. When continual injuries hampered her athletic career and could have signalled retirement, she swapped the track for the ice, joining the Australian women's bobsled team and becoming the first woman to represent Australia in both a Summer (2000, 2004) and Winter (2014) Olympic Games.

Off the track, Jana completed a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at Western Sydney University in 2019 (graduating with First Class Honours and the University Medal) and is now a junior doctor in Women's Health.

She completed a Masters of Reproductive Medicine at the University of New South Wales in 2020 and has initiated her PhD in Obstetrics (focussing on aspects of uterus transplantation).

This busy woman is proud mum to six children: Cornelis; little sisters Emily and Jemima; Charlie; and most recently, twins Quinlan and Willow.

Having experienced her own personal scare with cervical dysplasia, Jana became an ambassador for the Australian Cervical Cancer Foundation.

In 2021, Jana was a participant in the gruelling television show SAS Australia on Channel 7. She made it to the last day of the course and was the final female standing among the 18 celebrity recruits, despite having given birth only five and a half months previously.

Panellist — Leaders Breakfast Forum

Australian Medical Association, President, Dr Danielle McMullen joins the panel of this year's Leader Breakfast Forum, where the burning issues in Australian healthcare are undressed and examined under the 'slit lamp'. 

It is Danielle's first appearance at the Leaders Breakfast Forum.

The Leaders Breakfast Forum is sponsored by Ramsay Health Care.

Panellist — Leaders Breakfast Forum

Ramsay Health Care, Chief Executive Officer of Ramsay Surgical Centres, Claire Thurwood will join the panel at the Leader Breakfast Forum for a second year.

The Leaders Breakfast Forum is sponsored by Ramsay Health Care.

Graphic Recorder

Dr Sue Pillans is a marine scientist, artist and children’s author/illustrator who specialises in creative and visual communications to help “Picture your ideas”.

As a graphic recorder, Sue draws out discussions and presentations in real-time to visually capture and convey information, ideas and concepts. Sue has worked with over 65 organisations across Australia and the South East Asian region using visual storytelling to help make the complex simple and the simple compelling.

In 2024, Sue joined us at the ASO Skills Expo in Sydney to capture the discussions and highlights that were unpacked throughout the first full-day business and clinical session.

We are excited to welcome her back for a second year to colour our world and the 2025 ASO Skills Expo on Saturday, 31 May.