2025 ASO Skills Expo Programme Highlights
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
Day Hospitals Australia, Chair, Associate Professor Anthony Lynham joins the panel of this year's Leader Breakfast Forum, making his first appearance.
Anthony is a well-respected Maxillofacial Surgeon. He was a long-term Head Examiner and served diligently on the Board of studies.
Having worked for many years as a Senior Consultant at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, he constantly witnessed the senseless effects of trauma and violence in our society. In 2014, he stepped up to engineer change. As a Senior Government Minister, he was responsible for a raft of measures that are still in effect and making a significant difference in primary prevention of injury.
He is now Chair of Day Hospitals Australia, Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, Director of Toowoomba and Surat Basin Energy, Advisory Board Member of Queensland Audit of Surgical Mortality, Advisory Board Member of the ARC Training Centre for Cell and Tissue Engineering Technologies, Chair of Heritage Rail Queensland, and Patron of Life Education Queensland.
Anthony maintains a busy clinical practice at the Queensland Maxillofacial Group and holds the academic appointments of Associate Professor at the University of Queensland School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of the Queensland University of Technology.
The Leaders Breakfast Forum is sponsored by Ramsay Health Care.
Panellist — Leaders Breakfast Forum
The Honourable Tim Nicholls MP is the State MP for Clayfield, and following the State election in October 2024, was appointed as the Minister for Health and Ambulance Services in the Crisafulli Government.
Before his success in winning the Seat of Clayfield in the 2006 State election, Tim was the Councillor for the Hamilton Ward in Brisbane City Council. Before representative politics, Tim was a solicitor and senior associate at a large Queensland law firm specialising in commercial and property law.
Tim has had many roles, including Lord Mayor’s Finance spokesman in Council, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Liberal National Party, Treasurer and Minister for Trade from 2012–2015 and Leader of the LNP Opposition from May 2016 to December 2017. He chaired the Parliamentary Crime and Corruption Committee overseeing the work of the CCC and was the Deputy Chair of Parliament’s Ethics Committee 2018–2020. Tim was the Shadow Attorney-General, Shadow Minister for Justice, and Shadow Minister for CBD Activation from 2020–2024. He accepted the appointment in 2024 as Minister for Health and Ambulance Services with great enthusiasm and with a determination to deliver on the Easier Access to Health Services Plan to diagnose, treat and cure Queensland's health crisis.
Tim lives in the electorate and is married to Mary, an Occupational Therapist. They have three children.
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.