Meet one of our newest members, Christina Byun.

Dr Christina Byun is a Senior Lecturer in Anatomy in the School of Biomedical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine & Health at UNSW Sydney. With over a decade of teaching experience, she has developed a strong profile in health professions education (HPE), underpinned by a commitment to innovative, evidence-based, and student-centred learning. Since 2022, Christina has convened large-scale anatomy courses, delivering both foundational and advanced content to undergraduate students across Science, Allied Health, and Medicine programs. Her teaching practice integrates blended learning, interactive digital tools, 3D models, gamification, and immersive technologies, enhancing engagement, accessibility, and learning outcomes for more than 1,500 students annually. Christina currently leads the Clinical Anatomy and Anatomical Education Innovation research group, where she drives a range of initiatives in education research. She is recognised for her teaching excellence, receiving the Faculty Education Innovation Award (2023 and 2025), the UNSW Teaching Award (2024), and the UNSW Students’ Choice Award (2025).

She became aware of ANZAHPE through colleagues and professional networks in HPE. Membership offers a valuable opportunity to connect with a community of like-minded educators, contribute to scholarly conversations, and further advance innovation and best practice in the field.

Meet one of our newest members, Adam Nguyen.

Adam Nguyen is a third-year medical student in the Joint Medical Program at the University of New England and the University of Newcastle, with a growing academic interest in endocrinology and medical education. Adam currently co-leads the Joint Medical Program LGBTQIASB+ Working Group, a student–staff–community initiative focused on curriculum co-design. Through this role, he collaborates with clinical leads and lived experience advocates to embed inclusive teaching—aligned with AMC and AusPATH standards—into communication skills and clinical assessments.

In 2026, Adam is serving as the Convenor of the Rural Health Summit, a national flagship event held in Armidale that empowers over 150 students to engage in rural health leadership and policy. His commitment to peer-led education is further reflected in his work as a Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) Leader for second-year students and as an Academic Demonstrator in anatomy and physiology. Nationally, last year he was the chair of the Queer Australian Medical Students’ Association (QAMSA), where he led policy and wellbeing initiatives.

Why ANZAHPE? Adam first learned about ANZAHPE through the academic network within the Joint Medical Program, where the association is highly regarded as the "home" for health professional education scholarship. He chose to join to bridge the gap between student-led curriculum transformation and the formal academic community.

"To me, ANZAHPE represents a vital community of practice where evidence-based education meets clinical excellence," Adam says. "Joining was a natural step to professionalize my work in curriculum advocacy and to learn from mentors who are equally passionate about inclusive, student-centered medical training. Being part of this network provides the scholarly foundation needed to ensure our efforts in health equity and education have a lasting, systemic impact."

Meet one of our newest members, Tino Mercado.

Tino is a periodontist, clinician, and health educator with over 25 years of experience. He currently serves as President of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Periodontists (ANZAP, 2024-2026). In 2021, he received the Australian Dental Association (ADA) Service Medallion Award for “his contribution to clinical periodontics, clinical periodontal research and dedication to teaching.” He was also honoured with the “Global Filipino Icon Award” for his “pioneering excellence in oral health research, education and clinical innovation” by Global Filipino Magazine.

Tino is an Associate Professor at both the University of Otago and the University of Sydney. He operates private practices at London Street Specialists, Dunedin and Lake Hayes Queenstown, providing periodontal and implant services across New Zealand’s South Island. His publications address periodontal prognostication, periodontal medicine, mucogingival surgical techniques, and bone regeneration. His PhD research focused on regenerative management of peri-implantitis and recession around teeth and implants using autogenous and alternative tissues with biologically active products. His clinical research on maxillary anterior ridge preservation received the Best Clinical Research award at the 2021 Osteology World Symposium.

Tino values joining ANZAHPE as an opportunity to connect with fellow health educators who are committed to excellence in patient care.

Congratulations to Louise Beckingsale on her ANZAHPE Associate Fellowship.

Louise Beckingsale is an Education Adviser and Lecturer in the University of Otago’s MB ChB programme. In this role, she supports teaching, curriculum and assessment development, course evaluation, professional development, educational research, and academic promotion.

Louise is a dietitian by background and developed an interest in health professions education and interprofessional education while working in the Otago dietetic training programme.

She is currently a PhD candidate exploring how students learn collaborative decision-making in the clinical workplace. Her scholarly interests also extend to curriculum design and faculty development.

Louise is grateful for the opportunity to become an Associate Fellow of ANZAHPE. This recognition reflects her commitment to scholarship in health professions education and will support her to mentor more junior colleagues—an exciting next step in her academic career.

Congratulations to Dr Amy Bannatyne on her Associate Fellowship with ANZAHPE.

Amy is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Phase 1 Student Support Lead for pre clinical students in the Bond Medical Program. She is a Registered Clinical Psychologist and mid career researcher whose work focuses on mental health stigma across healthcare and tertiary education settings. Amy currently leads the advanced communication skills teaching of Breaking Bad News and Brief Motivational Interviewing within the medical program. Broadly, her scholarly interests include learner wellbeing, stigma, communication skills, and experiential pedagogy.

Amy applied for an Associate Fellowship with ANZAHPE to expand her skills and knowledge in health professions education, consolidate her scholarly identity, and extend her collaborative networks.

Congratulations to Fiona Bogossian on her Fellowship with ANZAHPE.

Professor Fiona Bogossian is Deputy Dean, School of Health at the University of the Sunshine Coast; a school which comprises 10 health disciplines.

Fiona is Registered Nurse and Midwife with qualifications in education, public health and epidemiology who has over 3 decades of tertiary education experience. Her scholarly contributions to health professional education have addressed development of clinical e-portfolios, simulation, interprofessional education and collaborative practice, clinical placement evaluation, competency development and accreditation. Fiona has a sustained track record as an academic mentor and she has a particular interest in supporting the career development and advocacy for education/ teaching focused academics.

The process of applying for a Fellowship reinforced for me that individual contributions and dedication to quality health professions education are critical to the quality of health care and equally, if not more important, than disciplinary discovery. “Science is important. But education is the vector that transmits to every new generation curiosity, passion, and commitment to reimagine the future, extend the limits of human possibility, and achieve a more just social world” (The Lancet, 2022).

Congratulations to Morgan Rayner on his Associate Fellowship with ANZAHPE.

Morgan is a general practitioner and medical educator living in Melbourne. He currently coordinators two year levels in the Doctor of Medicine at The University of Melbourne and is working to expand virtual healthcare services across Victoria. He has been interested in education since medical school and has been involved in both pre-vocational and vocational education.

Morgan's areas of interest are digital health, flexible degree delivery models, interprofessional simulations and community engagement. He has applied for associate fellowship with ANZAHPE to expand his skills and knowledge in health professions education, while starting to support new educators interested in joining the field. He hopes to build his network across Australia, New Zealand and Globally to improve education experiences for healthcare students and support student wellbeing. 

Congratulations to Pavla Simerska Taylor on her Associate Fellowship with ANZAHPE.

Associate Professor Pavla Simerska Taylor is an academic leader in Health and Medical Education with extensive experience in assessment design, curriculum innovation, and educational scholarship. Currently, she is an Assessment and Evaluation Lead in the School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University. Pavla studied Biochemistry and was awarded a PhD from the University of Chemistry and Technology for work at the Czech Academy of Sciences in 2006. Afterwards, she moved to the University of Queensland where she pursued a successful 12 year medicinal research career (over $33M of funding, over 60 publications) and completed a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education in 2012. She was an elected Vice-President of the CRS Australian Chapter. In 2018, she transitioned into medical education as she joined the Doctor of Medicine Program at the University of Queensland. Since then, she has led major assessment and evaluation initiatives, contributed to accreditation processes, supported large teams of educators, and delivered national professional development activities. Her work spans teaching, assessment and program development, and a sustained scholarship portfolio across multiple institutions. Her outstanding leadership in medical education has been recognised by several fellowships, grants and awards (e.g. UQ’s Research Teaching Awards 2011-2013; UQ Faculty of Medicine Excellence Award 2020; SFHEA Award 2023).

Pavla’s scholarly interests focus on assessment and feedback in medical education, particularly the development of evidence informed approaches to OSCEs, written assessments, peer learning, and mechanisms that enhance student engagement and performance. She leads and collaborates on numerous SoTL projects investigating assessment quality, feedback practices, students’ learning behaviours, and the implementation of digital assessment tools. Her work aims to translate research into practical improvements that strengthen curriculum design, assessment validity, and learner outcomes across medical programs.

“I decided to apply for the ANZAHPE Associate Fellowship because it represents a meaningful recognition of my sustained contributions to health and medical education and my commitment to advancing assessment, scholarship, and academic leadership. As an active member since 2019, I have contributed to ANZAHPE through conference presentations, committee work, abstract reviewing, and collaborative research, as well as FOHPE reviewer and I hope to deepen this engagement. The Fellowship will provide me with opportunities to continue serving the health professionals community through mentoring, reviewing publications, leading conference activities, and contributing to ANZAHPE strategic initiatives while supporting the ongoing growth of health professional education nationally and internationally.”

Meet one of our newest members, Patrick Rubie.

Dr Patrick Rubie is a paediatric anaesthetist at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. Patrick has been an active educator for the whole of his career, starting with tutoring pharmacy and science students while he was in medical school. More recently, he has been presenting and organising anaesthesia department education activities for the last 5 years, is an active Advanced Paediatric Life Support Instructor and teaches in the Sydney University Medical School Program.

"I am completing a Masters Degree in Clinical Education through the University of Melbourne. My research interests include anaesthesia crisis resource management education, simulation education and workplace-based assessments.

I was told about ANZAHPE by my Masters Degree supervisors and have seen showcase presentations of the wonderful work being done here. I am particularly inspired by the collaborative and inclusive aspects of the association and the willingness to discuss new ideas with each other on how to improve the education we deliver. Being in ANZAHPE is exciting for me because I love being part of a network of like-minded health practitioners with a passion for education."

Meet one of our newest members, Anthony Summers.

Anthony Summers has been a Lecturer in Nursing for 10 years, and still occasionally works clinically as a Nurse Practitioner. Anthony has been at the University of the Sunshine Coast for the last 6 years, where he lectures across both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs.

My interest in HPE centres around academic misconduct and exploring why students engage in academic misconduct and how academics deal with it. I have spent time researching both these topics. Recently, I have been appointed as an Academic Assurance Fellow for the School of Health at the University, and will be using this role, alongside other Fellows, to review and ensure assessments across the School maintain integrity.

I have been engaged on the periphery of ANZAPHE for a few years and found that it is becoming important for my work. The more I engage with the content produced, the more meaningful my work becomes.