Associate Professor Nicola Dean, MBChB, FRCS (Eng), PhD, FRACS (Plas)

Associate Professor Nicola Dean was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and graduated in Medicine from Leeds University UK.  At graduation, she already had an interest in both Plastic Surgery and Research.  Throughout her career, she has endeavoured to develop excellence in services to patients and bring scientific research to plastic surgical practice.  She moved to Australia in 1998 with her Australian husband and completed a PhD on a topic relating to post-mastectomy breast reconstruction. She finished Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training in 2007.

Since becoming a Specialist, she has developed a dedicated breast reconstruction clinic for women who have had breast cancer and has this as her main area of research. She also has research interests in patient-reported outcomes measures and health services research.  She has recently been involved in editing the Breast Section of the new Oxford Textbook of Plastic Surgery with Prof. Rod Cooter and supervises PhD students in the areas of outcomes measurement research.

Mr David Morgan MB BS FRACS

Mr David J Morgan is a fully qualified Specialist Plastic Surgeon based in Melbourne.  He has a particular interest in the management of facial trauma, cosmetic facial surgery, rhinoplasty, cosmetic and reconstructive breast surgery, and skin cancer management.

Following his graduation from the University of Melbourne in 1993, Mr Morgan commenced his surgical training and was subsequently accepted into the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training program. In 2003 he completed this program and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS).

In late 2004, Mr Morgan began a Clinical Fellowship in Craniofacial Trauma and Reconstruction through the University of Toronto in Canada, before he also completed a Clinical Fellowship in Aesthetic and Reconstructive Breast Surgery at Vancouver’s University of British Columbia.

After his experience in Canada, Mr Morgan returned to Australia in 2006 and was appointed as a consultant plastic surgeon at both The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Alfred Hospital, where he specialised in the management of facial trauma. He has since been appointed as The Alfred Hospital’s head of Faciomaxillary Surgery.

In 2016, Mr Morgan was appointed as National Chair of the Australian Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the body responsible for overseeing the training of future plastic surgeons Australia-wide.  He held this position until March 2020.

Mr Morgan is an active member of Interplast, and is currently the country representative for the Kingdom of Tonga.  He regularly undertakes volunteer surgical missions to the island to perform much needed plastic surgery procedures.

Dr Mikko Larsen MD (Hons) PhD FEBOPRAS FRACS

Dr Larsen became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in December 2018. He emigrated with his son to Australia in 2016, and followed the International Medical Graduate Pathway to Fellowship. He completed a microsurgery fellowship at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 2017 and then settled in Launceston, Tasmania where he practices at the Launceston General Hospital, and in private practice.

Dr Larsen was raised in USA, Denmark, Norway and The Netherlands and graduated from Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2002. In 2011 he completed a PhD thesis on experimental microsurgery conducted at Mayo Clinic’s Microvascular Research Laboratory in Rochester, Minnesota. His plastic surgery training was completed in Amsterdam the same year, followed by a fellowship in hand and wrist surgery at Leuven University Hospital, Belgium. He held an academic appointment at Brussels University Hospital until 2013 and then established a breast and head and neck reconstructive surgery department in The Hague.

Currently, he is active as teaching faculty for the Australia and New Zealand Burns Association and Interplast. He is actively involved in teaching trainees and hospital staff, with an emphasis on maintenance of a broad range of technical and non-technical skills pertinent to work in a regional centre. Dr Larsen is passionate about the importance of a healthy work-life balance that can be a challenge to younger fellows.

Brigid Corrigan MBBS FRACS (Plast)

Dr Brigid Corrigan completed her medical degree at the University of Western Australia. After graduating she gained experience in a variety of specialties prior to undertaking advanced training in plastic and reconstructive surgery in Western Australia from 2004-2007. She then did fellowships in both reconstructive and cosmetic surgery in Cork, Ireland, Oxford, UK and Melbourne, Australia. She returned to Perth in 2010 and was appointed as a consultant plastic surgeon at Royal Perth Hospital and also commenced private practice as a specialist plastic surgeon. She was head of department of Plastic Surgery at RPH from 2014-2019.

Dr Corrigan has special interests in aesthetic and reconstructive breast surgery, body contouring surgery and hand surgery. She is a current examiner for the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and a councillor for AMA (WA). She regularly travels to Tanzania with Rafiki surgical missions to perform reconstructive surgical procedures and train local medical staff in plastic surgery techniques.

Dr Sydney Ch’ng MBBS PhD FRACS (Plast)

Dr Sydney Ch’ng is a Plastic Surgeon specializing in head and neck skin cancer management including melanoma and complex microsurgery reconstruction. She is based at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital jointly employed by the Plastic Surgery, Head & Neck and Melanoma & Surgical Oncology departments. Sydney is also an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and currently supervises 2 PhD and 4 MPhil students in research.

Sydney is passionate about the future of Plastic Surgery, working closely with multiple surgical specialties: Otolaryngology Head & Neck, General and Maxillofacial Surgery. She understands the intricate and challenging balance between collegiality, collaboration, patient care and turf protection.

Dr Sydney Ch’ng promotes advances in Plastic Surgery, achieved through clinical and basic science research. She is a member of the Australasian Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Research Network (APRSRN), and will advocate for more emphasis on research at all levels from pre-program selection to ongoing participation post-FRACS.

Sydney is a working mother with a 7 year-old daughter and a 5 year-old son who works full-time and juggles family and work commitments with the support of my husband and mother. She appreciates the importance of diversity whilst preserving meritocracy.

Dr Yvonne Chow MBBS FRACS (Plast)

Yvonne completed her undergraduate medical degree in 2000 at Monash University. She gained FRACS (plastics) fellowship in 2010 and ompleted a breast reconstruction fellowship at  the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada in 2011. She is the Clinical Head of Breast Reconstruction at Monash Health (Australia’s largest and busiest Plastic Reconstructive surgery Unit) and strongly advocates for patient’s access to breast reconstruction.

Yvonne also takes an active interest in mentoring pre-SET registrars, as well as accredited PRS SET selection and training. In this current climate, she would like to increase the experience of aesthetic/cosmetic plastic surgery during SET training.

Yvonne is the current Honorary Secretary for the Victorian Chapter of ASPS and sits on multiple hospital medical advisory committees and has also been appointed to Medical Panels in Victoria.

Dr Darren Molony FRACS (Plast)

Dr Darren Molony is a Plastic Surgeon with 16 years consultant experience in public and private hospital systems in SA. He is in the process of closing his private practice in Adelaide to focus on the Darwin Plastic Surgery Workforce Program but will continue his clinical attachment at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Plastic Surgery and Burns Surgery. As a past Managing Director of a ten surgeon private practice, and Chair of a multi-specialty day surgery Medical Advisory Committee, he has experience and a strong interest in clinical and corporate governance and how the two co-exist. I am a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In addition I have a special interest in electronic medical records. The intellectual property rights, ownership and transfer of these records between surgeons and practices, and on surgeon retirement, are an important issue. Legal and ethical obligations surrounding cancer and other surgical audit, as well as long term breast prosthesis surveillance, with the requirement for ongoing access to the EMR have to be defined and managed by us as surgeons.

Darren is keen to represent the interests of Plastic Surgery Fellows and Registrars to Government and other health systems, as well as advocating for and enhancing Plastic Surgery services available to all Australians in their rural and remote communities.

Dr Mark Moore AM MBChB FRACS (Plast)

Dr Mark Moore arrived in Adelaide, South Australia in January 1987 to start his role as a Craniofacial Fellow, where he trained with Dr David David and Dr Jim Trott in the previously named South Australian Craniofacial Unit (SACFU). Thirty years later, Mark is still in Adelaide and is now the Head of Cleft and Craniofacial South Australia. Mark is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Craniofacial Association and the Australia and New Zealand Society of Craniofacial Surgery and is full active member of the International Society of Craniofacial Surgery since 1999.

Dr  Rebecca Won B Med (Plast) PFET Hand Surgery 

Dr Rebecca Won is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon with an interest in Hand and Cosmetic Breast Surgery. She completed her undergraduate medical degree at the University of Newcastle in 2004 before being awarded her Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) in Plastic Surgery in 2014. Her PFET (Post Fellowship Education and Training) in Hand Surgery was awarded in 2017. She completed a Cosmetic Breast Surgery fellowship on the Gold Coast between 2016 and 2018. Dr Won has practiced privately in Brisbane since 2016.

Dr Won treats public patients as a Visiting Medical Officer in both the Plastic Surgical and Hand Surgery Departments at Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, a busy tertiary level hospital in South East Queensland. She is also employed by the University of Queensland as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the Medical School.

Dr Won was the Queensland Chair of the Younger Fellows Committee at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons from 2020 to 2022. She currently sits on the Medical Advisory Committee of Spring Hill Specialist Day Hospital, and was part of the Implementation Liason Group for the Orthopaedic MBS Item Number Review Committee from 2020 to 2022. More recently she presented before Queensland parliament in regards to the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Surgeons) Amendment Bill 2023.

Rebecca is passionate about patient safety, the benefits of ongoing education and training, and the importance of diversity in the workplace. She believes in open, collaborative communication between all stakeholders to achieve meaningful, evidence based, health care sector reform.

Dr  Naveen Somia PhD FRACS (Plast)

Dr Somia is a Past President of the Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). He is a member of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and The American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS). Between 2009-2011 Dr Somia served as Deputy Chairman of the Breast Implant Registry, a National Government Health and Safety Initiative.

Dr Somia’s training in Plastic Surgery in Melbourne included Geelong Hospital, Monash Medical Centre, Western Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute and Austin Hospital. Dr Somia completed the final two years of his training in Sydney where he trained at Prince of Wales, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Westmead and Royal North Shore Hospital.

Dr Somia completed a Cosmetic Surgery Fellowship Accredited by American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, working with Dr. Foad Nahai and Dr Rod Hester at Paces Plastic Surgery, Atlanta. He also completed an Eyelid Surgery (Oculoplastic) Fellowship under Dr. Sonny McCord and Dr. Mark Codner in Atlanta.

Dr Somia was awarded a PhD for his 3 year research into Eyelid Reanimation using implantable micro electrodes and the study of Eyelid Movements. This helped Dr Somia develop a passion for Eyelid Surgery .

Dr Somia has won numerous awards for his research both in Australia and in the US. Amongst them is the 2003 Marshall Prize in Surgical Training at Monash University, Melbourne. Dr Somia’s research earned mention in the Highlights of the American College of Surgeons Annual Meeting, was nominated as a Finalist at the American Society of Biomechanics and won two Best Poster Awards at Research Louisville.

New advances in science and technology are driving changes in Plastic Surgery. Dr Somia keeps abreast of new advances by scientific research and attending conferences, workshops and symposiums that allow him to incorporate recent advances into his practice to benefit patients. Dr Somia takes an active interest in the teaching, training and mentoring of Australia’s future plastic surgeons, a role that he enjoys.

Dr Somia is a published author of several scientific papers in Plastic Surgery. These studies can be found at the US National Library of Medicine as well as leading Plastic Surgery journals.

Mr Dan Rowe MBBS FRACS (Plast)

Chair of the Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

Professor Mark Ashton MB.BS, MD FRACS (Plast)

RACS Specialty Elected Councillor

Professor Ashton is the Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Melbourne and Chair of Plastic Surgery at Epworth Freemasons Hospital. He is the former Head of Plastic Surgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital (2001-2016).

Professor Ashton is a past President of ASPS and an Invited Editor for The Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Journal in America, and co-Editor in Chief of the Australasian Journal of Plastic Surgery. He is also an invited Faculty Member of the International Perforator Flap Course in Belgium and Chairman of the Melbourne Advanced Facial Anatomy Course.

Professor Ashton is a Specialist Plastic Surgeon and the Director of the Taylor Research Lab within the Anatomy Department of the University of Melbourne, a past Board Member and past Chair of the Surgical Committee for Interplast, a not for profit charity providing Plastic Surgery to the Asia Pacific. He has published nine book chapters and over 200 articles on plastic and reconstructive surgery in peer reviewed national and international journals.

Dr Sarah K Tolerton FRACS (Plast) MBBS(Hons) MS (Plast) BMedSci

Younger Fellows Representative

Dr Tolerton is an Australian trained Specialist Plastic Surgeon. The focus of her public and private practice is Adult and Paediatric Hand Surgery, Reconstructive Skin and Limb Surgery, and Microsurgery.

Completing her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery with Honours, Dr Tolerton commenced surgical training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in 2012 and obtained her Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 2017. At the completion of her training she joined an Interplast team in Laos as the inaugural scholarship recipient for the Australasian Foundation for Plastic Surgery International Registrar Program.

Dr Tolerton subsequently commenced the Post-Fellowship Education & Training (PFET) Programme in Hand Surgery at Royal North Shore Hospital and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney. Internationally, she undertook fellowships in Hand, Wrist and Microsurgery in London, Rotterdam and Paris.

On her return to Sydney, Dr Tolerton took up the position of Visiting Medical Officer at Sydney Hospital, Sydney Children’s Hospital, The Prince of Wales Hospital and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Passionate about education and teaching, Dr Tolerton has represented trainees on the Australian Board of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and ASPS Council during her training and is currently coordinating The University of Sydney Master of Surgery Microsurgery Course. On the ASPS Council in the capacity of fellow, Dr Tolerton shares and represents the unique views and concerns of younger members.

Dr Lisa Ellis MBBS (Hons)

Trainee Representative

Dr. Ellis is currently completing her surgical training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Melbourne, Australia. She completed her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery in 2015 with Honours through Monash University.

Dr. Ellis is a current member of the World Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery and Academic Surgery and enjoys keeping abreast of new and developing global plastic surgery issues. Most recently she was awarded winner of the 2021 regional presentation for the ASPS Registrar Research Day .

Passionate about education in surgery, Dr. Ellis is also currently completing her Masters of Surgery concurrently with her training, investigating online learning for medical students and junior doctors. On the ASPS Council in the capacity of coopted trainee, Dr. Ellis brings the unique viewpoint of a current trainee and communicates the opinions of younger members of ASPS.

Kim Hanna

Kim was appointed as Chief Executive in August 2021. Prior to that he had worked at ASPS as the Chief Operating Officer for five years. He is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney, and University of New England. He has completed leadership courses at Columbia University, Asialink and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kim’s previous positions include: Executive Officer Dictionary of Sydney, General Manager Art Month Sydney and several substantive management roles at the Australia Council for the Arts.

Kerrie Edwards

Kerrie Edwards has been appointed as the Community Representative on the ASPS Council to provide a community perspective on all matters relating to ASPS.

Kerrie has worked in Local Government for over 12 years, assisting senior executives and managing an array of Local Government projects.

In 2016, Kerrie gave birth to twin girls.  The pregnancy left Kerrie suffering a significant Rectus Diastasis which led to several problems, including chronic lower pain.  The condition impacted her life in many ways, making everyday activities particularly difficult.  Kerrie undertook an intensive physiotherapy program to assist in healing her diastasis, however it did not completely resolve the problem.  Abdominoplasty was recommended for Kerrie however she soon learnt that Medicare no longer covered the surgery for postpartum women.

After reaching out to various networks on social media, Kerrie learnt that she was not alone, with many postpartum women in a similar position.  Without cover, they would have to fund the surgery privately and at substantial personal cost.  She also learnt that it was only postpartum women with symptomatic rectus diastasis that could no longer obtain public cover for this treatment, with the item remaining for cases of massive weight loss or in cases following surgical removal of a large intra-abdominal or pelvic tumor.

Kerrie felt that this was discriminatory and decided to lodge a petition with the Australian Federal Parliament to reinstate Medicare cover for rectus repair for postpartum women.  The petition gained a lot of attention and amassed 13,022 signatures.  Dr Fiona Martin MP presented the petition to Parliament.

Kerrie’s petition was serendipitous in its timing as ASPS had been working on an application with MSAC.  Following the success of the petition, Kerrie is now assisting ASPS in gaining valuable feedback from the community to strengthen the renewed MSAC application.