EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President Srinivas Cheruvu

Srin is an ST5 in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery working in the Oswestry-Stoke Rotation. Srin was elected to the Council as the ASiT West Midlands Representative, subsequently Executive Council member as Yearbook Lead and then Vice President, before taking up Presidency in March 2023. He graduated from Imperial College London where he also completed a BSc in Surgery and Anaesthesia. He returned to the West Midlands region of the UK as an Academic Foundation Doctor, Core and now Higher Surgical Trainee. In addition to surgery, Srin has graduated with a Masters of Law from the University of Edinburgh specialising in Medical Law. He will be utilising the wide spectrum of platforms available to ASiT to advocate and promote the highest standards in surgical training. He wishes to see a heightened attention to education and training opportunities.  Accessibility to surgical education is essential, whereby every region and specialty is represented with high quality courses, seminars, and skills events. 

Contact: president@asit.org

Immediate Past President Martin King

Martin is an ST3 General Surgery Trainee in Northern Ireland. He played a key role in the early adoption of augmented reality for training within ASiT. Martin is also completing a six-month Postgraduate Medical Education Fellow role at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. In that role, he has worked closely with the Medical Director’s office and Director for Medical Education in developing training opportunities. Speaking on his appointment as ASiT  President: “it is an honour to be elected  President of ASiT. Over the last three years, I served as Honorary Secretary and Vice President. ASiT continues to grow and diversify how we connect to you, our members. I look forward to working with our executive and wider council to continue promoting the highest standards in surgical training. If there is anything I can be of assistance with, please do not hesitate to get in touch.”

Past President Lola Giwa

I am a trainee in Plastic Surgery based in London. I graduated from King's College London and undertook my Foundation and Core Surgical Training in London also! I joined the ASiT council as the South London Regional Representative back in 2016 and have recently completed my tenure as ASiT President. I am very passionate about improving surgical training for everyone and providing courses and resources to enable trainees to fulfil their potential. It is important that surgery as a career is as accessible as possible to everyone, no matter their background.

Vice President Lara Rose Manley

Contact: vicepresident@asit.org

Vice President Roberta Garau

Roberta is a General Surgery trainee based in Edinburgh. Roberta graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2018 and completed her Academic Foundation Training and Core Training in Edinburgh. She has an interest in Colorectal Cancer Research. She is currently Out of Programme for Research to undertake a PhD looking at the link between high fat diet and colorectal carcinogenesis. She was elected to the ASiT Council as South East of Scotland Representative in 2020 and joined the Executive Committee in March 2022 as Webmaster & Bursary Liaison.  She was elected as Vice-President in March 2023. She has an interest in education and academic research. She has been leading the Cost of Training Survey and hopes to continue leading research which can benefit trainees wellbeing. Any feedback or questions are welcome!

Contact: vicepresident@asit.org

Honorary Secretary Matthew Harris

Contact: honsec@asit.org

Associate Honorary Secretary Vasudev Zaver

Vasudev is an ST3 in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery in Mersey. He graduated from the University of Manchester in 2018, where he completed an MBChB and an MRes in Translational Medicine. He went on to complete his Foundation Training in the East Midlands after which he moved back to the Northwest for a Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery themed Core Surgical Training programme. Vasudev joined ASiT in 2021 as the Northwest Regional Representative, where he organised and delivered numerous educational courses, including the ever-popular Foundation Skills in Surgery course and the inaugural Basic Academic Skills in Surgery (BASiS) course. Whilst open to many different options, his particular interests are in trauma surgery, elite sports and exercise surgery, and innovation and biomechanical engineering in Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery. He is passionate about advocating on behalf of the surgical community and widening participation to make surgery fairer and more accessible for all through the delivery of high-quality courses and grassroots schemes. 

Treasurer Emily Mills

Emily is a soon to be Core Surgical Trainee with a General Surgery Theme in the South East. She joined ASiT as a medical student ambassador and then was elected to the Council as the ASiT Foundation Representative and in August 2021. Following this role, Emily was elected to Executive Committee at the 2022 Conference in Aberdeen to hold the role of Yearbook and App Editor. Emily graduated from Brighton & Sussex Medical School in 2020 and also completed a BSc in Functional and Clinical Anatomy at the University of Bristol. She has been a keen advocate of surgical research collaboratives and has been on both the STARSurg and EuroSurg Steering Committees. She was a surgical-oncology themed Academic Foundation Trainee at the University of Cambridge, where she was also an undergraduate clinical supervisor. During her tenure, she will review and promote the use of the ASiT mobile app, as well as ensuring the Annual Yearbook is of high quality and well received.

Contact: treasurer@asit.org

Director of Education / Yearbook Editor & App Lead Raiyyan Aftab

Raiyyan is a core surgical trainee in Wessex and soon to start as a plastics ST3 in Thames Valley. He joined ASiT in 2021 as the Wessex Representative and in March 2023 was elected as the Yearbook and App lead. Raiyyan graduated from Newcastle University in 2019, with an intercalated MRes in Transplant Sciences. Following this, he completed an Academic Foundation Programme, with research interests looking at perioperative risk stratification. Through his time on council, he has represented the views of his colleagues at multiple national fora. Taking this forward in his new role, he hopes to use the Yearbook to highlight the fantastic work being carried out by ASiT and develop a sustainable app for use by members. 

Contact: doe@asit.org

Webmaster & Bursary Liaison Helen Skinner

Helen is an ST3 General Surgery trainee working in the Yorkshire & Humber deanery. She was elected to the ASiT Council as Yorkshire and Humber regional Representative in 2021 and joined the Executive Committee in March 2023 as Webmaster & Bursary Liaison. As part of her ASiT role, she manages the ASiT website as well as the various bursaries, grants and prizes that ASiT has to offer, working in close collaboration with the education and communications teams She has an interest in training and education, sustainability and increasing diversity in the surgical workforce.

Contact: webmaster@asit.org

Conference Coordinator Alona Courtney

Contact: confcoordinator@asit.org

Social Media Officer Setthasorn Ooi

Setthasorn is a Final Year medical student at Cardiff University. He first joined ASiT as a medical student ambassador of Cardiff in 2020, the same academic year he served as the President of the Cardiff University Surgical Society (CUSS). In the following year in August, he was elected onto the ASiT Council as the Medical Student Representative, and at ASiT 2023, was subsequently elected to the ASiT Executive Council as Social Media Officer. 

He is passionate about surgical training, medical education and global surgery and is an advocate for collaborative research. He has translated his enthusiasm for collaboration through his role as the former Chair of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group (NANSIG) and as a Steering Committee member of STARSurg UK and the Junior Association for the Study of Medical Education (JASME). His vision is to promote awareness of ASiT to as many students, foundation, core and senior trainees as possible through social media platforms and ensure accessibility of ASiT benefits to all budding surgeons. He looks forward to continuing to champion excellence in surgical training in the UK and ROI within his role.

Contact: comms@asit.org

Communication Officer Valdone Kolaityte

Valdone is a registrar in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery based at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. She is Lithuanian born surgical trainee, who trained at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences and joined the NHS in 2018. 

In September 2020, Val joined ASIT council as the West Midlands regional representative. She is passionate about surgical education and training and has organized series of regional hands-on practical courses with West Midlands Surgical Training Centre, as well as online academic webinar series. Also, she has been invited to be faculty in multiple surgically orientated events and has completed AMEE ESME course. Further to this, she has contributed to conducting trainee survey assessing access to independent sector, which were presented in series of conferences nationally and internationally. She has been appointed as interim ASiT Executive Committee Communications Officer in 2022 October and elected to continue the role in 2023.

Throughout my tenure I hope to ensure:
· Maintain communication amongst the council, the training organisations, our stakeholders and most importantly our members.  
· Educational events are promoted widely and efficiently to ensure early awareness to all of our members and surgical trainees. 

Contact: comms@asit.org