RMSANZ Board of Directors
The current board of directors as of the AGM held in 2025
Prof Steven Faux AM
President
Professor Steven Faux was the establishing Director of the St Vincent’s Hospital’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2000 and is the current director of Pain Medicine at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. He is a Conjoint Professor of Medicine at the University of NSW and the University of Notre Dame. Professor Faux has led NSW Health’s rehabilitation Community of Practice in COVID19. He is on the management committee of the Australian Stroke Registry, the Clinical Council of the National Stroke Foundation and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has served on the board of the RMSANZ for over 4 years, and is the scientific lead of the ISPRM Congress in Sydney 2024
Dr Josephine Braid
Board Member
Dr Josephine Braid has been practicing as a Rehabilitation Physician since 2009 and has expertise in neuro-rehabilitation in particular brain injury rehabilitation. She resides in Orange, NSW with her family and works in Bathurst Health Service. She regularly facilitates Schwartz Rounds there. Jo is also a certified leadership coach and has a focus on clinician wellbeing strategies at the individual, team and organisation level. When not working, Jo enjoys travelling and a hit of tennis any day.
Dr Kellie Nichol
Board Member
Dr Nichol is a descendant of Ngāi Tahu and resides in Dunedin, New Zealand. She is a Rehabilitation Medicine Physician, employed by Health NZ – Southern. She has a special interest in neurorehabilitation, in particular acquired brain injuries.
Dr Nichol has been an AFRM fellow since 2013, holding several AFRM and RMSANZ committee memberships. Currently, she is a member of AFRM Aotearoa committee, Aotearoa representative on the Faculty Education committee and previously the Aotearoa representative on the Faculty Training committee. She is the co-chair of RMSANZ Aotearoa branch, RMSANZ Advisory Council member and co-convener of RMSANZ 8th Annual scientific meeting held in conjunction with New Zealand Rehabilitation Association in
2025.
Outside of medicine, Dr Nichol and her husband own a farming business and were the 2023 national ambassadors for sustainable farming and growing in New Zealand.
Dr Nathan Johns
Treasurer
Dr Kelly Dungey
Board Member
Dr Kelly Dungey BSocSc(Psyc), MBA, MIB, MBBS, CIME, FAFRM is Medical Director Rehabilitation at Gold Coast Health, Queensland. In addition to serving on the RMSANZ Board of Directors she is a member of the Queensland AFRM Branch Committee and the Co-Chair of the Queensland Rehabilitation Clinical Network. Prior to medicine she worked in business administration and has continued this area of interest by commencing the pathway towards an Associate Fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. She is passionate about neurorehabilitation, specifically acquired brain injuries, and seeks to progress the field of Rehabilitation Medicine through research and the development of new models of care.
Dr Sumitha Gounden
Board Member
Dr Sumitha Gounden is the Rehabilitation Medical Head of Department at Orange Health Service and holds academic roles with the University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Rehabilitation Medical Society of Australia and New Zealand (RMSANZ) and holds leadership roles across multiple Special Interest Groups, including Disaster Rehabilitation. Since 2017, she has provided international tele-rehabilitation to rural India and is actively collaborating to build rehabilitation capacity in Pacific Island nations, particularly Fiji. Passionate about education, she delivers regular training workshops and leads the “Red Love” blood donation campaign in Western NSW.
Dr Alaeldin Elmalik
Board Member
Alaeldin is the director of rehabilitation at The Bayside Rehabilitation Centre at Masada Hospital, Ramsay Health. He manages a rehabilitation unit, providing care for all patients with a variety of rehabilitation needs – from orthopaedics to complex neurological diseases, and is a consultant at the Royal Melbourne in the multidisciplinary Spasticity Management Service. He has participated in many national and international spasticity workshops. Dr Elmalik has an interest in the use of ultrasound and technology in the management of post-stroke spasticity. He has co-authored a number of publications in the use of technology in neurological rehabilitation and spasticity management. Dr Elmalik is an Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne.
Dr Emma Sheaves
Board Member
Dr Emma Sheaves is an early career AFRM Fellow who completed her rehabilitation medicine training in Sydney. A former physiotherapist, she brings a strong appreciation of the transformative impact of rehabilitation for people living with disability. Emma has broad clinical interests including neurorehabilitation, spasticity management, developmental disability, spinal cord and brain injury, orthopaedics, and amputee rehabilitation. She has been actively involved in the rehabilitation medicine community, including as the trainee representative for RACP NSW/ACT Trainees’ Committee and AFRM NSW/ACT Regional and Trainee Committees. Emma is passionate about disability advocacy, rural health equity, education, and physician wellbeing. Outside work, she enjoys bouldering with friends and spending time with her family.
Dr Brian Zeman
Board Member
I am an Australian medical graduate One of first four graduates of Australian College of Rehabilitation Medicine which was precursor to the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. I was the first Rehabilitation Medicine to get NASQ recognition for ACRM so that our qualifications were recognised as a specialist. I was involved in negotiations with the RACP to be a Faculty with goal that we could charge physician consultation rates for Medicare. I have supervised large numbers of registrars now specialists and have been a faculty examiner over many years. I have been a member of RMSANZ since its inception. I have worked with Prof George Burniston as medical
student, Dr Brad Norington as registrar and with Dr Garry Pearce as specialist.
I have been involved in rehabilitation of amputees, adult developmental disability, vocational rehabilitation, musculoskeletal and trauma as well as geriatric patients. I have particular interests in Neurorehabilitation and Severe Burns Injury rehabilitation. Currently staff specialist at Ryde and Royal North Shore Hospitals in NSW but also involved in private and medicolegal work.
Mrs Kerry Bradley
Appointed Board Member
Kerry Bradley
MBA, BBus.HAdmin, GAICD, Grad Cert Applied Risk Management, Diploma Risk Management and
Business Continuity, RN
FAICD, FGIA, FACN and AAQHC
Kerry is a highly skilled and experienced professional having worked in executive and senior management roles in public, private and community health care organisations for over 30 years and understands the complexity of contemporary healthcare governance, quality service provision and regulation. Kerry currently is a Director with Ballarat Community Health Care and holds consumer representative appointments with Barwon Health, Frances Perry House and Linacre Private.
Her leadership capabilities have been professionally recognised with the award of Fellow by the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Governance Institute of Australia, Australian College of Nursing and Australasian Association of Quality in Health Care.
Mr Ian Lacy
Appointed Board Member
Ian Lacy (BE (Hons), MEngSt, MBA, GAICD) is a marketing and finance professional who is interested in helping boards of medical companies/NFPs working in the brain injury area.
After completing a BE Hons and a MEngSt from The University of Queensland, Ian started his professional career as a consulting engineer. Later, he completed a MBA from Kellogg School of Management which led him into an international banking career with a major global bank. Ian, now based in Brisbane, has lived in Kuala Lumpur, Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.
Ian has completed the Company Directors Course (CDC) from the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and currently sits on the Advisory Board of Supported Travel eXperiences (STX) – a NDIS registered travel agency that specialises in designing tailored travel experiences for people with disabilities. He also recently joined the board of RMSANZ and is very thankful for the role that rehabilitation played in his return to executive capacity.
We wish to thank the following members for founding our society
Dr Saul Geffen Queensland Director Dr Kong Goh Queensland Director
Dr Michael Chou Victoria Director Dr Jurriaan De Groot New Zealand Interim Board Member
Dr Alex Ganora New South Wales President Dr Peter Harradine New South Wales Treasurer
Dr Peter Anastassiadis South Australia Director Dr Peshotan (Pesi) Katrak New South Wales Interim Board Member
Dr Clive Sun New South Wales Director Dr Lee Laycock New South Wales Vice President