The Board

Dr Wayne Morriss is a practising anaesthesiologist in Christchurch, New Zealand, with extensive experience in medical education, neuroanaesthesia, and obstetric anaesthesia. He trained in New Zealand and Australia and worked in Fiji for 2 years before settling in Christchurch.

Dr Morriss has been a member of the WFSA Board since 2012. He was Chair of the Education Committee from 2012-2016 and Director of Programmes from 2016-2020.

Dr Morriss is the co-developer of the Essential Pain Management programme which has now been taught in over 60 countries worldwide. He has also been closely involved with the development and delivery of other educational projects, including Primary Trauma Care, Safer Anaesthesia From Education (SAFE), and the WFSA Fellowship Programme.

Adrian W Gelb is Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of the Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to immigrating to Canada, he worked in rural South Africa. He served as Professor & Chair of Anesthesia at Western University, Canada, before coming to UCSF as Vice Chair. Dr Gelb has served as President of 4 organizations and other leadership roles in multiple national and international Anaesthesia Societies.

His global health interests include health policy and patient safety. Working with WHO and other global groups, he is a strong advocate for expansion of the access to safe anesthesia. He is an active academic with > 300 publications (h-Index 62, citations 14,400) and has served on many international editorial boards. He is an accomplished communicator and has given over 350 invited lectures around the world. His extensive anaesthesia leadership and global health experience has given him an understanding of the diversity of anaesthetic needs and practices in different countries.

Dr. Davy Cheng is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, and Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western University, London, Canada. He holds the Chair in Evidence-based Perioperative Clinical Outcomes Research (EPiCOR) and is the co-founder of the MEDICI Centre, which is a World Health Organization (WHO) designated Collaborating Center in the study of global perioperative surgery and anesthesia care. 

Dr. Cheng is also an Intensivist in the Critical Care Medicine Division, Department of Medicine, Western University. He served as Dean (Acting), Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University (2018-2020); and as Chair / Chief of the Department of Anesthesia & Perioperative Medicine, London Health Sciences Centre, St. Joseph Health Care London, and Western University from 2001-2017.

Dr. Cheng is a globally recognized healthcare leader in the forefront of research, practice and healthcare policy in the fields of perioperative medicine, cardiac surgery, critical care medicine, and evidence-based clinical decision-making. (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-47887-2#toc) His pioneering work in fast track cardiac anesthesia and recovery has established the standard of cardiac anesthesia and recovery practice around the world (citations 10,544, h-index 54, i10-index 122).

Dr.Cheng served as past Board of Directors at CAS, SCA, IARS (Board Chair 2016-17); and as past Chair of WFSA Scientific Affairs Committee (2020-24). Dr. Cheng was awarded the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society Gold Medal (2015) and was inducted the highest award by the German Society of Anesthesiologists and Intensive Care as its Honorary Member. He was recognized the Outstanding Contribution Award for Chinese Anesthesiology for his leadership and mentorship in Chinese anesthesiology in China (2009). In 2007, Dr. Cheng was the first anesthesiologist in Canada elected as Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (FCAHS).

Daniela Filipescu is a cardiac anaesthesiologist, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy and Chief of the Cardiac Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Department II at the Emergency Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases in Bucharest. She also holds a Masters degree in health management.

Dr Filipescu was the first Romanian to hold the European Diploma of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. She has held various elected positions in the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA), including President of the ESA (2014-2015) and was awarded ESA Honorary Membership in 2017. 

Dr Filipescu’s main research interests include haemostasis, transfusion, sepsis and patient safety. She currently chairs both the Scientific Committee of the Romanian Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Congress and a national multidisciplinary group for the implementation of a Patient Blood Management programme based in Romania.

Professor Walid Habre is a senior consultant in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the University Hospitals of Geneva and Ordinary Professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has been engaged as a Committee member at the WFSA and supported the WFSA actions at the time when ESA became a regional Society of the Federation. Professor Habre has a multicultural background and as a clinical scientist, he established an important network worldwide particularly with PanArab and Afrique Francophone, particularly given his language expertise.

Finally, Professor Habre has previously served as Chair of a Scientific Sub-Committee, Council member, industry liaison officer, Congress and media committee member at the ESA, which allowed him to carry out important networking with industry partners, to have an in-depth knowledge of the challenges in raising funds and to reach financial equilibrium with Congress organisations.

Dr Haylock-Loor graduated as a medical doctor in Honduras before completing postgraduate training in Spain and working as an anaesthesiologist, intensivist, and interventional pain physician at San Pedro Sula. In 2012, in liaison with the University of Florida, she achieved the oximetry gap zeroing in Honduras as part of the WHO checklist project. She is the past President of Honduran Anesthesia Society.

Carolina has represented the Latin American region as a council member for the WFSA since 2012. In 2020, she was elected as the WFSA Director of Programs, and she also chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee. She is also chairing the Volume metrics group for the Utstein2 Global Surgical Health Indicators Project.

Dr Haylock-Loor is particularly passionate about education and has taught trainees on the Honduran Anesthesiology Residency Program in Pain Management. She has promoted WFSA courses in the Latin American region, including EPM (Essential Pain Management), SAFE (Safer Anaesthesia from Education) Obstetric, SAFE Paediatric, SAFE OR (operating room), PTC (Primary Trauma Care), VAST (Vital Anesthesia Simulation Training) and VAST wellbeing module. She has been an invited speaker for international meetings in North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Dr Guasch is a Spanish anaesthesiologist, who was born in Uruguay. She has always been involved in obstetric anaesthesia, which is her main field of interest.

She is an advocate of patient safety and as a member of her national society in Spain, Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor (SEDAR) is involved in developing responsibilities in this field. She has been the Vice-President of SEDAR for the past six years and also involved in the European Society of Anesthesia (ESA) as a member of the Obstetric Anesthesia Subcommittee and the Gender Equity Committee. She is also Honorary Secretary of the European Board of Anaesthesiology (EBA/UEMS).

Dr Ramirez is currently Consultant Anaesthesiologist at the Universidad CES Medellin, Colombia. For more than 10 years, he has held senior positions on the Boards of many anaesthesiology and trauma societies and was President of the Colombian Society of Anesthesiology (SCARE) from 2018-2020.

For WFSA,  he is currently the Chair of the Constitution Committee. Previously he was Chair of the Obstetric Anaesthesia Committee and a Council member from 2016-2020.