Optometry NSW/ACT’s committees ensure that our services are led by optometrists, for optometrists.
Committee members bring a range of expertise and skills to the role and provide leadership and operational insights to advance specific projects and activities, and to support the work of the secretariat.
ECONA – the Early Career Optometrists committee of NSW/ACT – was established by Optometry NSW/ACT in 2019 to engage with early career optometrists, or ECOs (= final year optometry students and graduates with less than 10 years of professional experience).
Through ECONA, Optometry NSW/ACT supports, engages with, and represents early career optometrists in NSW/ACT. In a shifting landscape, ECOs now have a vastly different set of challenges to face, including:
The founding committee consisted of 9 members, Margaret Zhong (Chair), Lowana Littlechild, Lauren Hutchinson, Jack Phu, Alex Koutsokeras, Sue Kweon, Phoebe Wong, Daniel Rafla and Wendy Saw.
Since then it has established three distinct sub-committees, each with a different focus: Student Engagement, Corporate Engagement and Rural & Regional Engagement.
We asked committee-member Sue Kweon to give us an overview of ECONA:
Q: What is the purpose of the ECONA committee?
A: The ECONA committee acts as a bridge, or conduit, between early career optometrists (ECOs) and students and their peak professional body – Optometry NSW/ACT. ECONA engages with ECOs in many ways, by taking part in planning and delivering CPD and social events to empower more ECOs to expand their scope of practice and/or enter new career pathways. The optometrists who make up our ECONA committees come from a range of backgrounds, including corporate, independent, academia and final-year undergraduate students.
Q: How can I get involved with ECONA?
A: Positions on the subcommittees are clearly advertised via Optometry NSW/ACT communications to all members as they come up. As long as you’re a member of Optometry NSW/ACT, we welcome you to apply for a position on the ECONA main or subcommittees as they become available.
Q: What sort of services does Optometry NSW/ACT offer Early Career Optometrists?
A: While the ECONA committee cannot dispense legal or financial advice, you can speak to the highly specialised team at Optometry NSW/ACT about the following:
Q: What kind of events are planned by ECONA in collaboration with Optometry NSW/ACT?
A: You can learn about our ECONA events on our events page.
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