FAHPi is thrilled to share that Roel Castillo, FAHPI Deputy Director and Director of Professional Advancement, Policy and Research, has been awarded the prestigious Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship 2026!

Roel will join 75 Churchill Fellowship recipients, a network of changemakers dedicated to shaping the future of Australian healthcare. His Fellowship will focus on studying how leading hospitals worldwide are advancing sustainable sterilisation practices—helping our sector reduce waste, boost efficiency, and strengthen resilience while maintaining the highest standards of patient safety.

Congratulations, Roel! #ProudFAHPi

Your leadership and commitment to innovation continue to inspire us all. Looking forward to the global insights you’ll bring back to drive positive change across our healthcare system.

Fellow: Roel Beltran Castillo ACT 2026

I believe healthcare is at its best when it combines compassion, innovation, and responsibility. Throughout my career, I have been driven by a simple conviction: every patient deserves safe, high-quality care, regardless of where they live, and every healthcare professional deserves systems that enable them to deliver that care effectively. That belief continues to shape both my leadership and my purpose.

My journey began on the frontline of sterilising services, where I learned that some of the most critical contributions to patient care happen behind the scenes. Working closely with clinicians and healthcare teams, I witnessed how the quality of sterile services directly impacts patient outcomes, safety, and trust. These experiences inspired me to pursue leadership, not to direct from above, but to empower others, build capability, and create environments where people can succeed together.

Over the past 15 years, I have progressed into senior leadership roles and now serve as District Manager of Sterilising Services for Southern NSW Local Health District, supporting hospitals across a diverse regional network. I have led major service transformation projects, service redesign, digital traceability initiatives, accreditation improvements, and workforce development programs that have strengthened quality, efficiency, and patient safety.

A defining moment in my career was recognising the environmental impact of healthcare and the responsibility we have to address it. This sparked my passion for sustainable healthcare and led initiatives that reduced resource consumption and waste while maintaining the highest standards of infection prevention and clinical excellence.

Through the Churchill Fellowship, I hope to learn from global leaders and bring practical solutions back to Australia. My vision is to help create a national framework for sustainable sterilising services that strengthens healthcare resilience, supports regional communities, develops future leaders, and delivers lasting benefits for patients, the health system, and the environment.

Project: To research on sustainable CSSD practices to reduce waste and build resilient health systems

Throughout my career in Central Sterile Supply Departments, I have seen their critical role in patient safety and their heavy use of water, energy and materials. As health systems face climate, cost and workforce pressures, CSSD offers a clear opportunity for sustainable, system-wide improvement. Through a Churchill Fellowship, I will learn from leading hospitals in Singapore, Taiwan, the United States and the United Kingdom that have embedded sustainability in sterilisation services. By engaging CSSD leaders, engineers and clinicians, I will examine how safe, compliant reductions in water, energy and waste are governed, implemented and sustained, and translate this learning into practice in Australian CSSDs.

Source: Winston Churchill Trust
Project:
https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/project/to-research-on-sustainable-cssd-practices-to-reduce-waste-and-build-resilient-health-systems/
Fellow:
Roel Beltran Castillo