Aims of the Committee

To re-examine periodically the validity of the board examination tests and to provide additional test material and updated improvements for the cytomorphologic and textural bodies to the test.

Specific Topics

  • To implement the decisions of the strategy meeting namely to Improve the exam: online format, and re-organization of questions and slides.
  • To collaborate directly with the Education Committee and CT Register and Renewal Committee

Chair: Syed Ali
Members: Ahish Chandra, Donna Russel, Mauro Saieg, Gary Tse
Members ex-officio: Massimo Bongiovanni and Fernando Schmitt


Chair: dr. Syed Z. Ali, MD, FRCPath, FIAC

Dr. Ali serves as Professor of Pathology and Radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as well as the Director of the Division of Cytopathology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He received his Pathology residency training at North Shore University Hospital in New York with fellowships in Surgical Pathology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and Cytopathology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.


Dr. AshisH Chandra

Dr Ashish Chandra is the lead uropathologist and cytopathologist at Guy’s & St. Thomas’ Hospitals, London where he has been based since 2001. He is a member of the Cytopathology Specialist Advisory Committee at RCPath, is an active member of the British Association of Cytopathology (BAC) and Deputy editor of the journal, Cytopathology.


Committee Members

Donna Russel

Donna Russell received her Master’s in Education from the University of Rochester Graduate School of Education and currently is the Education Coordinator of the Cytopathology Resident/Fellowship training program at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. She has been an employee at UR Medicine for over 30 years.  She is also the program director of the Master’s level Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center/Daemen College School of Cytotechnology and is currently teaching her seventh class. 


Dr. Mauro Saieg, FIAC

Mauro Ajaj Saieg, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor, Cytopathologist at the Santa Casa Medical School and Head of Cytopathology and Digital Pathology- Fleury Group, São Paulo, Brazil. He’s also associate editor of the Cytopathology Journal, and speaker in several international meetings, having published more than 70 peer reviewed indexed articles in cytopathology, with main focus on pancreatic and digital cytopathology.


Dr. Gary Tse, MIAC

Dr Tse is a professor in the Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, Prince of Wales Hospital and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the vice president for Asia for IAP, and the president of the Hong Kong Division of International Academy of Pathology. Dr. Tse has given many invited presentations, convened regional and international meetings and has published actively in breast pathology, and has published extensively.