This awardee is selected by the Cardiovascular Sonography Council. Members who have suggestions should share them with [email protected] for consideration no later than September 1, 2025. This award is rotated with the Cardiovascular Sonographer Distinguished Teacher Award and is presented every other year.
Bonita Anderson – 2024 Sonographer Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
2024 Awardee: Bonita Anderson, MSc, AMS, DMU (Cardiac), ACS, FASA, FASE
Ms. Bonita Anderson is the recipient of the 2024 Sonographer Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing her significant contributions as an echocardiography educator, her accomplishments and capabilities as an advanced cardiac sonographer, and her active involvement with ASE.
Ms. Anderson says she abides by the mantra, “If you’re going to teach someone to fish, you need to go fishing yourself,” and this belief has been continually present throughout her 40-year clinical and academic career.
A prolific teacher and educator, Ms. Anderson co-founded the first university-based cardiac ultrasound qualification in Australia—the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She’s also served on many local, national, and international advisory committees developing standards and establishing protocols to improve diagnostic accuracy in cardiac ultrasound.
Other notable professional achievements include authoring two textbooks, Echocardiography: The Normal Examination and Echocardiographic Measurements and A Sonographer’s Guide to the Assessment of Heart Disease. Both publications are required reading by many echocardiography course providers in Australia, Europe, and the United States. In addition to sharing her knowledge and expertise through helpful educational resources, Ms. Anderson has taught hundreds of sonographers to scan, influenced thousands more, and guided many senior sonographers and medical staff in how to instruct others.
Since first joining ASE over 25 years ago, Ms. Anderson has served in positions on the Society’s Board of Directors (2017-2019), Cardiovascular Imaging Case Reports Editorial Board, and various committees, task forces, and advisory groups. She achieved Fellowship status in 2009, received the ASE Meritorious Service Award in 2020, and is currently a member of the writing group for the upcoming diastolic function guidelines. She is also a member of the Australasian Sonographers Association and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand.
After earning her Associate Diploma in Clinical Measurement Techniques from the Queensland Institute of Technology, she earned a Diploma in Medical Ultrasonography (Cardiac) and a Master of Applied Science in Medical Ultrasound in the 1990s. In 2015, she was awarded an Advanced Cardiac Sonographer (ACS) credential. Ms. Anderson started her career as a cardiac technician and later advanced to a Senior Cardiac Scientist and Echocardiography Educator. At QUT, she enjoyed a 15-year academic tenure as lecturer/senior lecturer/course coordinator of the Graduate Diploma in Cardiac Ultrasound. Currently, she is a Clinical Fellow at the School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Health at QUT, and an Advanced Cardiac Scientist at the Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
In between work commitments, Ms. Anderson enjoys knitting and watching English murder mysteries.