Following the online election and the AGM, the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) Governing Board has a new chair and four new directors. Sincere thanks go to our outgoing directors for their dedicated service and we look forward to a bright future supported by a board with deep talent, experience and expertise.
Governing Board chair
We are delighted to announce that Alan Longcroft MBAcC has been elected as chair of the BAcC Governing Board. Alan has served for 5 years on the governing board and been actively involved in all levels of oversight in the organisation in that time. He is a practitioner member of the board and has a keen interest in academia, currently in the process of completing his own Masters level research. He will serve as chair for the one remaining year of his second and final elected term.
Alan’s message to the membership
Alan Longcroft, BAcC Chair
‘Having the privilege of the past four years to work with so many extraordinary people in our sphere, within our board and staff team, our colleges, partner organisations and beyond, I am touched that the Governing Board has put its trust in me to carry the organisation forward as its chair.
Mindful of our personnel changes of this past year, with outstanding new colleagues in our CEO, new key members of our staff team and five new members of our board, I am focused now on providing sound continuity for the organisation going forward. The Governing Board will keep sure the BAcC continues to work for its members, to maintain momentum in all the areas of our work and to plan the next 2026-2030 strategic cycle to collectively decide where we go next.
The BAcC celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, and personally, I am ever so eager to see where we go next together.’
Thank you to departing members of the Governing Board
Three practitioner Governing Board members stood down at the AGM on 12 September, Pia Huber MBAcC, Susan Evans MBAcC and Lianne Aquilina MBAcC.
Pia served six years on the Governing Board, the last three of which were as chair. Pia helped to steer the BAcC through the challenging COVID era and her dedication and skill was an enormous asset to the organisation as well as her wise and compassionate leadership providing substantial support to directors, staff and members alike. Susan also served six years on the Governing Board and was also the chair of the Membership Services Committee. Her warmth and constant advocacy for the profession earned the trust and appreciation of members across the organisation. Throughout her three-year term, Lianne worked tirelessly on behalf of members to lobby and push for better working conditions and recognition for our practitioners.
Lay director, Samantha Peters, stood down from the board earlier this year to act as interim CEO from March to May while the new CEO was recruited. Samantha’s deep expertise in management and operational standards helped the organisation immensely and her calm hand gave great continuity to the BAcC in a year of transition.
The departure of these Governing Board members left four vacancies on the board, three practitioner and one lay director.
Welcoming new Governing Board members
The Governing Board is comprised of five practitioner directors and four lay directors. The departure of the four Governing Board members above left three practitioner director vacancies and one lay director vacancy. Elections were held and three practitioner directors were duly elected by a member vote, drawn from eight nominations. A lay director was also recruited by the Governing Board.
Accordingly, we are delighted to welcome the following new directors to the Governing Board of the BAcC:
Felicity Moir FBAcC – Practitioner Director
Felicity graduated from the International College of Oriental Medicine (ICOM) in 1980 and studied Chinese herbal medicine with Ted Kaptchuk. She witnessed the merger of the original professional bodies to form the BAcC and was one of the first members to be awarded a fellowship. She helped to set up and ran the London School of Acupuncture and TCM from 1983-1997. The course was validated by the university of Westminster where she was the course leader, principal lecturer and acted as a validation officer for 20 years.
She has been an external advisor and external examiner with the BAAB and is still an external examiner for courses in the UK and abroad. She co-wrote The Standards of Practice for Acupuncture, The Standards of Education and training for Acupuncture and The BAcC Educational Standards. She gained her doctorate in 2020 with the Institute of Education. She has been in practice for 44 years now and, whilst being a practitioner of the tradition of Chinese medicine, she sees the value, to patients and to the profile of our profession, of working in conjunction with the UK health care system, liaising with patients and their GP’s and consultants.
Vivien Shaw MBAcC – Practitioner Director
Vivien trained in acupuncture over 30 years ago, with her first year at the International College of Oriental Medicine (ICOM) and the subsequent two at the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (LSATCM), that later became part of the University of Westminster. She has been a member of the BAcC since its inception in 1995.
From 2012-2016, alongside her acupuncture practice, she worked part-time in the medical school at the University of Oxford as the departmental anatomist, before taking up a full-time post as lecturer in medical sciences (anatomy) at Bangor University in North Wales in 2017. In 2021, she moved back into acupuncture practice and joined the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board (BAAB) as an accreditation officer.
For many years, she has been researching the anatomical origins of acupuncture, and has published widely in this area. She was awarded her PhD through published works by Bangor University in 2020. Throughout her academic career she has been a regular contributor to the Acupuncture Research Resource Centre (ARRC) and BAcC conferences, and also been an invited speaker at the conferences of the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) and Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (AACP).
Vivien set up and facilitated the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board (BAAB) student panel, as well as the teaching and learning forum. She was a member of the BAcC Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Committee from 2022 to 2024, and also of the Quality Assurance Agency Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Board over the same period of time.
She has extensive experience of working within committee structures to arrive at collaborative decisions. This ranges from the setting up and running of her local dive club, through to the BAAB Accreditation Committee and Board.
After working in such varied contexts and with so many different stakeholders, she has become highly skilled in working with others to agree and fulfil shared goals.
Anthony Todd MBAcC – Practitioner Director
Anthony has been a member of the BAcC as a practising acupuncturist since he graduated from the International College of Oriental Medicine (ICOM) in 2000. Since graduating he has also worked as a lecturer in Chinese medicine, module leader, clinical supervisor, examiner, as well as a personal tutor. He has trained extensively in different styles of acupuncture including Chinese, Korean and Japanese, and is also a member of the European branch of the Toyohari association, specialising in Japanese style meridian therapy. He has taught acupuncture and Chinese medicine CPD seminars in the UK and internationally, and is currently an external examiner for City College in London. He is also trained in Chinese herbal medicine and a member of the RCHM.
In addition to his teaching role at ICOM, he is a member of the academic advisory board which was set up to evaluate and develop the curriculum for the college. Anthony is particularly interested in the plurality of styles and how to contextualise and draw together the different aspects of Chinese medicine. He has published articles in EJOM with regard to the relationship of different aspects of Chinese medical theory and pulse taking.
As well as knowledge and experience of acupuncture, he is also in interested in the day-to-day concerns of members with respect to clinical life, and their engagement with the wider profession. Anthony lived in Japan for 2 ½ years and has intermediate written and spoken Japanese. His interests include languages, Taichi and Chi Kung.
Joanne Shaw – Lay Director
Joanne has spent the past 16 years of her career working in the NHS, predominantly within Primary Care. She has worked on both the commissioning and provider sides of the fence and has most recently been heavily involved in the development and growth of Primary Care Networks and the associated expansion of new roles coming into Primary Care. Joanne can see real opportunity for expanding those roles into the complementary side of medicine and would like to see acupuncturists featuring on that list in the future.
Prior to joining the NHS, Joanne worked in the private sector in a variety of commercial roles supporting mergers and acquisitions. This included time at British Airways where she was involved in acquisitions and joint ventures with a number of international airlines.
Joanne has a degree in economics from the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about self-care and wellbeing and is a big advocate for acupuncture, emotional freedom techniques, breathwork therapy, yoga and cold water therapy to name a few. Joanne has ambitions to see the inclusion of some of these therapies in more mainstream health care and expand their accessibility.
Full biographies and contact details can be found on the Governing Board page
