Dr Ruth Mitchell is paediatric and adult neurosurgeon and researcher based in Sydney, Australia. She is a passionate medical educator, a fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FFSTEd) and a member of the Advocacy Committee of the International Society of Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN). She has served as faculty for the ISPN education course in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Dr Mitchell is also an international public speaker on peace, security, and equity, a leader in the anti-nuclear movement, and an advocate for diversity and inclusion in surgery, and global access to surgical care. She is currently the first woman to chair the board of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) (Nobel Peace Prize 1985) and has provided leadership to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) (Nobel Peace Prize 2017) since its inception in 2007. Dr Mitchell chairs the board of The Ubuntu Lab, an emerging museum of the humanities. She has been awarded Australian Medical Association Doctor in Training of the Year (2016), the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons John Corboy Medal (2019), and Flinders University Convocation Medal (2022).