Stephen Leeder
Stephen Leeder AO FRACP FFPH FAFPHM FRACGP (born 13 December 1941 in Grafton) [1] is an emeritus professor of public health and community medicine at the University of Sydney.[2][3] where he held the position of dean of Medicine from 1997 to 2002.
Stephen Leeder also holds the positions of adjunct professor of Public Health at the Western Sydney University, adjunct professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York and he is chair of Western Sydney Local Health District Board.[4][5]
Stephen Leeder was the Editor-In-Chief of the Medical Journal of Australia, until he was sacked in 2015 over criticizing the decision to outsource production of the journal to the global publishing giant Elsevier.[6] All but three of the MJA's editorial advisory committee resigned following the decision to sack Leeder, and wrote to AMA president Brian Owler asking him to review the decision.[7] Ken Harvey supported Leeder and said that his sacking, and the use of Elsevier "is a mistake that is fairly irredeemable"[8]
Honours
Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) 2006[9]
Fellowships
Royal Australasian College of physicians 1975
UK Faculty of Public Health Medicine 1983
Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine 1991
Australian College of General Practitioners (Hon) 2007[9]
Education
Professor Leeder attended Homebush Boys High School and the University of Sydney where he graduated with honours in medical science in 1964, in medicine in 1966, as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1974 (An epidemiological study of selected factors which may pre-dispose to chronic obstructive lung disease) and as a Doctor of Medicine in 2006 (Studies of factors that affect the lung function of children).[9]
Career
Professor Leeder commenced his career as an intern at Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney in 1966.[10] He has a long history of involvement in public health research, educational development and policy. His research interests as a clinical epidemiologist have been mainly asthma and cardiovascular disease. His interest in public health was stimulated by spending 1968 in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.[10]
After post-doctoral experience at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London in (1974–75) [10] and then at McMaster University in Canada (1975–76) [10] he was appointed foundation professor of Community Medicine (1977-1985) at the University of Newcastle, NSW, in 1976 where he remained until the end of 1985.[10] He played a major role in the development of the innovative medical curriculum. He was also the foundation director of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Clinical Epidemiology. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to the University of Newcastle for the establishment of the Centre as part of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) to develop clinical epidemiologists in the Asian and Pacific Region. Professor Leeder was the director of a large Department of Community Medicine from 1986 – 1996. During his years in Newcastle his research interests were in cardiovascular disease, asthma and tobacco.[10]
In 1986 he took up the post of Professor of Community Medicine at Westmead Hospital in Sydney’s west and pursued research in heart disease and health promotion. His chair was originally within the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Sydney and then in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, that later reverted to become the Sydney School of Public Health.[10]
After serving for two years as head of the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Sydney, he was appointed dean of the Medical Faculty between 1996 and 2002, during which time he oversaw the implementation of a new graduate educational program, considerable decentralization of the Faculty to its schools, strategic development of research and the formation of an extensive rural education network for medical students.[10]
He was appointed an officer in the Order of Australia in 2006.[10]
In 2003-04, Professor Leeder worked at Columbia University, New York, in the Earth Institute and Mailman School of Public Health, developing a substantial report, based on research data and scientific interpretation, of the economic consequences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in developing economies. The report, A Race against Time: the challenge of cardiovascular disease in developing economies,[11] concentrated upon the macroeconomic consequences of CVD, and especially on the fact that one-third of CVD deaths in many developing countries were occurring among people of working age.[10]
After returning from Columbia University in NY in 2004, Professor Leeder directed the development of the Sydney node of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy from 2006 to 2012.[10]
Professor Leeder is chair of Western Sydney Local Health Board. His career in western Sydney began in 1986. Massive capital redevelopment of facilities in the health district are under way. He is a passionate advocate for integrating care in the community with hospital services and has advised Federal and State governments.[12]
Professor Leeder also held the part-time position of Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Journal of Australia from January 2013 until May 2015. On 1 May 2015, it was made public via the media that Professor Leeder had been sacked by the Board of AMPCo , the MJAs publishing company.[13] Furthermore, publishing and some editorial functions were to be outsourced to an international publishing company, Elsevier.[13] As more information became available, it appeared that the Board of AMPCo had rejected advice given to it by the Editor-in-Chief on behalf of the editorial staff at the MJA and had seemingly not taken into consideration several other major concerns including what is on the public record about practices by Elsevier that should have been of concern. Most of the editorial advisory committee and two deputy editors resigned in protest.[13]
He has also served on the Senate of the University of Sydney for several terms,[12] had two double terms as national president of the Public Health Association,[12] and one triennium as chair of the Health Advisory Committee of NHMRC.[12] He served as a member of the Better Health Commission in development health goals and targets for Australia, and more recently as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee, member of the Health and Hospitals Fund Advisory board, as Director of the Research Network, Western Sydney Local Health district, as chair of the NSW Advisory Committee on Prevention, a member of the NSW Health Ministerial Advisory Committee (2011 – 2014) and chair of the NSW State Committee, Royal Australasian College of Physicians (2012 – 2013).[12]
Professor Leeder has engaged in medical journalism for forty years in mainstream media, medical newspapers and television.[14]
He maintains a blog of his poetry http://stephenleeder.blogspot.com.au/.[15]
Personal life
Professor Leeder resides in Sydney and is married to Dr Katharine Esson. He has three children Nicholas, Robert and James.[1]
References
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