Dr Eberhard Wenzel, 2 January 1950 – 20 September 2001
Eberhard Wenzel worked in public health for over 20 years. He was well known to many through his work at Griffith University, Queensland, his prolific work on the International Public Health Watch web site and email list serve, and the development and maintenance of the Virtual Library on Public Health, a site recently rated as the best in the field and now hosted by the School of Public Health and Community Medicine - UNSW.
Eberhard was an inspiring advocate for health promotion as it was described over 20 years ago in the Ottawa Charter. This health promotion represented a significant move away from a medical view of health promotion that focused primarily on disease prevention. Eberhard was highly critical of recent trends, both nationally and internationally, that signified a step backward to such a medical paradigm of health promotion.
Eberhard was not afraid to speak his mind about what he saw as the critical failings of health promotion and public health. His thoughts were often challenging and sometimes controversial. However he could be relied upon to question accepted dogma, bring a different perspective, challenge accepted beliefs or practice, and to stimulate new ways of thinking. Eberhard's students and others touched by him carry on this legacy of critical thinking.
Following Eberhard's death in September 2001, the Australian Health Promotion Association endorsed the establishment of an annual oration in his memory. With this memorial oration, the Australian Health Promotion Association hopes to stimulate a culture of critical and reflective discussion for the advancement of health promotion in Australia.
Eberhard Wenzel with Lucien Schlosser created an accessible Virtual Library on Public Health: HTTp://www.sphcm.med.unsw.edu.au/SPHCMWeb.nsf/page/WWWVLPH
Download Orations:
The Eberhard Wenzel Memorial Oration was established to maintain Eberhard's legacy of provocation and challenge. The Oration is an opportunity to present a new or challenging perspective on an issue of relevance to health promotion. It is a catalyst for further discussion and debate amoung health promotion practitioners, researchers and policy makers.
19th National Australian Health Promotion Association Conference, Melbourne Vic 2010
Associate Professor Liz Eckermann M.A., Ph.D
Associate Professor Elizabeth Eckermann is currently Interim Head of the School of History Heritage and Society at Deakin University. Prior to taking up her current appointment she was Associate Head of School (Research and Research Mentoring) and Associate Dean: Research in the Faculty of Arts. Her key areas of research interest and publication cover, women’s health, reproductive health, gender and health, domestic violence, quality of life and indicators of health status, health promotion and public health.
Associate Professor Eckermann is on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies where she is Vice-President: Development. She was made a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Society in 2006 and in 2007 won the Zonta International Outstanding Achievement Award for her commitment to the advancement of women. She has undertaken over 20 consultancies on health promotion and gender and health for the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Western Pacific Region. She is currently conducting research and publishing on risk and reproductive health in Lao PDR and finishing a book on international perspectives on gender, lifespan and quality of life which is to be published by Springer.
18th National Australian Health Promotion Association Conference, Perth WA 2009
Dr Gauden Galea is the Coordinator of Health Promotion in the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, Switerland. He is a public health physician trained in the University of Malta and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He has a special interest in Health Promotion and the prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases. He has held posts as Regional Adviser in NCD in the Western Pacific Region of WHO and as Medical Officer (NCD) in the Pacific Island countries. In his national work before joining WHO in 1998, he headed a national Health Promotion Unit in the Ministry of Health in Malta and directed an Institute of Health Care concerned with the training of health workers. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the UK.
The Oration presented by Dr Gauden Galea is available on pre-recorded DVD.
Life in the digital bazaar, by Tania Hanzar
Gauden gave a brief history of www.lbd.org
17th National Australian Health Promotion Association Conference, Adelaide SA 2007
Prof. Fran Baum is the Head of the Department of Public Health at Flinders University, Foundation Director of South Australian Community Health Research Unit, Regional representative of the People’s Health Movement in Australia and the Pacific and chair of its Global Steering Committee, a Commissioner for the WHO’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.
oration 'Health Promotion Dreaming'
16th National Australian Health Promotion Association Conference, Alice Springs NT 2006
Professor Boni Robertson
Transcript of Oration not available
15th National Australian Health Promotion Association Conference, Canberra ACT 2005
Professor Ronald Labonte holds a Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the Institute of Population Health. He is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Ottawa, and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Prior to his appointment in 2004 at the University of Ottawa, he was founding Director of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU), a bi-university interdisciplinary research organisation that was committed to “engaged research” on population health determinants at local, national and global levels.
Eberhard Wenzel Oration by Professor Ronald Labonte
14th World Conference on Health Promotion and Health Education, Melbourne VIC 2004
Associate Professor Papaarangi Reid, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, The University of Auckland.
Papaarangi is Tumuaki and Head of Department of Te Kupenga Huaora Maori at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Papaarangi holds science and medical degrees from the University of Auckland and is a specialist in public health medicine. She has tribal affiliations to Te Rarawa in the Far North of Aotearoa and her research interests include analysing disparities between Indigenous and non Indigenous citizens as a means of monitoring Government commitment to Indigenous rights.
Transcript of Oration not available
13th Eberhard Wenzel Memorial Oration, Canberra ACT 2003
Dr. Adrian Reynolds, MBBS, BSc (Hons), MPH, FAChAM
Dr. Adrian Reynolds has worked in the Alcohol and Other Drugs field since 1983. Before undertaking public health consultancy work, Dr Reynolds was the Director of Brisbane North Alcohol and Drug Services. Dr Reynolds now works as a Senior Medical Officer with the Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Services at the Gold Coast Health District Service in Queensland, Australia. As a result of his extensive UN work and his experiences working with governments in many countries, Dr Reynolds has developed a particular interest in the subject of governance, decision-making and in the concepts of evidence-based medicine and their application to public policy.
Australian Health Promotion Association 12th National Conference, Sydney NSW 2002
Associate Professor David Legge, MD, BS, BMedSc Melb., FRACP
Director, La Trobe China Health Program, School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Victoria
David is also a member of the International People's Health Council, an international network of primary health care practitioners and academics. IPHC is committed to building a global movement which can contribute to changing unfair and unhealthy social structures at local, national and international levels. The IPHC was one of the sponsors of the first People's Health Assembly in Dakha in 2000.
David is also involved in the People's Health Movement which emerged out of the first PHA in Dakha, both at the global level and in Australia. One particular activity in which he is involved is the International Peoples Health University which is a contribution of IPHC to the PHM. IPHU provides short courses for health activists, in particularly, activists from developing countries.
oration 'Eberhard, you are still with us'
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