A relentless advocate for the health of marginalised people, who led World Health Organization projects and worked in developing countries to solve societal challenges, is among the eminent alumni honoured at this year’s Flinders University alumni awards.

The late Professor Liz Eckermann was focused on gender and health, reproductive and maternal health, violence against women and improving life quality in developing countries.

She completed a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts in Social Sciences and PhD at Flinders University.

Professor Eckermann’s passion for equity in health took her around the world, including to central Laos where she led a WHO initiative that improved reproductive and maternal health outcomes for the region’s women, and to Sabah where her project to limit the harm of alcohol continues today.

She attended the first World Conference on Quality of Life in 1966 and became a foundation member of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, where she was President-Elect at the time of her brain cancer diagnosis in February 2018.

Professor Eckermann died just over a year later in May 2019. Her Distinguished Alumni Award is the first Flinders University alumni award to be given posthumously, and was accepted by her husband John Eckermann at the awards ceremony on 27 February 2020.

Dr Giovanni Deodato, of the WHO, says that “Dr Eckermann’s energy, enthusiasm, compassion, humour and scientific rigour encouraged a highly productive, congenial and exciting work environment.

“Her leadership style was democratic but highly focused on the task at hand and she managed teams with a generous, supportive style that engenders absolute dedication to the task on behalf of all team members.”

Read about the awards and all of this year’s distinguished recipients on the Flinders University news blog.