National Drug and Alcohol Awards

Celebrating Australian achievements to prevent
and reduce alcohol and other drug use and harm

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Honour Roll—Professor David Hill: Committed to tobacco control

Professor David Hill is the guiding hand of the Cancer Council, Victoria as its Executive Director. For more than three decades he has been a committed advocate for public health. He has worked tirelessly in his work — across the programs he is involved in and in his responses to questions with up-to-date knowledge.

David is one of the Australian people most responsible for ensuring that we have had carefully designed, rigorously implemented, and appropriately interpreted evaluations of public health as well as individually focused interventions in this field especially with regard to tobacco smoking. He has been an innovative researcher developing both methodologies and partnership connections that have provided some of the blueprints for much of the 'how to' in our field, particularly through his evaluations of Quit smoking programs. He has built a strong and internationally recognised research group in this field (Cancer Council Victoria) and he has been a significant contributor to broader endeavours that sit under the National Drug Strategy and related fields.

He has been a teacher and mentor to many — from his early days of explaining to junior medical officers why population perspectives that include a focus on prevention might be important in preventing the respiratory, cardiovascular and other disease of patients, to his subsequent role as a supervisor of many higher degrees — he has made an enormous contribution to building significant capacity in our sector and broadening our thinking and programs.

He holds a Professorial position at the University of Melbourne. In 2008 he was elected by his international peers to the Presidency of the UICC (International Union for Cancer Control) — a highly prestigious international NGO group and in this role, he is pursuing an agenda with regard to the availability of opiates for medicinal and scientific purposes in addition to his ongoing deliberative work with regard to tobacco and other matters.

Executive Director of the Australian National Council on Drugs, Mr Gino Vumbaca, stated on behalf of the collaborating organisations that coordinate the awards (Ted Noffs Foundation, Australian Drug Foundation, Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia and the Australian National Council on Drugs) “Professor Hill does not seek the limelight and makes himself available to people of all persuasions and at every level. He is recognised as a national and international leader and his commitment to tobacco control is well understood. His determined, professional and scientific contribution to the efforts with regard to other drugs are possibly less well-known, but have been significant, and his current role in the international sphere in the pursuit of broader drug related agendas will benefit from his knowledge as well as his well established local, national and international networks.

Professor Hill is someone who is so clearly a leader and is so clearly identified with the work in our sector, especially with regard to tobacco — that he readily fulfils the criterion that I understand make him worthy of the Honour Roll Award. ”

CONTACT DETAILS: Executive Director of the ANCD, Gino Vumbaca — 0408 244 552

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