The Acting Assistant Director General of the Public and Aboriginal Health Division at WA Health, Denise Sullivan (pictured), has been awarded the 2020 Bob Elphick Medal by the Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH).
Presenting the award, Assistant Director General, Clinical Excellence Division at WA Health, James Williamson thanked Dr Sullivan for her untiring commitment to tobacco control for more than 25 years in Western Australia.
He said her first job in the Department of Health was as Coordinator of the Quit Campaign, after which she established what went on to become the Make Smoking History campaign at the Cancer Council.
He said she returned to the Department in 2010 as Director of Chronic Disease Prevention, and this year stepped up to act in the role of Assistant Director General.
Dr Williamson said the Elphick Medal was awarded annually in memory of Bob Elphick, a pioneering chest physician who was President of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health from its inception in 1971 and remained a driving force in tobacco control and advocacy throughout his life.
It is awarded annually to a person or organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to tobacco control in Western Australia or nationally.
He said Dr Sullivan should be congratulated for her energy and dedication to program and policy development in public health.
