Friends, family and colleagues are invited to join a celebration of the “remarkable life” of public health researcher and leader Professor Kerin O’Dea AO (1946-2025), whose contributions are widely acknowledged, including by the Lowitja Institute.
The event will be held from 1-4.30pm AEDT on Monday, 13 October at West Beach Pavilion, St Kilda in Naarm/Melbourne. Details of a livestream are here.
In a recent statement, the Lowitja Institute said “it is with deep sadness” that the organisation acknowledged O’Dea’s recent passing.
“Professor O’Dea played a pivotal role in the early development of Lowitja Institute more than 20 years ago,” said the statement.
“As a director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal and Tropical Health (CRCATH) from 1999–2005, her leadership was instrumental in the foundation of the Institute through securing funding as well as strengthening partnerships with federal government and universities for the CRCATH, which became Lowitja Institute in 2010.
“She also served as Director of Menzies School of Health Research for five years from 2000, the centre agent for the CRCATH.
“A highly respected epidemiologist, Professor O’Dea dedicated many years to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research. Her ground-breaking work for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities during the 1980s provided critical insights into health and nutrition. She also led a research project titled ‘Reducing the prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors among Indigenous Australians’.
“Professor O’Dea was an inspiring academic and advocate, with her various roles at the University of South Australia, Deakin University, University of Melbourne and National Health and Medical Research Council bringing her into contact with many of today’s leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers and health professionals.
“We pay tribute to Professor Kerin O’Dea AO for her immense contribution to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and advocacy, and send our heartfelt condolences to her family.”
Ray Kelly, a Gomeroi man, and a leader in chronic disease prevention, also acknowledged O’Dea’s significance for his work, saying her research published in 1984 “lit the spark for my work in type 2 diabetes, and kept me strong over the many years of pushing for change”.
“I can’t imagine my work in diabetes would have ever come about without the inspiration and confidence provided to me through her research,” Kelly said. “I felt like quitting many times, but having Kerin’s work there gave me the confidence to keep going!”
Unwavering commitment
The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute today published the following statement:
“It is with deep sadness that the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute recognises the passing of Professor Kerin O’Dea.
“Kerin, a nutrition scientist and public health researcher, had an unwavering commitment during her career spanning over 40 years to the progression of women in research and Aboriginal Health equity.
“In 1984, Kerin published landmark research with Aboriginal people in the Kimberly that provided evidence that the traditional hunter-gather lifestyle was protective of type 2 diabetes by significantly improving or returning metabolic abnormalities to normal.
“Kerin’s status was recognised formally by receiving many prestigious awards during her career, including an Order of Australia in 2004 for her research in nutrition, particularly with Aboriginal populations.
“These awards were truly deserving of her unique contributions, as her passion came from personal interactions, a thirst for knowledge, to share knowledge and her ability and generosity as a mentor to many.
“During her time at the University of South Australia as Director of the Sansom Institute for Health Research (2009 to 2012), Professor O’Dea was a research investigator on the NHMRC Indigenous capacity development grant that saw the graduation of seven Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PhD candidates, whom are now in leadership roles in public health and Aboriginal health research.
“Of those, three completed their post-doctoral training at SAHMRI and are in research leadership roles in Aboriginal Health Equity.
“The inaugural Theme Leader of Aboriginal Health Equity SAHMRI was a doctoral candidate of Kerin’s and continued a career long professional and personal relationship.
“Today there are five AHE team members who have worked, collaborated and/or been mentored by Professor O’Dea in Aboriginal Health, public health, nutrition and/or diabetes related research.
“Professor Kerin O’Dea was a life force, passionate about science and unwaveringly generous in her support of colleagues and students, many of whom recall being encouraged by Kerin – with kindness and humour – to challenge themselves, broaden their horizons or look at things in a new way.
“Kerin will be greatly missed by all who knew her.”
During her career, O’Dea also held positions at Monash University, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Repatriation General Hospital, Baker Medical Research Institute, Alfred Hospital, and the Royal Children’s Hospital, and spent five years working in laboratories in Germany, Paris and the United States.
She initially trained in biochemistry and pharmacology, thinking her future lay with drug design, but developed her career’s focus on diabetes and obesity while overseas.
When researching a profile of O’Dea in 2000 for a medical magazine, I spoke with many of her colleagues, friends and family members. The impression was of someone with a “commitment to action, enthusiasm for a good cause, and a wicked sense of humour”, I wrote. One good friend described her as having “the energy of five fire engines”.
Nutritionist Dr Rosemary Stanton told me at the time that she greatly admired O’Dea for focusing on research that was practical and useful, as well as for her professional integrity. “She does things that are worthwhile and she’s a person who can’t be bought,” says Stanton. “She would never do something just because a sponsor wants it.”
Profiled in The Lancet in 2012, O’Dea’s articles at The Conversation demonstrate her ongoing concern for ensuring equitable access to affordable fresh food, and insights about the influence of “the powerful processed food and beverage lobbies”.
Together with co-authors, she wrote: “As a society, it’s time we acknowledge that it’s unrealistic to continue creating environments conducive to diabetes, heart-disease and cancers, and then blame individuals for getting ill.”
See Croakey’s archive of articles on food insecurity
