Stephen Leeder

Stephen Leeder AO FRSN FAAHMS[1](born 13 December 1941) is an emeritus professor of public health and community medicine at the University of Sydney, where he was dean of medicine from 1997 to 2002.[2][3] Leeder is an adjunct professor of public health at the Western Sydney University, an adjunct professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York. He held the position as chair of the Western Sydney Local Health District Board from 2011–2016.[4][5]

Leeder was editor-in-chief of The Medical Journal of Australia until he was fired in 2015 for criticising the decision of management to outsource its production to Elsevier.[6] On 1 January 2017, Leeder became co-editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Epidemiology for nine years.[7] He was also the inaugural director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney, which was renamed the Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics, and Data in his honour on 3 December 2024.[8]

Early life and education

Leeder was born in Grafton, New South Wales on 13 December 1941.[9] He attended Homebush Boys High School and the University of Sydney, where he graduated with First Class Honours in Medical Science in 1964; and with Second Class Honours in medicine and surgery in 1966.[10] As a Doctor of Philosophy in 1974 (his dissertation was entitled, "An epidemiological study of selected factors which may pre-dispose to chronic obstructive lung disease"), and as a Doctor of Medicine in 2006 (his dissertation was entitled, "Studies of factors that affect the lung function of children").[9]

Career

Leeder began his career as an intern at Royal North Shore Hospital in North Sydney in 1966.[11]

Leeder has a history of involvement in public health research, educational development and policy. His research interests as a clinical epidemiologist have been primarily asthma and cardiovascular disease. Leeder's interest in public health was piqued by spending 1968 in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.[11]

After post-doctoral clinical epidemiological experience at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London (1974–75)[11] and innovative medical education atMcMaster University in Canada (1975–76),[11] he was appointed foundation professor of community medicine at the University of Newcastle (New South Wales) in 1976 and remained there until the end of 1985.[11] Leeder played a role in the development of new and different medical curriculum and student assessment. He was foundation director of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Clinical Epidemiology. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to the University of Newcastle to establish the centre as part of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) to the develop clinical epidemiological skills of middle-order clinicians as clinical epidemiologists in the in the Asia-Pacific region. Leeder was the director of a department of community medicine from 1986 to 1996. In Newcastle, his research interests at that times were cardiovascular disease, asthma and tobacco.[11]

Leeder became Professor of Community Medicine at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney in 1986, and he and his group pursued research in heart disease and health promotion. His chair was originally in the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Sydney and then in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, which became the Sydney School of Public Health.[11]

After serving for two years as head of the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Sydney, Leeder was appointed dean of the Medical Faculty from 1996 to 2002. He oversaw the implementation of a new graduate-entry educational program, decentralization of the Faculty to its clinical schools, strategic development of research and the formation of an extensive rural-education network for medical students at Broken Hill, Dubbo and Northern Rivers. During this interval he contributed to several federal health initiatives including the National Better Health Commission.[11]

After completing his term as dean, Leeder took study leave to work at Columbia University's Earth Institute with Jeffrey Sachs and the Mailman School of Public Health in 2003-04.[12] He and his colleagues developed a report, based on research data and scientific interpretation, of the economic consequences of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in developing economies. The report, "A Race against Time: the challenge of cardiovascular disease in developing economies",[13] focussed on the macroeconomic consequences of CVD—particularly on the fact that one-third of CVD deaths in many developing countries were occurring in people of working age.[11]

After returning from New York in 2004, Leeder directed the development of the Sydney node of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy from 2006 to 2012.[11] He was appointed an officer in the Order of Australia in 2004.[14][11]

Leeder was appointed chair of the Western Sydney Local Health District Board from 2011 until 2016,[15] and his career in western Sydney began in 1986. Redevelopment of facilities in the health district are underway. An advocate for integrating care in the community with hospital services, he has advised federal and state governments on prevention and health service provision.[2]

He was editor-in-chief of The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) from January 2013 to May 2015. On 1 May 2015, it was learned that Leeder had been fired by the board of the Australasian Medical Publishing Company (AMPCo, the journal's publisher).[16] Publishing and some editorial functions were to be outsourced to Elsevier, an international publishing company.[16] As more information became available, the AMPCo board had apparently rejected Leeder's advice (on behalf of the MJA's editorial staff) and not considered public concerns about Elsevier's business practices. Most of the editorial advisory committee and two deputy editors resigned in protest.[16]

Leeder has served as an academic staff representative on the University of Sydney Senate for several terms,[2] had two double terms as national president of the Public Health Association,[2] and one triennium as chair of the Health Advisory Committee of the NHMRC.[2] He was a member of the Better Health Commission in the development health goals and targets for Australia, and on the Scientific Advisory Committee and the Health and Hospitals Fund Advisory Board, directed the Western Sydney Local Health District's Research Network and chaired the New South Wales Advisory Committee on Prevention. Leeder was a member of the NSW Health Ministerial Advisory Committee from 2011 to 2014, and chaired the NSW State Committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2012 and 2013.[2] He has contributed for over forty years in mainstream media, medical newspapers and on television.[17] Leeder was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2018.[18] He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN).[1]

Personal life

Leeder lives in Sydney and Wentworth Falls, and is married to Dr. Katharine Esson. He has three children: Nicholas Leeder, Robert Leeder, and James Leeder. Leeder published a book of his poems, Pilgrim Soul, in 2024.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 Webmaster, RSNSW (28 January 2025). "Stephen Leeder AO FRSN FAHMS". The Royal Society of NSW. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 University of Sydney. "Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder".
  3. ↑ "Stephen Leeder AO". Future Health Leaders conference.
  4. ↑ "Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder - News".
  5. ↑ "Staff Profile".
  6. ↑ "Backlash over decision by Australia's top medical journal to outsource to company with history of 'unethical' behaviour". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Stephen Leeder new Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Epidemiology". International Epidemiological Association. 12 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "Menzies Centre for Health Policy / Leeder Centre". University of Sydney eScholarship Repository.
  9. 1 2 3 "Curriculum Vitae: Stephen Ross Leeder". University of Sydney. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  10. ↑ "Notable university members". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 27 August 2026.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 University of Sydney. "Leeder, Stephen Ross".
  12. ↑ "Earth Institute News" (PDF). Columbia University Earth Institute. 2003.
  13. ↑ Leeder. "Race Against Time" (PDF).
  14. ↑ "Professor Stephen Ross Leeder". honours.pmc.gov.au. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  15. ↑ "Emeritus Professor Stephen Leeder - News".
  16. 1 2 3 "Sydney Morning Herald". 3 May 2015.
  17. ↑ The Conversation. "The Conversation Stephen Leeder".
  18. ↑ "Professor Stephen Leeder". Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Retrieved 3 November 2025.
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