Hall of Fame
NUAA’s Hall of Fame began in 2011, recognising people who have done ground-breaking work in advancing the health, rights and dignity of people who use illicit drugs. Inductees are announced every year at the AGM and are awarded with a gold star and glass statue. Their names are added to a plaque held in the NUAA office.
2022
Fiona Poeder
Fiona is committed to advocating for the human rights of people who inject/use illicit drugs by challenging stereotypes of drug users, ensuring stigma is acknowledged and discussed, and reducing discrimination against drug users with a view to improving access to services and health/well-being.
2021
Brian Doyle
Brian is a proud Bardi man from the Djarindjin community of the West Kimberley region of far-north Western Australia. A tireless advocate for his community, he has worked in the drug and alcohol sector since 2002. He worked at Kirketon Road Centre for over 10 years.
2021
Owen Westcott
Owen participated in the Freedom Rides of the 1960s. He was Co-ordinator of Newtown Needle Exchange from 1989 to 1997 then went on to be Manager of Harm Minimisation at the NSW Department of Health and was a key to the 1999 Drug Summit and was an enthusiastic supporter of NUAA until his untimely death in 2011.
2020
Maureen Steele
Maureen has been an active and influential peer worker for 30 years. Maureen now works at St Vincent's Hospital Drug and Alcohol Services and has recently been a ‘peer advisor’ for a clinical trial that is using psilocybin psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to help people who want to reduce their methamphetamine use.
2019
Lisa Maher
Lisa Maher has three decades of international experience in harm reduction, prevention of infectious disease and service delivery with people who inject drugs, sex workers, men who have sex with men and marginalised youth. In 2015, Lisa was awarded the Order of Australia for significant service to medicine in the field of epidemiology.
2019
Greg Dore
Greg is an internationally recognised Infectious Diseases Clinician and Epidemiologist who has been instrumental in increasing access to Hep C treatment for people who inject drugs. He has stood up for our community against stigma and discrimination in the health system.
2018
Jenny Kelsall
Jenny was a long-time advocate for harm reduction and an activist for the rights and dignity of people who used drugs, who sadly passed away early in 2018. You can read a tribute to her great work here
2017
Lizzie Griggs, Matthew Toomey & Jeffrey Jackson
Lizzy, Matthew and the late Jeffrey were honoured for their role in running the trailblazing Albion Street AIDS outreach bus that was set up in the mid-1980s as world first. You read more about their work here
Lizzie Griggs pictured middle, Matthew Toomey pictured in middle below
2016
Sione Crawford
Sione Crawford has worked in the NSW and ACT drug user organisations in a number of different roles and is a champion for striving to ensure that people who use and inject drugs are treated with dignity and respect.
Read an article written by Sione Crawford in User’s News.
2015
Dr Alex Wodak
Dr Alex Wodak, AM is a physician and the former director of the Alcohol and Drug Service, at St Vincent's Hospital, in Sydney, Australia. Read what Dr Alex Wodak wrote in User’s News Issue 62 on NUAA’s 21 year Anniversary.
2014
John Berry
John Berry was a person who injected drugs who was living with HIV. He was an outreach worker at ADIC, NUAA's predecessor, handing out sterile equipment to prevent blood borne viruses, travelling by train and bus around Sydney. He sadly died soon after NUAA's incorporation in the early 1990s. He is honoured for his contribution to NUAA's aims and objectives. Watch a video of John speaking about his work with NUAA.
2013
Marion Watson
Marian Watson was a respected and high profile Canberra professional. She had been awarded the Order of Australia medal for her work as a drugs rehabilitation campaigner and administrator.
2013
Alan Winchester
Alan Winchester was a community activist who was instrumental in establishing the Australian drug user rights movement and promoting the concept of harm reduction as a response to the HIV epidemic.
2013
Jude Byrne
Jude was a globally recognised, powerful advocate who fought to advance the health and human rights of people who use drugs with her formidable intelligence, honesty and dignity.
Jude passed away in 2021. Read NUAA’s tribute to Jude in User’s News
2012
Julie Bates
Julie has been a long term activist for the human and legal rights of sex workers and people who use drugs illicitly and as a consequence, has first hand experience of the detrimental impacts of social isolation and legislative harms on these two most reviled and marginalised communities.
2011
Annie Madden
Legendary former CEO of NUAA and AIVL, and all-around courageous, inspirational leader in the Australian Drug User movement. Annie Madden was awarded with an Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to community health, as an advocate for the disadvantaged, to policy development, and to human rights.
