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 yearly at the AGM and awarded with a gold star and glass statue. Their names are added to a plaque held in the NUAA office.

2025

Shawnee Rose

2024

Gray Sattler

2023

Larry Pierce

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Close-up of an older woman with short gray hair, wearing glasses, a black lace top, and a gold necklace, in a modern indoor setting with glass walls and boxes in the background.

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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

An elderly woman with gray hair tied back, wearing a patterned top, looking to the side against a plain background.

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.

A young man with curly dark hair smiling outdoors with a beach and cityscape in the background.

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

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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.

A smiling woman in a black hat and sunglasses holding a red umbrella, wearing a red feather boa, outdoors on a sunny day with other people in the background.

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.

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