Dr Tamara Kwarteng OAM

Dr Tamara Kwarteng OAM has worked to make sure good healthcare reaches the people who are most often missed for more than 30 years. Health equity is the driving force of her career.

Tamara was born and grew up in Ghana and moved to Melbourne in 1992. She trained as a research scientist, with a Bachelor and Masters of Science from the University of Ghana. She also has a PhD in molecular biochemistry from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her belief in fairness in health led her into international public health advocacy.

She spent 19 years at Melbourne's Burnet Institute. There she worked with governments and community organisations in 16 countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-East Asia and the Pacific to respond to HIV and AIDS. Seeing how heavily HIV fell on women's lives, Tamara sharpened her focus on the social barriers that put women at risk.

Tamara lived and worked in Fiji for more than 10 years. She led the team supporting HIV responses in 14 Pacific Island countries, funded by the Australian and New Zealand governments. She later worked as an independent adviser on public health programs.

Tamara believes health programs work best when communities lead them. In Fiji she supported the start of FJN+, a network run by people living with HIV at a time when they faced deep shame and unfair treatment. It became the first group of its kind in the Pacific to receive its own government funding.

She also helped create Love Patrol, a TV drama made by Wan Smolbag Theatre in Vanuatu, which got Pacific audiences talking openly about HIV.

She has taught hundreds of public health students in Melbourne and written guides on community-led HIV programs. They have been translated into several languages.

Since returning to Melbourne, Tamara has kept working for health equity. She was Chair of the Board of the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health from 2018 to 2023. The centre advocates for the health and wellbeing of migrant and refugee women.

She is now Chair of the Board of the FREO2 Foundation. FREO2 exists to end unnecessary deaths from respiratory failure by making medical oxygen reliable, affordable, accessible and sustainable everywhere it is needed.

In 2024, Tamara was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia 'for service to the Pacific Islands through public health programs'.