Frances Baum is Head of Department and Professor of Public Health at Flinders University, South Australia. She is also foundation director of the South Australian Community Health Research Unit. Fran has been appointed a Commissioner on the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. She is also a past National President of the Public Health Association of Australia, the regional representative for the Peoples Health Movement in Australia and the Pacific and a member of its Global Steering Committee.

Professor Baum is one of Australia’s leading researchers on the social and economic determinants of health. She has recently been named the Federation Fellow of Flinders University.  Professor Baum’s numerous publications relate to social and economic determinants research and evaluation in community health, theories on health promotion, Healthy Cities, social capital and health promotion, and the political economy of health.

Professor Michael Kidd is the Executive Dean of Health Sciences (including the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing and Midwifery) at Flinders University, SA.  Professor Kidd is also involved in current medical education and assessment activities in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and the Middle East. He is also the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Medical Case Reports, the world’s first international journal devoted to case reports from medical disciplines.

In 1995, he was appointed Professor of General Practice at Sydney University and Head of Department by 1998. In 2002, Prof. Kidd was elected President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, a position he held for two terms until 2006. He has chaired a number of national and international committees working on a range of topics, including health informatics and HIV/AIDS.

Professor Kidd was awarded the Order of Australia in June 2009. This is a very prestigious award instituted by Her Majesty, The Queen, specifically for Professor Kidd’s service to medicine and education in the areas of general practice and primary health care and through a range of professional organisations.