PROFESSOR TOM CALMA
AO FAA FASSA FAHA FANZSOG 

Professor Tom Calma AO FAA FASSA FAHA FANZSOG is an Aboriginal Elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja and Woolwonga tribal groups in the NT and he lives on Ngunnawal country in Canberra. Graduating in social work and community development in 1978 he has a long and distinguished career in academia, public service bureaucracy, social justice and community development. 

He is the National Coordinator Tackling Indigenous Smoking (2010-present), a Professor at the University of Sydney (2015-present) and Patron of the five national Poche Centres for Indigenous Health (2010 to present). Professor Calma was a former senior diplomat to India and Vietnam (1995-2002),  Chancellor of the University of Canberra (2014-2023) and he previously served as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner (2004-2010) and the Race Discrimination Commissioner (2004-2009) with the Australian Human Rights Commission. Tom is chair of an Indigenous company,  Ninti One Ltd and has been a Board member since 2009 and Chair of Ninti One Ltd since 2011 and is a director on the Ninti group of entities.  He co-chairs Reconciliation Australia and the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation and chairs the Living First Languages Platform Company that facilitates the recording of First Nations Languages. 

Professor Calma has a special interest in Indigenous and non Indigenous health, mental health, SEWB and suicide prevention, education, aged care, economic development and social justice. His 2005 Social Justice Report on First Australian’s health inequality led to the creation of the Close the Gap Campaign and governments’ Closing the Gap response that is still the predominant Indigenous Health policy today.Professor Tom Calma was the 2023 Senior Australian of the Year and he is an inaugural member of Cancer Australia’s Indigenous Cancers Leadership Group a member of Genomics Australia Independent Advisory Board and the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board.