NSW Health Pathology’s Director of Core Pathology and Clinical Chemistry at Westmead and Multicultural Health Lead, Associate Professor Stephen Li, has been recognised for his achievements in this year’s Australia Day Honours list.

A/Prof Li has been award­ed a Mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia (AM) in recog­ni­tion of his sig­nif­i­cant ser­vice to mul­ti­cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ty health, to pub­lic pathol­o­gy, and to the community.

“It brings me a great deal of hap­pi­ness,” he said on learn­ing about the award.

“I’m grate­ful that my friends and fam­i­ly also share in my pride. How­ev­er, the first idea that came to my mind was this hon­our would give me cred­i­bil­i­ty to con­tribute to mul­ti­cul­tur­al health more effec­tive­ly and efficiently.”

A lifelong advocate for health equity

For more than 28 years, A/Prof Li has ded­i­cat­ed his career to improv­ing health equi­ty, cul­tur­al inclu­sion, and break­ing down bar­ri­ers in healthcare.

“Pathol­o­gy is esti­mat­ed to be behind more than 70% of all med­ical diag­noses,” he says. “Based on my expe­ri­ence, pathol­o­gy teach­ing is behind the suc­cess of 100% of chron­ic dis­ease management.”

Dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, he deliv­ered near­ly 400 health talks in mul­ti­ple lan­guages, as part of efforts by NSW Health Pathol­o­gy to com­bat mis­in­for­ma­tion and work­ing to boost vac­ci­na­tion rates.

He con­tin­ues to serve in sev­er­al key lead­er­ship roles including:

• Senior Vice-Pres­i­dent of the Aus­tralian Chi­nese Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion 2005–2007 and since 2022
• Chair of the Chi­nese Aus­tralian Ser­vices Soci­ety since 2023.
• Vice-Pres­i­dent of Can­Re­vive since 2021 (a Syd­ney-based can­cer sup­port service)
• Direc­tor Lipid and Car­dio­vas­cu­lar Risk Assess­ment Clin­ic, West­mead Hos­pi­tal since 1998

A/Prof Li says pro­mot­ing health lit­er­a­cy is deeply con­nect­ed to his Catholic faith and per­son­al values.

“I find a spe­cial joy in help­ing oth­ers and I’ve learned through some stud­ies on hap­pi­ness that being gen­er­ous and help­ing oth­ers pro­vides the most pro­found and last­ing hap­pi­ness, often referred to as a “helper’s high”.

“This same divine force com­pels me. I con­stant­ly pray ‘Please let me do a bit more’.

“Expe­ri­enc­ing a helper’s high reg­u­lar­ly brings a sense of peace and tran­quil­i­ty, and it’s a feel­ing that I nev­er tire of.”

Reaching out via radio and print

His com­mit­ment to keep­ing the com­mu­ni­ty informed prompt­ed him to expand his reach to the media, becom­ing involved in health talk-shows on 2CR Chi­na Radio Net­work from 1999 to 2018 and on 2AC Aus­tralian Chi­nese Radio since 1997.

He also began a health col­umn in the Aus­tralian Chi­nese Dai­ly newspaper.

“I began health edu­ca­tion in mass media because I strong­ly believe that pre­ven­tion and man­age­ment of chron­ic dis­eases depend on knowl­edge and patient empow­er­ment,” he explains.

He attrib­ut­es the suc­cess of these pro­grams to a dis­tinc­tive approach.

“My media edu­ca­tion ses­sions have been well received because I present myself as a pathol­o­gist, focus­ing on the under­ly­ing patho­log­i­cal mech­a­nisms of dis­eases rather than lim­it­ing dis­cus­sions to symp­toms and treat­ments, as is com­mon in most med­ical and health edu­ca­tion programs.”

Recog­nis­ing the need for col­lec­tive effort, he also part­nered with the Aus­tralian Chi­nese Med­ical Asso­ci­a­tion to inspire hun­dreds of oth­er med­ical and health pro­fes­sion­als to con­tribute to pub­lic education.

In 2022, A/Prof Li worked with com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and major mul­ti­cul­tur­al organ­i­sa­tions to estab­lish the Aus­tralian Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Health Col­lab­o­ra­tive (AMHC), the nation’s first-ever peak body ded­i­cat­ed to mul­ti­cul­tur­al health.

This ini­tia­tive set a new stan­dard for coor­di­nat­ed com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven health ini­tia­tives in diverse communities.

He con­tin­ues to serve on the gov­ern­ing com­mit­tee of the AMHC.

“If you want to go far, go together”

Along­side his pub­lic edu­ca­tion work, A/Prof Li has also played a piv­otal role in advo­cat­ing for qual­i­ty con­trol and reg­is­tra­tion of Tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese Med­i­cine (TCM) in Australia.

His con­tri­bu­tions to a NSW Par­lia­men­tary Inquiry into Tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese Med­i­cine in 2005 were instru­men­tal in achiev­ing for­mal reg­is­tra­tion of TCM in NSW and even­tu­al­ly extend­ing across Australia.

“I am proud of the many sig­nif­i­cant mile­stones I have reached in my career,” he said.

“As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go togeth­er”. Col­lab­o­ra­tion ensures endurance and sus­tain­able, long-term success.”

A/Prof Li acknowl­edged sev­er­al of his col­leagues at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy who have played a role in his success.

“I want to pay trib­ute to the late Prof Cres East­man, a for­mer Direc­tor of the Insti­tute of Clin­i­cal Pathol­o­gy and Med­ical Research (ICPMR) and Dr Gary Ma (for­mer Direc­tor of ICPMR) for encour­ag­ing me to take up com­mu­ni­ty health ser­vices,” he said.

“I’d par­tic­u­lar­ly like to thank Prof Dominic Dwyer (for­mer Direc­tor of ICPMR) and Nicole Trip­ney (for­mer Direc­tor of Strate­gic Com­mu­ni­ca­tions) for ask­ing me to be the NSW Health Pathol­o­gy-endorsed COVID-19 edu­ca­tor in the Chi­nese Aus­tralian com­mu­ni­ty at the begin­ning of the pandemic.

“Thanks also to Pro­fes­sor Rob Lin­de­man and Dr Dean­na Paulin for giv­ing me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to take up the role of Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Health Lead at NSWHP.

“And thanks to Dr Josh Ryan, Dr Jason Chung, Prof David Brown and many oth­er staff in Chem­i­cal Pathol­o­gy ICPMR for their ongo­ing support.”

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