Outstanding Territorian Liz Hagan retires after more than 60 years of working in education

Veteran university lecturer Liz Hagan is retiring after more than 60 years of service throughout Australia and the Northern Territory.

The highly respected 82-year-old Territorian made the announcement after working as a horticulture lecturer at Charles Darwin University for more than 20 years.

“It is time to move on and let someone else have a go,” Ms Hagan said.

“What I have loved most about this job is the students. They are always great, and the staff are lovely.”

She said she would miss giving students native plant identification tours around Casuarina campus.

Ms Hagan’s exceptional contributions to education in the NT have been acknowledged in NT Parliament.

In 2011, then Education Minister Chris Burns congratulated Ms Hagan and her late husband, Barry Levarde, for their teaching efforts across the Territory, including in remote Indigenous communities.

Ms Hagan became the first female to be accepted into the Ryde School of Horticulture in NSW, after beginning her teaching career in 1953 at Ascham Girls School.

She later accepted a position as Head of Science at the Presbyterian Ladies College in Sydney, where she worked for almost 20 years.

Ms Hagan moved with her late husband to the NT in the early 1990s, where she worked as volunteer tutor at Hayes Creek Roadhouse before she joined CDU.

She is a qualified aerobics instructor and has performed as a dancer with the Polish-Australian Ballet Company.

Ms Hagan said she would miss viewing all the native tropical plants in the NT once she relocated to Sydney, where she would retire.

She said she planned to grow a garden at her new home.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Maddocks (pictured) congratulates Brendon Douglas on his joint appointment at CDU and the Menzies School of Health Research

Two of the Territory’s top research teams will be brought a little closer when high-level program director Brendon Douglas takes up a new dual role with Charles Darwin University from Monday, April 28.

Mr Douglas has been simultaneously appointed Head of Research for the university’s Office of Research and Innovation and for the Menzies School of Health Research, in a move designed to improve outcomes and efficiencies for both organisations.

He brings extensive international aid experience and more than 15 years’ experience in consulting, executive and project management for academic, private and community institutions.

Charles Darwin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Maddocks said the joint appointment would provide scope for both teams to enhance their already outstanding national and international reputations for research excellence, and to explore opportunities for greater collaboration.

“CDU has established itself as an exciting and progressive research-intensive university with a regional focus that prioritises the complex issues facing Northern Australia and the Asia-Pacific,” Professor Maddocks said.

“Mr Douglas has a strong record of diversifying and growing organisations through innovation, business development and partnership brokering. With experience in Timor Leste, Indonesia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, he will help strengthen and expand stakeholder engagement and build research partnerships of mutual value to both CDU and Menzies.”

In welcoming the joint appointment, Menzies Director Professor Alan Cass said Mr Douglas’ proven track record would help to expand Menzies’ and CDU’s collaborative research footprint nationally and internationally.

“His high level of research development acumen will allow the expansion of important partnerships with government, Indigenous organisations and health professionals to support research to improve Aboriginal health,” Professor Cass said.

“Similarly, his experience with international aid programs will boost our capacity to deliver pioneering global research in critical fields such as malaria, tuberculosis and child malnutrition.”

Mr Douglas is a qualified lawyer and holds postgraduate management qualifications from the University of Technology, Sydney. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and is an Executive Council Member of the International Development Contractors.