Emeritus Prof Amy Zelmer has had an extensive career in health services, adult education and university administration. Following her retirement she worked for the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission and has been active with the the Cochrane Collaboration, the Australian Consumer's Health Forum and other volunteer activities.
Amy [nee Elliott] originally trained as a nurse at the Ottawa Civic Hospital, graduating in 1956. She obtained her BSc(N) and MPH while working in Nova Scotia, before moving to Alberta with positions in the Alberta Government and the University of Alberta.
Returning to Canada after a tour of duty with the World Health Organisation in SE Asia she became Dean of Nursing and then Associate Vice-President (Academic) at the University of Alberta. In July 1988 she moved to Australia to establish a Faculty of Health Science at what is now CQUniversity Australia.
Rockhampton, Central Queensland, has been Amy's home for almost four decades. Despite floods, cyclones, insect bites and broken bones it remained her home.
Brief recent professional resume (pdf file)
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Amy Mary Zelmer, born 20 December 1935.
Died quietly in her sleep 21 September 2025 at Eventide Home Rockhampton, aged 89, after the challenges of childhood polio, atypical MS with Parkinsonian tremors and more recently Lewy Bodies dementia. Amy is survived by her husband Lynn, and daughter Jennifer in Ottawa Canada.
Emeritus Professor Amy Zelmer had an extensive career in health services, adult education and university administration. Following her retirement, she worked for the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission and was active with the Cochrane Collaboration, the Australian Consumer's Health Forum and other volunteer activities. While a strong supporter of voluntary euthanasia the nature of her decline meant that she could never herself qualify under current implementations.
Amy originally trained as a nurse at the Ottawa Civic Hospital, graduating in 1956. She obtained her BSc(N) and MPH while working in Nova Scotia as a public health nurse for the Crippled Children's Association and Department of Health. Moving to Alberta in 1967 she held positions in the Alberta Government and the University of Alberta.
After gaining her PhD on the Adult Part-Time Student Role (Michigan State, 1972) she had a tour of duty as a health educator with the World Health Organisation in SE Asia. Returning to Canada she became Dean of Nursing and then Associate Vice-President (Academic) at the University of Alberta. In July 1988 she moved to Australia to establish a Faculty of Health Science at what is now CQUniversity Australia.
Please no flowers, contributions to Australian Rotary Health Fund if desired.
2023 at Grevillea Court, Eventide Home Rockhampton.
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Archive Photo: Ottawa Civic Hospital 1956 Nursing Graduates: an A3 version of the 1956 class photo.
CQUniversity's Health Science Building, now the Amy Zelmer Building, 1990 construction to 2010 building naming ceremony.
CQUniversity
video interview with Amy at Naming Ceremony.
Canada to Australia
Mount Archer Park, 2015
Eventide Nursing Home, Rockhampton, 2015
