Alta (Aletta E.) Schutte is Professor and Principal Lead of the Cardiac, Vascular and Metabolic Medicine Theme in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, with a joint appointment as Professorial Fellow at the George Institute for Global Health. She is also Extraordinary Professor at the North-West University, South Africa. She has over 350 publications in the field of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. She is involved in numerous international consortia, such as the Global Burden of Disease study (Washington DC), the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (London), May Measurement Month initiative of the International Society of Hypertension, IDACO/IDCARS studies (Belgium), and is an invited author of the Lancet Commission of Hypertension.

She has been acknowledged for her work as winner of the Distinguished Woman Scientist in the Natural, Engineering and Life Sciences award, presented by the South African Department of Science and Technology; the NSTF South 32 TW Kambule Award; the British Association Medal from the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3), the Meiring Naude Medal from the Royal Society of South Africa, the AU-TWAS (African Union & The World Academy of Sciences) Award, and the 2019 African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Award for Scientific Excellence. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, the International Society of Hypertension and the Royal Society of South Africa; the Past President of the Southern African Hypertension Society (SAHS); and Immediate Past President of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH).