People

Jill Morgan AM has worked extensively in multicultural and indigenous arts in Australia for over the past 25 years. She is a  current Board member of  the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. She was recently the acting Executive Officer of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria and is the former Chief Executive Officer of Multicultural Arts Victoria and Executive Director of Kulcha, Multicultural Arts of Western Australia. She is an active cultural and community development worker and leader in multiculturalism and the arts.  Jill has contributed significantly to cultural policy development and strategies locally and nationally to promote diversity, human rights and inclusion. She is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all Australians, including newly emerged individuals and communities and the right of all Australians to express and share their cultural heritage through the arts.

Peter Doukas has been Chair of ECCNSW since 2013. Prior to this, he served as secretary for two terms while the organisation undertook its largest change to its constitution since its incorporation. He has worked in the Greek community for over ten years as a member of the Board of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW. Peter is the Managing Partner of law firm Denison Toyer based in Sydney and has a strong commitment to promoting Australia as a pluralistic, just and open society through the success of multiculturalism.

Emanuel is an experienced not-for-profit (NFP) board director and was formerly a senior executive with TransGrid. Until recently he provided human resources and change management consulting services to not-for-profits and small businesses.

He has extensive experience in voluntary organisations dealing with multicultural issues, aged and disability care, youth, and sport. Emanuel has been a Director of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of NSW since 2005, serving as Secretary and Chair and is currently its Treasurer.

He serves as a member of Multicultural NSW’s Western Sydney Regional Advisory Council. Emanuel is also President of the Samian Brotherhood of NSW and a Founding Director of Riverwood Glory Football Club.

Eddie has a professional background in Occupational Health and extensive experience in Community Health, where he supported policy and programs enabling culturally diverse communities to respond to drug and alcohol challenges. He is a former Director of Inner South Community (STAR) Health Service and William Angliss Institute.

Eddie has previously served as Chairperson of the ECCV Board and is active on ECCV’s Health Policy Committee. He has also been actively representing the ECCV on external organisations such as with Hepatitis Victoria. He served as a Member of the Victorian Parliament from 1983 – 1999, during which he held numerous portfolios covering Health, Industrial Relations, Work Cover & Multicultural Affairs.

Since arriving as an unaccompanied minor from South Sudan, Elijah Buol – a Criminologist, former refugee, father of four and Director of Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland – spends much of his time helping young and disadvantaged community members integrate successfully into Australian society.

With qualifications including a Master of Law, Master of Justice in Intelligence, a Bachelor of Human Services and currently studying Juris Doctor at the Australian National University, Elijah has held senior and volunteer positions in community and not-for-profit sectors. Elijah's advocacy work was instrumental in helping remove children under 18 from adult prisons in Queensland. He has held numerous volunteer positions and is recipient of multiple awards for advocacy and community services.

Edwin is passionate about serving the community. He has a multidisciplinary education, including a doctoral degree. He has worked for private and public sectors; in higher education, project management, research and policy. As an adult migrant, Edwin understands the problems faced by CALD people in Australia. He is active in the refugee space, volunteering with Red Cross, Melaleucca Refugee Centre and DASSAN (Darwin Asylum Seeker and Advocacy Network). Edwin has also been volunteering for community groups, not-for-profit organisations and professional associations, often with leadership positions. He serves on the NT division boards of United Nations Association of Australia, DASSAN, Institution of Public Administration Australia, Australian Computer Society and Australia Day Council.

Yaso has lived in Western Australia for over 25 years in the area she now represents. She has extensive experience in both the Public and Private Sector, and has a deep connection to the Arts.

Yaso has championed the interests of women and local multicultural communities. She has been a tireless advocate for investment in services that empower with a focus on tackling inequality and supporting programs which empower marginalised groups.

She has a track record in Resources and Health, Capital Projects, Governance, Multicultural Community, Tourism, the Arts, and local Government as well as expertise in financial management, problem solving, stakeholder engagement and organisational governance.

As Chair of ACT Multicultural Council, Andrew Ng is a strong advocate of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the responsibilities of healthcare organisations to better serve the ethnic communities of Canberra.  Besides ACTMC, he is also on the board of Migrants and Refugees Settlement Services, and a former board member of the Australia Chinese Business Council.

Dattaraj Mahambrey is the Chair of the Multicultural Council of Tasmania, the founder of the Coronation Music and Arts Festival group, and a founding member of the multicultural cricket club. Datta is CPA qualified and has worked in Tasmania’s energy industry for more than a decade, and is currently a senior commercial analyst at Hydro Tasmania. 

Daniel was born in Zambia. He has a Master of Arts from Oxford University in the UK where he studied languages, and a post-graduate certificate in Education (Teaching and Youth Work). He came to Australia in 1978 and worked as a teacher for some years before moving into the community sector. He worked with Arthritis Victoria where he coordinated the development of a multicultural access strategy. In the 1990s he was involved in the response to HIV/AIDS, including a period as General Manager of the AIDS Action Council of the ACT.

Daniel has joined FECCA after 17 years as a Senior Policy Manager with ACT Health, where he contributed to strategic policy on a range of issues, including reproductive and sexual health, blood and blood products, organ and tissue donation, gene technology, the health impacts of climate change, the social determinants of health, and most recently, on the intersection between health services and the NDIS.

From 2013 he established and led a team within ACT Health set up to improve the organisation’s response to diversity. The initial focus was on consumers and staff from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The team was then expanded to include work on the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, and people living with disabilities, noting that these groups are not exclusive and often overlap.

After a considerable time working in government, Daniel is excited about returning to the community sector.

Mary Ann is passionate about evidence-based and ground-up policymaking. She has extensive experience working with people from diverse backgrounds in understanding policies, interacting with policy systems and building their capabilities to be their own best advocates. For over a decade, she has been leading initiatives that connect policy, research and practice on ageing, health, gender, financial security, participation, and community development in the East and Southeast Asian region, previously and currently, in Australia.

In her previous work at the International Longevity Centre Singapore, she co-developed a leading-edge model of community-based care ecosystem and studied the ageing trajectory of women in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. She managed a randomised controlled trial on health literacy, chronic disease management and self-care; a financial literacy program for women; and an experimental study on matched savings all of which produced key policy references in the region.

Mary Ann has co-authored academic publications on ethnography and bio-psychosocial approaches to ageing in multicultural community settings, among others. She also co-authored the book ‘Financial Security of Older Women: Perspectives from Southeast Asia’, a ground-breaking comprehensive overview of women’s old age financial security prospects catalysing calls for policy changes among the countries involved.

She studied public policy and public administration as a Lee Kuan Yew Scholar at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy-National University of Singapore.

Alexandra has over a decade of experience working alongside refugees and migrants in Australia and internationally. She has worked across a broad range of areas including research, policy development, protection programming, government advocacy and grassroots mobilisation.

For the past seven years, Alexandra has worked internationally on refugee and migrant humanitarian responses with Oxfam in Greece and the UNHCR in Bangladesh. She led diverse teams to design and implement complex programmes that have addressed issues such as access to basic services, sexual and gender-based violence, cohesion with host communities, and access to justice.

Within this work, Alexandra has developed a strong interest and expertise in community engagement and has created consultation, complaint and feedback frameworks that are innovative, robust, and effective. She has especially prioritised the input of women and other marginalised groups, and successfully worked alongside them to offer support and resources for them to advocate for their own rights and issues.

Before moving overseas, Alexandra spent five years working with Amnesty International Australia working on projects to increase the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia and the Asia Pacific. She developed and led campaigns that combined community organising with research and policy development, media engagement and government advocacy.

Alexandra’s strong professional commitment to safe and dignified migration, multiculturalism, and inclusion, originated in her own family’s migration experience to Australia from Lebanon and Italy.

Alexandra holds a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of Adelaide.

Romel is a communicator with an incorrigible interest in people and their stories and an irrepressible urge to make them laugh. He joined FECCA in June 2021.

Before arriving in Australia, he had had decades of experience as a print, broadcast and digital journalist in the Philppines, most recently being a desk editor for entertainment. Throughout his career he has also done investigative work on worker exploitation and politics, wrote reviews and feature articles on pop culture, finance, as well as personal essays;  produced video reports on the insurgency and politicial prisoners, among others.

For years, he wrote comedy for television for the longest running gag show show on Philippines television. He was a writer for other TV shows as well.

A political activist since university days, Romel was also involved in civil society and the protest movement, working as information officer for several non-government organisations.

He is a wide and catholic reader with a strong bias for science fiction and fantasy.

Romel was born and raised in Thailand of Filipino parents until his family moved to Iran for another few years before going back to the Philippines. He moved to Australia in 2015.

Christina has vast experience in business administration. With a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Oklahoma City University, she has over 10 years’ experience in media business development. Her involvement in numerous advertising campaigns and events for media such as TV, on-air, print and online research were well-received.

Christina speaks fluent English and Chinese and is capable to converse dialects (Cantonese and Hokkien). She recently obtained a Diploma in Translation and Interpretation (English/Chinese).

As an Office Manager in Singapore, Christina led a distribution team that managed industry-leading brands. She provided support and oversaw the daily operations: budgeting, monitoring sales progress and ensuring co-workers complied with workplace safety. Christina has long admired Australia’s multicultural environment. Coming from a similar multicultural Singapore, she understands the importance of promoting multiculturalism and providing communities a voice to facilitate integration into society.

Her contribution and supportive role with FECCA in overseeing the daily operations and ensuring co-workers’ and stakeholders’ interests are well in place.