Ms Maria Osman African Australian of Somali heritage Maria is the first to be CEO of two Western Australian State Government departments, she is presently the Acting Executive Director, Strategy and Development with the Department of Local Government and Communities, and previously Executive Director of the Office of Multicultural Interests and from 2003 to 2006 was the Executive Director of the Office for Women’s Policy, she has also held senior positions in universities and the NGO sector. For over three decades Maria has made a significant national and state contribution to the empowerment of ethnic and refugee women, anti-racism and human rights. In 2007 she was awarded the Government of Western Australian Multicultural Community Service Award for excellence and innovation in advancing and promoting multiculturalism, inclusiveness and participation, and improving access to services and promoting equity for minority communities. Maria was appointed by the Premier to the inaugural Western Australian Anti-Racism Steering Committee and in 2005 the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) appointed her to the National Steering Committee for the ‘Voices of Australia Project’ established to celebrate 30 years of the Racial Discrimination Legislation. In recognition of her leadership in creating family friendly workplaces the Minister for Community Development appointed Maria as an inaugural WA Family Ambassador and in the Minister for Consumer and Employment Protection appointed her to the Independent Review of Gender Pay Equity Gap. She has served on a number of boards such as Centre for Human Rights at Curtin University, was the Deputy Chair of the Women’s Law Centre and the UWA Centre for Muslim States and Societies. Maria has been actively involved with the community sector and in a past Women’s Vice President of the WA Ethnic Communities Council and she is also a past executive member of the African Community Association of WA and helped establish the Somali Women’s NGO and is a past Patron of the West African Women’s Community Organisation. Maria has contributed to the development of national and state public policy in gender equity, human rights, multiculturalism and workplace diversity and undertaken research and written and presented conferences extensively on these issues.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 03:53:02 +0000
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