The United Nations Association of Western Australia is the official WA Branch of the UN Association of Australia, a non-profit organisation providing advocacy, awareness, and a voice for those who cannot be heard. The UNA of WA promotes justice, peace, security, and sustainable development for present and future generations. On Thursday 17th of March, 2022 the UNA of WA has their event “Changing Climates: Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow”.

Learn more about the incredible women speaking at this event.

Siddier Chambers, Public Policy Expert & Gender Specialist

Dr Siddier Chambers, an Australian Development Scholar, international social researcher and public sector expert specialising in public policy, community development, gender equality, women’s interests, rural and regional development. Her work and research in Australia, Egypt and Jamaica have contributed to over ten years of practice designing, implementing and evaluating social and economic development policies, programs and projects. As a public servant in Jamaica, Siddier made a significant contribution to the National Strategic Action Plan to eliminate Gender-Based Violence (2017-2027), National Policy for Gender Equality and the Sexual Harassment Act. She completed her PhD in Public Policy in 2018 at Curtin University. Her thesis included an evaluation of the World Bank’s Rural Economic Development Initiative Project (REDI) in Jamaica, focusing on its impact on rural women’s economic, social, psychological and physical development.

Dr Chambers is a research consultant, working on the design, implementation and evaluation of socio-economic projects and programs across government and the private sector. As a volunteer, she serves the WA community through the United Nations Association of Australia WA Division (UNAAWA) as a member of the Executive Committee and advisor to the Gender Equality Committee; she is also a member of the Perth Caribbean Association; and contributed to the research agenda for the RRR Network in 2020-2021.

Ms Corina Martin, Mulgyin Jaru/Kitja and Gooniyandi Woman & Accomplished Lawyer

Corina Martin is a Mulgyin Jaru/Kitja and Gooniyandi woman born and raised in Broome, Western Australia. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Marketing and the Media and Bachelor of Law. Corina was admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia as a barrister and solicitor in 2006. She was the Principal Legal Officer of the Aboriginal Family Legal Services before becoming the Chief Executive Officer in 2017.

Dr Sally Lamping, Expert Educator & Migrant Community Advocate

Dr Sally Lamping and Associate Professor Toni Dobinson will discuss the three multifaceted Critical Participatory Action Research projects they have led with migrant communities in the City of Canning, the City of Wanneroo, and the City of Gosnells. All three projects focus on working with local governments and migrant communities to develop sustainable frameworks for engaging with and supporting transformative community-led initiatives.

Sally Lamping has spent over twenty years as a teacher, teacher educator, and researcher in primary, secondary, and adult education contexts across the world. A large portion of her research is on the secondary English classroom and youth identities, with a specific focus on migrant youth and how schools can become enabling contexts for students and teachers.

Assoc. Professor Toni Dobinson, Established Language & Diversity Specialist

Associate Professor Toni Dobinson and Dr Sally Lamping worked together on the three multifaceted Critical Participatory Action Research projects.

Toni has been an English language teacher, teacher educator and researcher for over 37 years. She began her journey teaching English to speakers of other languages in Egypt, the UK and the Sultanate of Oman as well as Australia. More recently, she has focused on language teacher education at undergraduate and postgraduate level in Perth and Vietnam in the areas of language and diversity, language and literacy and sociolinguistics.

Her co-edited book Literacy unbound: Multiliterate, mulitilingual, multimodal reflects this focus and brings together practitioners in literacy, English language and Asian languages. She researches and publishes in the areas of language and identity, linguistic racism, language and social justice and this has formed the basis for projects such as a collaborative participatory action project with a local multilingual primary school designed to bridge the gap between home and school for migrant children and encourage the use of heritage languages and translanguaging in the classroom.

Toni is also a founding member of the Diverse Women’s Academic Network (DAWN) and co-investigator with Sally Lamping on three Critical Participatory Action Research projects.

Ms Israa Sedda, Teacher & Cultural Ambassador

Israa is an inspiring mentor, teacher and leader. Born in Oman, she grew up loving school and majored in Physics at University. She taught math at a private International School in Jordan, before moving to Australia. Now in Australia, she loves life as a mother of three energetic boys. She shares her love of parenting as a mentor with Communicare’s HIPPY program, a program which works with the CALD community.

Israa is an active community leader. She co-founded an Islamic play group seeing a need to bring families together and provide exciting learning experiences for under 5-year-olds.  She also volunteers teaching Arabic to children as well as doing Arabic story time as a part of Bilingual story-time program with the City of Canning. Israa completed the Diverse Women’s Leadership Program in 2021 with the Muslim Women’s Support Centre! She is the co-founder and manager for an Islamic playgroup for Muslim kids that help them to integrate while preserving their language and culture.

Dr Sandy Chong, Business & International Development Extraordinaire

A Harvard Alumna and Adjunct Professor at Curtin University faculty of Science and Engineering, Dr Sandy Chong is the winner of 2020 US Stevie®️ International Business Awards for Executive of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year, 2019 Asia’s Top Sustainability Women of the Year, and 2019 Exceptional Women of Excellence at the Women Economic Forum. Sandy is the first Asian to be appointed to the board of WA Indigenous Tourism Council and is the State Director of the Australian Harvard Women. Sandy is a  strong advocate of economic empowerment and education for women and youth, Sandy served as an Australian delegate to the 63rd session of Commission on Status of Women (CSW) at the UNHQ in New York in 2019. A member of the Special Olympics World Games working group and an Auspire Ambassador of the Australia Day Council, Sandy was awarded 2020 Australia Community Citizen of the Year by the Governor for her contribution locally and abroad.

Hosted by the UNAAWA, in partnership with Curtin University’s Gender Research Network and Southern Aboriginal Corporation. Come join us and our community leaders to discuss their inspiring work and how they are driving change here in WA.

Join us on Thursday, 17 March 2022 at 5:30 PM
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/unaawa-international-womens-day-event-tickets-275378483457