MELISSA PHILLIPS
Board Director

Dr Melissa Phillips is a consultant and academic with almost 20 years' experience working with migrants and refugees in Australia and overseas. She is currently a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University, Australia. Melissa commenced her working life as a volunteer visiting people in immigration detention in Villawood in south-west Sydney and went on to work for Australian Red Cross Tracing and Refugee Services in detention. She was also on the Board of Refugee Advice and Casework Service where she undertook a mission to support legal staff in immigration detention in Western Australia.

These early experiences have been formative in her career and she considers herself to be a practitioner-academic. She was formerly a Senior Regional Advisor on refugee protection and migration for Danish Refugee Council based in the Middle East and North Africa and has academic expertise on issues related to migration, multiculturalism and displacement. Melissa has worked for the United Nations in South Sudan and for international NGOs in Libya, the Horn of Africa and South Sudan in the areas of protection of civilians and humanitarian coordination. Melissa is currently a Board Member of Australian Red Cross, Regional Advisor for the International Detention Coalition, was formerly Chair of the Advisory Board of Urban Refugees and is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Intercultural Studies. She became Secretary of IDC's Governance and Finance Committee in 2020.

Melissa’s research interests include migration, mobility, displacement and refugee settlement including diasporas, and she is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Intercultural Studies. A proud child of immigrant parents, Melissa is a passionate advocate for multiculturalism and fair and equitable treatment of all persons irrespective of visa status.

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