Ms Voula Messimeri – Vice President

Voula is an experienced Board Director of more than  three decades. She has had a long career in the community and multicultural services sector and served as the CEO of PRONIA from 1989-2016.

Voula has a wide range of governance and leadership skills having served in community agencies as an non-executive Board Director including as Chair of the peak multicultural national body, the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA) Deputy Chair of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Chair of Women’s Health in the North, Chair of InTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence, amongst others.

She was appointed and served two terms on the RMIT University Council and represented the Council as a Board Director on the RMIT Training Board, a controlled entity of the RMIT University.

Voula served for 15 years as Board Director on the Victorian Interpreting & Translating Service (VITS) Board and occupied the role of Deputy Chairperson twice in that time.

She was appointed  on a wide range Ministerial State and Federal advisory structures across diverse areas, including health, ageing, income support and media, and was a member of the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council.

She is a Fellow of the Williamson Community Leadership Program and has been awarded Honorary life membership for significant contributions by FECCA and PRONIA . The Greek Government recognised her service to the Australian Greek diaspora in 2009.

Voula was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and recognised under the Order of Australia for her contribution to refugees, migrants and women. She is the current Chair of the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI).