Sonia Di Mezza has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Migrant and Refugee Settlement Services (MARSS) Australia. Ms Di Mezza has been the organisation’s Interim CEO for the past eight months.

MARSS helps migrants, refugees, humanitarian entrants, and asylum seekers to resettle and to build a new life in this country. It helps them find housing; access health care; and enrol in education and training. It also provides casework, advocacy, and referrals; language translation and interpretation; and youth programs.

Ms Di Mezza told Canberra Daily last year that her passion for the job comes from her own experience of cultural and linguistic diversity, as the daughter of migrants and working for human rights overseas.

As a solicitor and human rights lawyer, Ms Di Mezza has held numerous leadership rôles, including three years as the CEO of Loddon Campaspe Multicultural Services in regional Victoria. In Canberra, she was deputy chair of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council of Multicultural Affairs; CEO of the Domestic Violence Crisis Service; and deputy/acting chief executive of the ACT Disability, Aged and Carers Advocacy Service.

Overseas, Ms Di Mezza set up and managed human rights programs in Sudanese camps for internally displaced people, and in Pakistan for Afghan widowed refugees and their children. She was a refugee lawyer in Australian immigration detention centres; a resettlement consultant for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Lebanon; and worked for a child labour rights NGO in India.

“The Board welcomes Sonia to her new rôle, and is confident that, given Sonia’s extensive not-for-profit, intercultural and leadership experience, she will contribute to creating stronger collaborations between MARSS and multicultural communities and stakeholders, throughout the Canberra region,” a spokesperson said.

“Sonia will lead a client-focused organisation to ensure that clients continue to receive the supports they require, to effectively settle in the Canberra region.”

If you want to help MARSS’s work, you can become a volunteer, welcoming and supporting newly arrived individuals and families from refugee, asylum seeker and migrant backgrounds; or donate to provide support to migrant and refugee communities. More information online.