Lydia is ever curious, delighted by interactions with each and every person she meets. She speaks several languages including Arabic and relocated to Australia from the UK three years ago. She loves solving problems by enabling people to get out of their silos, to listen to those with a different perspective.
As Chief Operating Officer and Director of Special Projects at Igniting Change, she is more fulfilled than ever – centring lived experience and working alongside Jane Tewson and their small but formidable team to connect and catalyse grassroots changemakers across Australia. Lydia challenges the status quo and pushes for a collaborative approach to social and environmental change across all sectors. She has worked in the UK and overseas, influencing government policy, big business, and at the coalface with women from refugee backgrounds.
Alongside her work at Igniting Change, Lydia serves as a Non-Executive Director of Mät Foundation, working at the grassroots with Melbourne’s South Sudanese community on Afro-centric learning and leadership. She brings the same commitment to community-led change to her role as a Director of HADIA Foundation, whose mission to restore access to education for Afghan women and girls she considers one of the most urgent of our time. She brings energy, global perspective, and a deep belief in the power of education to transform lives to the HADIA Board.
Outside of work, to offset her love of travel, she cycles everywhere, experiments with plant-based food – enticing others to do the same – and is a former GB pentathlete, now boxer, and aspiring salsa and kizomba dancer.