Media Diversity Australia (MDA) co-founder Antoinette Lattouf has stepped down from the board after more than six years to focus on writing and broadcasting projects.
Founded by journalists Isabel Lo and Lattouf in 2017, Media Diversity Australia is a national not-for-profit organisation working towards creating a media landscape that looks and sounds like Australia.
MDA provides paid fellowships for early career journalists, mentorships for women of colour with leadership aspirations, academic research, an award at the Mid-Year Walkleys, strategic industry memberships and partnerships that disrupt the status quo and pave pathways for diverse representation across Australian media.
Lattouf said the departure was "bittersweet".
"I am tremendously proud that MDA has helped to slowly shift and change things in the industry, which will produce better journalism and better connections with audiences," she said.
"Yet, it’s the sort of organisation that in an ideal world wouldn’t need to exist if quality, fairness and inclusion prevailed,” Lattouf said.
"There's so much I am proud of, but the two things that stand out as I reflect on my time with MDA is the two iterations of the agenda-setting research, Who Gets to Tell Australian Stories? and the fact that what started as a volunteer organisation run by working journalists now has a passionate team of paid staff who will continue doing this important advocacy."
Lo said that MDA wouldn’t be where it is today without Lattouf's courage, tenacity and advocacy.
"I am immensely proud of the work we have done together. Of course much work remains, which is why we are bringing on two additional non-executive board directors who will help us steer the ship,” she said.
Proud Wiradjuri man Brendan Thomas has joined the board as MDA’s newest non-executive director with almost 30 years' experience working in the criminal justice system. He has worked on a large number of significant legislative, program and service reforms for victims of crime, Aboriginal people, domestic violence and prosecution of serious crimes.
He conceived and chaired the innovative Designing Out Crime Research Centre at the University of Technology Sydney and authored many innovative reforms to justice and human services in NSW.
Sheryn Omeri has also been welcomed to the board as non-executive director, joining Lo and Alvaro Rodas Fernandez, who has been serving on the board since 2020. Omeri brings a depth of experience derived from her work as a barrister in human rights, employment, and public international law in the UK and Australia.
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