Diaspora Action Australia (DAA) warmly welcomes Denise Goldfinch to the role of Executive Director.

“We’re thrilled to have Denise join our organisation. She brings an incredible wealth of experience and innovation to the role”, says Board Chair, Hala Abdelnour.  “As we begin to celebrate DAA’s 10th year anniversary, we look forward to working with Denise and the team to build on and celebrate our achievements in the diaspora space”.

As an experienced and respected leader in the community services sector, Denise has built a reputation for developing innovative and creative service responses to meet community need, as well as having extensive expertise in stakeholder engagement and outcome oriented service delivery reform.

Before joining DAA, she has developed, delivered and managed a wide range of innovative community services and community capacity building programs with diverse and mainstream adult, youth and ageing communities across Melbourne. She has also developed and delivered cultural competency programs across government, private and community sectors around Australia to strengthen the capacity of mainstream organisations to understand and meet the needs of culturally diverse communities.

Denise started her career in marketing and IT. She combines her business and community development skills to deliver impactful and sustainable outcomes for the community. Also, she brings exceptional skills in strategy, stakeholder engagement, innovation, change management and outcome measurement to the table.

A former Chair and Director of women’s health, human rights, drug and alcohol, education and cultural diversity organisations, Denise is currently serving as Victorian State Representative on the Settlement Council of Australia Executive. She is also a Director of South East Local Learning & Employment Network.

Denise succeeds founding Executive Director, Denise Cauchi, who led DAA for the first nine and half years and says she is “thrilled to have the opportunity to lead DAA into its next chapter and build on the incredible work it’s renowned for.”

Welcome Denise! We look forward to this next exciting phase.