Dalal Smiley

Dalal Smiley arrived in Melbourne with her family in 1976, seeking refuge after fleeing the civil war in Lebanon. Through this experience, she developed a passion for supporting migrant communities, especially women.

Her career started in language services and evolved into working in policy development in multicultural affairs. Over 14 years, she drove significant progressive and award-winning programs in the City of Darebin.

Dalal led the transition of the Victorian Arabic Network into becoming the Victorian Arabic Social Services. She was Chair between 1998 and 2005.

Dalal served as the Multicultural Affairs Commissioner with the Victorian Multicultural Commission between 2001 and 2005. She contributed to the development of the first Multicultural Victoria Act 2004.

Dalal received an Emergency Services Foundation scholarship in 2019. She studied the reforms in the UK emergency services relating to diversity recruitment and cultural change.

Deakin University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 2016. This was for her contribution to work on diversity and inclusion.

In 2017 Dalal began her appointment as the CEO of Wellsprings for Women in Dandenong. This organisation provides education programs and support services to women. Women who have been impacted by migration, family violence, unemployment, mental health and poverty.

She used her leadership and advocacy skills to expand the program offerings and reach into the community. She established the role of Wellsprings for Women as a provider of specialist family violence case management services to migrant and refugee women, who were not adequately serviced within the mainstream sector.

Dalal worked to ensure that Wellsprings for Women provided holistic wrap-around services to women. This enables them to pursue and achieve their goals unimpeded by barriers and challenges, such as family violence, poverty, homelessness, mental health or lack of access to childcare.

Her efforts go well beyond the parameters of her job, occupying most of her waking hours. Supporting migrant women to thrive is a lifelong passion. She has built an incredible team of women around her.