Shaun Mallia

My name is Shaun Mallia, and I have volunteered as a community member with the Latrobe Health Assembly since 2016, meeting my fellow members at the very first Assembly meeting in December of that year.

I initially joined the Assembly in my capacity as the editor of the Latrobe Valley Express newspaper, hoping to provide invaluable insight and share my experiences through my many interactions with the communities of Latrobe. Following my editorship, I joined the Hazelwood Health Study in a communications and community engagement role. The study analysed the impact of the smoke from Hazelwood Mine Fire event on the nearby community of Morwell and was relevant to the work underway at the Assembly. Since then, I have held additional roles focused on working with and empowering the people of Latrobe. Each role I have held, be it professional or of a volunteering capacity, is driven by the fact that I am passionate about my community and endeavour to help as many people in Latrobe as possible to realise their full potential.

I have had the pleasure to have been involved in many innovative projects launched by the Assembly. The FoodBytes Challenge, launched in partnership with the Gippsland Tech School and many others, has been a standout. To watch students from Latrobe and across Gippsland work together to drive innovative solutions to improve health outcomes in our region has been a highlight. Helping to conceive and launch the Latrobe Youth Film Festival alongside the Assembly was certainly another standout project that has helped to change to lives of the young people of our region.

The Latrobe Health Assembly has demonstrated that it can lead the way and launch programs and projects that can bring about positive change in our community through fearless leadership. The next step is to enable our community to realise their potential and provide them with the right tools to become the leaders of tomorrow.