A Greater Shepparton City Council Councillor, is a trailblazer who champions social justice, diversity, and inclusion.
She was first elected as a Councillor in 2016, re-elected in 2020 and has also served as Greater Shepparton’s Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Seema is the first Pakistani (first generation) migrant Muslim woman elected Councillor and Mayor in Australia. In 2020, she was selected as one of 14 Victorian Mayors to sit on the 2020 Local Government Mayoral Advisory Panel (LGMAP). In 2017, Seema was appointed as the Board Chair of the Goulburn Valley Waste and Resource Recovery Group (GVWRRG) by the Minister for Energy Environment & Climate Change. She held this position until June 2022, when GVWRRG transitioned into a new organisation, Recycling Victoria.Â
Seema has served on the Greater Shepparton Women’s Charter Advisory Committee (GSWCAC) for five years (2015-2019). She was the Charter Champion for three years. In 2022, Seema was appointed to the Local Government Gender Equality Advisory Committee (GEAC) by the Minister for Local Government. She is also a member of the Women Leading Locally (WLL) Advisory Group and a mentor on the WLL Program, an initiative of the Victorian Government. Seema is also a member of the Hume Regional Advisory Committee of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, VMC. She has been a mentor on various formal and informal mentoring platforms.
In 2022, Seema founded The Door Bells-Migrant Women’s Network (TDB-MWN). This unique platform connects and mainstreams minority and migrant women. Under her empathetic leadership, this network has done some remarkable work in a very short time.
Over the past three decades, Seema has held diverse roles across various sectors in Australia, Malaysia, and Pakistan. Her career spans government, the corporate sector, universities, and board directorships. In her professional roles, she has been associated with notable institutions such as IBM, the University of Melbourne, and Telstra in Australia.
Professional qualifications: Seema was the recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship (the UK government’s international scholarships and fellowships programme) to pursue her Master’s degree in Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems at the London School of Economics, United Kingdom. Her other qualifications include an MBA from Pakistan. Seema is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Additionally, she holds the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification from the Project Management Institute in the USA.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/seemaabdullah