Soulos, Mersina

Mersina Soulos, an expert in multicultural affairs, is a community activist who represented the Australian Greens party in the following elections:
New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Strathfield, 1999
House of Representatives, Lowe, 2001
New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Drummoyne, 2003.

In her 1999 campaign, Mersina Soulos focussed her campaign on environmental issues connected with the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Her particular concern was the Lidcombe Liquid Waste Plant which she wanted relocated. In 2003 she quoted its temporary closure as a highlight of her clean air activism. Her campaign in 2003 opposed the redevelopment of the Rhodes peninsula, the relocation of mental health facilities from Callan Park to Concord Hospital, and stressed the need for improved transport services to the areas in the electorate which were now high density housing.

Mersina Soulos was founding Co-ordinator of the Department of Cross Cultural Ministries for the Sydney Anglican Diocese, through the Anglican Home Mission Society, now Anglicare, a position she held for 15 years. She was also a Senior Adviser on multicultural affrairs and community relations to three successive Archbishops of Sydney and Senior Adviser on Multicultural Policy at the national level of the Anglican Church of Australia.

She completed a B.A. (UNSW, 1980) and M.A. (Macquarie, 1994) and now lectures part-time at the Mary Andrews College, an Anglican women’s theological college. She speaks Greek and German fluently.