Advertising Standards Bureau - Review of Operations 2013 | Page 55

MARIA COSMIDIS
Appointed August 2011

BARBARA DAVID
Appointed August 2008

KHOA DO
Appointed August 2006

Maria Cosmidis is currently employed by the
South West Sydney Community Legal Centre as
the Executive Officer. She has a long history of
working in the field of multicultural affairs, being
the current Chairperson of the Metro Migrant
Resource Centre and sitting on that board for
over 10 years.

Barbara David has broad experience with both
young and mature-age Australians. Her career
has included time spent as a high school music
teacher as well as a lecturer and researcher in
social and child psychology at the Australian
National University.

Khoa Do was born in Vietnam, but left with
his parents and brother in a small fishing boat
in 1980. They arrived in Australia and settled in
Western Sydney, where Khoa developed a passion
for storytelling and cinema.

Maria is currently undertaking her Masters
of Management as part of a scholarship with
the Australian Sports Commission’s “Sports
Leadership Grants and Scholarships for Women”.
She is also a member of the “Next Generation of
Corporate Leaders” program initiated by Women
on Boards and UBS Investment Bank.
She is also one of the producers of a movie review
show on a local Sydney radio station and enjoys
heated debate amongst co-reviewers on the latest
film releases.
A passionate sport participant and fan, Maria
enjoys watching and playing sport and spending
time with her young daughter. Being of
Greek heritage, Maria and her family travel to
Greece regularly.

Barbara has retired from lecturing and is currently
reliving the student experience, undertaking a
TAFE Diploma in Visual Arts. She was awarded
Arts and Media Student of the Year in 2007.
Barbara’s passion for informed investigation of
social issues continues in her ongoing supervision
of PhD students. Their research covers topics such
as the role of modeling (imitation) in children’s
gendered behaviour, and the part played by
perceptions of capability in the perpetuation of
inequality in the workplace.

Khoa began working in the performing arts in the
late 1990s, developing and producing a number
of shows and films. Over the years, he has worked
extensively with marginalised communities in film
– working with homeless youths, former prisoners
and refugees of many nationalities. Khoa’s works
include Footy Legends in 2006, starring Anh Do,
Angus Sampson and Claudia Karvan. His first
feature film, The Finished People, was a gritty and
realistic story about at-risk adolescents on the
edge of survival.
Khoa has been nominated for AFI Awards,
IF Awards, Film Critic’s Circle of Australia
Awards and was recently awarded prizes at the
Orlando, Canada and Vietnamese International
Film Festivals.
In 2012, Khoa wrote and directed a mini-series on
capital punishment, Better Man, starring David
Wenham, Bryan Brown and Claudia Karvan.
Khoa has also worked as a volunteer with Open
Family Australia at Cabramatta in Sydney,
assisting at-risk youths. He was awarded
Bankstown City’s Young Citizen of the Year
Award in 2002. In January 2005, Khoa was
announced as Young Australian of the Year,
the first-ever filmmaker to have been awarded
the accolade.

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