Melissa Phillips is a Lecturer in Humanitarian and Development Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. Her PhD was part of an Australian Research Council Linkage Project on Resettling Visible Migrants and Refugees in Rural and Regional Australia at the University of Melbourne where she was also a member of a Social Justice Initiative on Temporary Migrant Workers.
Melissa has over 10 years experience working with refugees and asylum-seekers in Australia, the United Kingdom, Libya and South Sudan for the United Nations, NGOs and the Red Cross. She has published in the area of migration, multiculturalism and the role of diasporas and transnationalism.
She is a Board Member of Australian Red Cross and a member of the Australian Sociological Association.