WSU chooses Rhonda Itaoui as diretor of the Centre for Western Sydney

Western Sydney University’s research and advocacy organisation for its region has chosen Rhonda Itaoui as its new director.

Rhonda Itaoui and Andy Marks

Western Sydney University’s research and advocacy organisation for its region has a new key appointment. Rhonda Itaoui will commence in July as director of the Centre for Western Sydney, which the university describes as its “vehicle for regional thought leadership and solutions orientated change”.

The centre’s executive director, Western Sydney University pro vice-chancellor Andy Marks, said Dr Itaoui was a “talented researcher and a leading authority on our region”.

Dr Itaoui said Sydney’s west had significant levels of disadvantage and was suffered from inequitable investment in essential infrastructure. She said, as director, she would give a platform for community voices and work with researchers, industry, and government to ensure that policies meet the community need.

Dr Itaoui is a social researcher with a PhD and first-class honours in human geography and global expertise in the geographies of diversity and multiculturalism. This year she was the lead researcher and author of the centre’s State of the Arts in Western Sydney report.

WSU vice-chancellor Barney Glover said the Vice-chancellor’s Centre for Western Sydney Fellowship Fund would continue in 2023, offering $30,000 to researchers whose projects focus on issues of importance to western Sydney.