Our Experts

Oxfam staff are able to provide expert comment or background briefings to media on a number of specialist topics. This ranges from country-specific comment to more generic issues relating to our work in areas such as labour rights, impacts of climate change and humanitarian disaster response.

Media wishing to speak to any of the Oxfam spokespeople profiled below, or with an enquiry on a topic related to our work not listed, should contact the Oxfam media team in the first instance.

Information on our directors can be found here, or if you’d like to request a speaker from Oxfam please contact us.

Our spokespeople on the issues

Chief Executive, Oxfam Australia

Lyn Morgain

Lyn Morgain is the Chief Executive of Oxfam Australia.

Prior to her role at Oxfam Australia, Lyn was the Chief Executive of cohealth, Victoria’s largest community health organisation. Lyn has been an executive leader in public policy, not for profit organisations and government for the past 25 years.

As leader of Oxfam Australia, Lyn oversees the delivery of a broad range of long-term development programs, advocacy campaigns and humanitarian responses. Oxfam works in partnership with local organisations, governments and decision-makers to deliver outcomes such as clean water and sanitation, gender equality, livelihood support, justice for First Peoples, labour rights, food security, and support for communities affected by climate change.

Lyn has spent her career advocating for the rights of disadvantaged peoples and she is passionate about strength-based approaches that engender community ownership and control over service design, development and delivery.

Lyn is a sought after facilitator, chair and speaker and has published numerous journal articles on primary care and the social determinants of health.

She is a member of the Victorian Justice Health Ministerial Advisory Committee and the Community Health Taskforce. She is the interim Chair of the national Social Determinants of Health Alliance.

Twitter: follow Lyn on Twitter


Anthea Spinks | Director of Programs

Areas of expertise: International development, humanitarian assistance and emergencies, conflict and fragility, leadership and organisational development.

Anthea oversees the teams within Oxfam that implement international and humanitarian programs across 25 countries, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programming that is implemented alongside partners in Australia.

Anthea has over 20 years of experience working in international programs with a focus on humanitarian and conflict affected contexts. Anthea has lived and worked in Mozambique and Brazil as well as spending time in countries as diverse as Thailand and Jordan. She has held senior leadership roles in a number or organisations both in Australia and overseas.


Lucia Goldsmith | Head of Humanitarian 

Lucia is the Head of Humanitarian for Oxfam Australia and oversees our emergency responses.

Lucia has over 14 years’ experience in humanitarian and development programming. Prior to joining Oxfam Australia in 2017, she held various operational and coordination roles with international NGOs at HQ and field level in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Her experience includes overseeing humanitarian and development programs in Syria and Iraq and leading the South Sudan NGO Forum – a network of over 300 registered international and national NGOs providing humanitarian and/or development assistance to the people of South Sudan.

Lucia holds a doctorate and a master’s degree in international relations with a specialisation in peace and conflict studies.


Ngarra Murray | First Peoples Program, Executive Lead                Ngarra Murray, Oxfam's First People's Program

Ngarra is a Wamba Wamba (Gourmjanyuk), Yorta Yorta (Wallithica), Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung (Yung Balug) woman with strong family and cultural links throughout Victoria. She has passionately worked in the Melbourne Aboriginal community over the past two decades in a range of positions at The University of Melbourne, City of Melbourne, Co-Health, Victoria University of Technology, and Museum Victoria.

Ngarra is the National Manager of Oxfam Australia’s First Peoples Program and has been active in developing concepts and models to enable communities to exercise their right to self-determination, and in promoting political engagement and community development projects across Australia.

Along with her work at Oxfam, Ngarra is a Board Member of the Nicholls Foundation, Member of the National NAIDOC Committee, and an elected Executive Member of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

Paul Cleary | First Peoples Program, Policy & Advocacy Lead

Paul supports this program with research and advocacy on the issues that most affect the well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia.

Paul is a writer and researcher whose work has influenced public policy in Australia for more than two decades. As a journalist in the Canberra Press Gallery his reporting on material he obtained under FoI law led to a Senate inquiry into the GST and beneficial changes for low income people. He is the author of non-fiction five books and has recently focussed on the resources boom and the results for First Peoples. He has a PhD from the Australian National University for a thesis on native title negotiations in the Pilbara, WA.


Melissa Bungcaras | Climate Justice Strategic Lead

Areas of expertise: Climate change adaptation and resilience, international climate policy, climate finance

Melissa is responsible for overseeing the implementation and monitoring of Oxfam Australia’s climate justice strategy. She has worked alongside communities, non-profit organisations and government across the Asia Pacific to advocate for stronger climate action from local to global levels.  Melissa is passionate about ensuring the voices of people impacted by climate change are forefront in climate policy and project development. She holds a Master of Environmental Management and Development from the Australian National University.


Nayeem Emran | Economic Justice Strategic Lead

Nayeem is responsible for leading Oxfam Australia’s economic justice work.

He has more than 13 years’ experience driving sustainable change in collaboration with a range of stakeholders including unions, development partners and governments in Asia and the Pacific; and has worked for international organisations like the International Finance Corporation and International Labour Organization. Nayeem’s work is wide ranging, and includes policy reform, social and environmental compliance, gender empowerment and advocacy on workers’ rights.

Our spokespeople in country

Our media team can put you in touch with expert development spokespeople from these countries:

    • Bangladesh 
    • Cambodia 
    • China
    • Fiji 
    • India 
    • Laos 
    • Malawi 
    • Mozambique 
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Solomon Islands 
    • South Africa
    • Sri Lanka
    • Timor-Leste
    • Vanuatu
    • Vietnam
    • Zimbabwe