Acknowledgement of Country
Alo acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
Meet our team.
Lubna Alam
Founder + Secretary
Dr Lubna Alam is the founder of Alo - Enlightened Women Incorporated, as a voice for women, specifically those from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. With nearly two decades working as an academic and an applied researcher, she is passionate about socio-technical and empowering impacts of emerging technologies on individuals and not-for-profits. Through her research on technology for social good and inclusion, Lubna has contributed to vulnerable communities such as at-risk gamblers, job seekers and volunteers.
Currently working for Deakin University in Melbourne as Associate Professor of Information Systems, Lubna has also taught at University of Canberra and North-South University in Bangladesh. She holds a PhD in Non-Profit Crowdsourcing, Master’s degree in IT, Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and Bachelor's in Information Technlogy. A recipient of Vice-Chancellor's Excellence Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, she has also received multiple industry and government grants. Lubna has contributed on several industry panels and is regularly invited for social issue commentary on TV, radio & the print media.
A mother of two daughters Lubna is a strong believer in women’s independence and gender equality.
Tulip Chowdhury
President
Tulip is a passionate advocate for women’s welfare. Born in Bangladesh, she received early schooling in Dhaka, followed by Tokyo and Berlin before moving to the United States for tertiary studies. Tulip holds a Bachelors in Mathematics from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and a Masters in Applied Mathematics from North Carolina State University.
Tulip joined the Australian Public Service in 1989 and served with distinction for 31 years, holding senior positions in industrial relations, international education and the delivery of a number of key government programs. She led the reforms of the regulatory framework for Australia’s International Education Sector, worth approximately $20 billion at the time. Balancing the challenges of career, family and motherhood, she has also played leading roles in the Bangladeshi community and the Bangla Language School in Canberra.
Recently Tulip has been working remotely in Bangladesh, focussing on the health and wellbeing of rural people, during the COVID-19 pandemic. At present Tulip is involved in a number of projects across Australia including tutoring English as a volunteer for the Adult Migrant English Program.
Tulip is a deep thinker with a pragmatic ‘can do’ approach. She questions prevailing norms to create a voice for the silent and vulnerable.
Bushra Khanum
Vice President
Bushra is an enthusiastic and passionate supporter of women’s empowerment. With over 20 years of work experience spanning across Bangladesh and Australia, in various industries, Bushra has learnt the value of compassionate people engagement, and subsequently the complex roles that gender and culture play in our interactions with one another.
Bushra has previously worked as lecturer teaching English at Stanford University Bangladesh and the United University, and is currently working for the National Library of Australia. Bushra has held executive roles for 10 years in charity organisations such as Let’s Work For Bangladesh and the Fred Hyde Foundation.
Her passion is to equip and empower regional Banglaedeshis located in disadvantaged areas through education-based opportunities. Bushra’s educational qualifications are a Masters in English Literature and a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Systems. When not working, she can be found coordinating a community fashion show, reciting poetry with her poetry group Kabbo Kothon or enjoying a chai and chat session with her daughter.
Siulin Chung
Treasurer
Siulin was born and raised in India and has lived in Australia for the past 13 years where she is currently raising her beautiful 2-year-old daughter.
She works locally in Canberra at the Reserve bank of Australia where she is part of the Banking portfolio.
Her educational background is in Commerce, majoring in Finance and Accounting. Her education and work experience has given her the platform to fill the role as treasurer for Alo – Enlighterend Women Incorporated.
She has always been passionate about the need to empower and assist those in need. Since moving to Australia, she has been involved with Red Cross for over 5 years and now a part of Alo.
Much effort is required to address empowerment of women and the gender imbalance, and she is willing, able and passionate to work hard and relish in the opportunity to work with women from various backgrounds.
Luna Purification
Alo Advisor: Gender equality
Born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Luna has been working in international development for over 20 years, such as USAID (Bangladesh), AusAID, and now in DFAT. Trained in Anthropology from Monash University in Melbourne (Bachelors), and Australian National University (Masters), with a specialisation in gender in international development, her work has always had a strong focus on gender equality and broader social inclusion issues. She is particularly passionate about women’s rights and young women’s leadership, and she believes that young women have strong potential to make a difference in their communities. She also believes that every young woman – from every socio-economic, cultural, or religious background deserves the support and understanding of their family and community to participate fully in life through equal access to education and work to be socially and economically empowered, and live free from any fear of violence or social stigma to lead an independent life.
Luna is delighted to be part of the Alo team at its nascent stage while it is trying to establish a strong foundation of learning and understanding of different issues that affect women living in Australia from culturally diverse backgrounds, particulary in a year that has been incredibly hard for many women across the globe – personally, socially and professionally, because of COVID-19.
Ayesha Sheikh
Alo advisor: Graphics + Web Coordinator
Ayesha, a recent Year 12 graduate, is the youngest member of the Alo team. She completed her secondary schooling at Canberra Girls Grammar and intends to pursue a career in medicine.
As a young individual, born in Bangladesh and brought up in Canberra, Australia, she sees the world through a bicultural lens.
Within a community that holds altruism as its core value, this positive influence led her to volunteer for organisations such as Amnesty International, St Vincent de Paul, Share the Dignity Charity and Close the Gap foundation. She continually learns and empathises with the experiences of people of different ages, races and upbringings. During school, Ayesha fostered a love for reading and literature. From this, she is especially passionate about the power of sharing stories and language to create real social change. Ayesha brings to Alo her background of activism in feminism, Indigenous rights, anti-racism and inclusion. Through her skills in graphics and web design, she aims to help youth from CALD communities.
Nasreen Haque
PR Coordinator
Nasreen has been a career Public Servant for over 25 years and a working mother raising two boys. She has worked in the Commonwealth Govt. in a variety of roles at Industrial Relations Court, Prime Minister and Cabinet and Department of Community Services.
Currently at Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA), Open Arms – Veterans & Families Counselling, Nasreen is involved in the delivery of specialised support and care to members of the veteran community which has provided her a better understanding of the issues faced by women and families in our community.
Nasreen has completed Advance Diploma in Project Management, Advance Diploma in Govt. Procurement/Contracting and Women Leadership Pathway program.
Nasreen brings to ALO a wide range of experience to support women from culturally and Linguistically diverse (CALD) background. She seeks to build a vibrant community enriching the lives of the disadvantaged, highlighting gender equality and empowering women.
Zaheen Rahman
Member
Zaheen Rahman is currently working in ACT public service. Her life in Australia also includes working on different Australian charities, non-for-profit organisation and cultural groups.
Growing up in a military family has helped her to acquire the qualities of a dandelion flower such as acceptance, adaptability and independent. Since childhood she also got to experience life from different angel in rural, urban areas and even overseas. To this date, those experiences has helped her to connect with community from different angel. She developed a strong sense of devotion for the non-for-profit sector while seeing her mother to run a school for under privileged children at a very early age. Later on her sense of self-worth has helped her to grow interest on women empowerment.
The urge of network women from different background and grow together, ALO – Enlightened Women is serving the right purpose for her. As a new mother of a girl child she wishes to unleash girls’ power in all its dimension.
Aliva Evana
Member
Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aliva completed her master's degree in English linguistics. She has been living in Australia for the last ten years. She has been involved with charity organizations in Australia and now working in a bank for the last eight years being responsible for various roles.
Being formally trained in Bengali Traditional and classical music Aliva has a strong passion for music and finds solace in it.
A proud mother of two handsome boys, she strongly believes empowerment starts from within. She is passionate in empowering CALD women as she has extensive experience as being one of them.
She has served two terms as the cultural Secretary of BAAC ( Bangladesh Australia Association Canberra) successfully and hopes to contribute more to the society.
She believes gender equality is not hard to achieve, we just need to change the way we have become habituated in perceiving women.
Alice Nahar
Public Officer
Alice is a self-motivated person who has a strong ability to build productive work relationships in a team environment. For the last four years, she has owned a small business of a hair and beauty salon in Ngunnawal shopping centre. Her time as small business owner allowed her to reinforce interests and skills in customer service and community relations.
As well her time at the salon, she has more than 14 years of ACT Government Public Service job experience. Most of her work in the public service involved customer/client relations. Alice is a friendly people person who loves engaging with people from different backgrounds. This is why she remains an active community worker. She has served her community as twice-appointed cultural secretary in the Bangladesh Australia Association in Canberra (BAAC).
She has also engaged in many voluntary works, including fund raising for Red Cross, Salvation Army, Breast Cancer Association, and the Heart Foundation.
Nafisa Asif
Member
Dr Nafisa Asif is a member of the Alo - Enlightened Women Incorporated. With extensive experience working across the public (Commonwealth and state government) and the private sector, Nafisa found her calling in social research that informs policy and programs to achieve long-term outcomes for the most vulnerable communities in Australia. Currently she works as a Senior Researcher for the Department of Communities and Justice, NSW.
Nafisa has had a long-standing commitment to improving women’s health; in particular, the sexual health of women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. Through her research, community work and advocacy efforts, Nafisa has been actively promoting culturally appropriate interventions to increase awareness for breast and cervical cancer screenings among South Asian migrant women in Australia. Nafisa also plays an active role in the community to support the rights of people with a disability.
Nafisa’s education includes a PhD in Behavioral and Social Sciences in Health, Master’s in Public Health, Master’s in Business Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.
Nafisa is a social activist, feminist, and a music enthusiast. She is the mother of two children.