Introduction:  Shobhana Chakrabarti

Shobhana Chakrabarti was born in Chennai, India and migrated to Australia 20 years ago. She completed post graduate studies in Business Management from India and then attended Curtin University of WA to complete her qualifications in Social Work. For the last eighteen years, Shobhana has been involved with a wide range of community organisations and intercultural services. She served as the Director of Ishar Multicultural Women’s Health Centre based in Mirrabooka for 12 years. Ishar caters to the needs of nearly 16,000 women from over 80 different ethnic groups every year, providing a service that is grounded in the ‘Social Model’ of health.

Shobhana was the recipient of the West Australian Women's Fellowship for 2003, The Fellowship, awarded annually in honour of Edith Cowan, is presented to one outstanding woman in WA to work or study overseas or interstate to gain knowledge and skills designed to ultimately improve the well being of women in WA.

Shobhana travelled to Europe, USA, and Africa to interview women leaders and then presented her findings of her Fellowship research in the form of a book entitled Sangam. As well as her work and the amazing research project Shobhana has served on several state, national and international advisory boards and committees.

Shobhana served as the international advisory board member for the Centre for Women’s Leadership, Notre dame, Indiana, USA. In 2006, she led a team of 16 WA women to USA to participate in an international conference titled:
Women as Intercultural Leaders: Collaboration at the Crossroads.

As the Director of the Women’s Health Centre in Mirrabooka, Western Australia she has developed more than 40 innovative Community Development/Health projects and received many awards for the organisation such as the Community Services Industry Award and Multicultural Services Award for providing outstanding services, creating new innovative projects, implementing them successfully and achieving outcomes that are sustainable over the long run.