Leila Smith

Leila is a First Nations Wiradjuri woman with 20 years of experience supporting organisational change and policy reform in the not-for-profit sector, professional services, research, and academia. As a highly effective people leader, she has roll-up-your-sleeves and strategic expertise across education, health, social services, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Leila is the CEO of the Aurora Education Foundation. This Indigenous organisation delivers interconnected programs and pathways and walks with students from high school through to university and the workplace, redefining Indigenous educational and employment success. Leila is leading the design and delivery of Aurora’s RISE Project, an Australian first longitudinal study of what works to support nearly 1000 Indigenous high school students using both Indigenous and Western definitions of success in education. Leila is the Chair of the American Australian Association, the Asia Pacific Representative to the Advisory Board for the Global Education Monitoring Report hosted by UNESCO, and a Board Member of Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity, the United States Studies Centre, and the Perth USAsia Centre. Before Aurora, Leila led the Knowledge Translation team at Australia’s national Indigenous health research organisation, the Lowitja Institute. She was also one of the first Indigenous Australians to join a major management consulting firm, Nous Group, where she specialised in federal government strategy and change projects. Before working in the private sector, Leila completed a Masters of Public Policy at Cambridge University, after leading the Policy and Programs team at the Australian Indigenous Doctors' Association and working in data analysis and research roles at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Leila also led the establishment of the First Nations Executive Network for Indigenous C-suite professionals in corporate-facing roles and the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Data Archive.