ABOUT
Laura Vidal is the Principal Consultant of LEC. LEC has a network of collaborators and partners who can support projects if and when the brief requires.
Dr Laura Vidal
Principal Consultant
Laura is a social worker with over a decade of experience supporting individuals who have experienced human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices, including forced marriage; and, refugees and asylum seekers and women with diverse experiences of gender-based violence. Laura has provided these services in a range of organisations and settings domestically and internationally. This has included crisis and longer term supported accommodation; outreach and community engagement settings and institutional contexts.
Beyond direct social work practice experience, Laura is a proficient policy and research professional. Laura takes an applied approach to her work privileging lived experience, and, works with her deep knowledge and understanding about the way services and systems operate at a grass-roots level. This knowledge is incorporated into the way she analyses policy, engages in qualitative research, develops and delivers targeted program and training solutions and strategises for change.
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Laura is regularly sought after by media, government, policy makers and not-for-profit organisations to advise on matters concerning forced marriage, human trafficking and slavery, and more broadly, diverse experiences of gender-based violence – reflective of her subject matter expertise.
Laura holds a PhD in Criminology , Master’s degree in Human Rights Law and Policy and a Bachelor’s Degree with Honours (Class 1) in Social Work.
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PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION
2016 Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship provided Laura with the opportunity to travel to six countries in pursuit of understanding innovative and best practice solutions to forced marriage. Download Laura's fellowship report here.
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2018 awarded the Francine V McNiff scholarship in Criminology offered to up to 2 PhD candidates at Monash University a year for demonstrating academic excellence and a commitment to improving policy through the development of empirical evidence. Read more about Laura’s PhD research here.
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2019 finalist in the social impact category of the HESTA Community Sector Awards -- in recognition of Laura's work responding to victim-survivors of human trafficking and slavery, particularly her approach to driving change through engaging with lived experience and synthesising practice experiences into policy recommendations and practical program solutions. Read more here.
MEMBERSHIPS & ADVISORY APPOINTMENTS
Laura is an Accredited member of the Australian Association of Social Work.
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Laura also holds the following appointments:
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Australian Government civil society advisory group for the development of Forced Marriage Protection Orders (FMPOs)
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Australian Government Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Research Network
CURRICULUM VITAE
Prior to establishing her consultancy service Laura held national and international roles in social work service delivery, program management and social policy.
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