Dheera Smith is a new Greens Councillor for the MidCoast, an amalgamated regional council encompassing 10,000 square kilometres including the former Great Lakes, Taree and Gloucester council areas. She has been a newspaper and radio reporter, high school teacher and freelance writer in Australia and the United States. Dheera holds degrees in journalism, education and drama from the University of California Berkeley and the University of New England, Armidale. During her first term on Council, she has been concentrating on housing, community spaces and biodiversity. Dheera is an MCC delegate on the Joint Hunter Region Weeds Committee and the NSW Public Library Association. She chairs the MCC Community Inclusion and Well Being reference group and is also a councillor member of the Heritage and Community Resilience and Disaster Recovery reference groups. She first settled in Thora near Bellingen and worked to support Greens issues around that district including some amazing campaigns in the Chaelundi State Forest, Bongil Bongil National Park and Look At Me Now Headland. While teaching in Tamworth, Dheera became aware of the huge threat to the Liverpool Plains and Pilliga region from the gas fracking industries. She stood for the Greens for State Parliament in the Tamworth, running one of the first local campaigns in that region. As new families and workers migrate to the regions, Dheera is determined to present an alternative to entrenched political parties and ideas. When she is not working or volunteering, Dheera is most likely walking the dogs or having a swim at the Wingham Pool or Old Bar Beach. You can take the girl out of California…