Anna Manwah Lo, MBE, MSc, Dip.S.W.

Anna is the Alliance MLA for South Belfast.

Anna was born in Hong Kong and worked in London for a year prior to coming to live in Northern Ireland in 1974. For several years, she held secretarial posts in a local newspaper and the BBC as well as making regular contributions to the BBC Chinese Service about the Chinese community and Northern Ireland affairs. In 1978, she started the first ever English evening class for Chinese people in Northern Ireland in a further education college. Following a career break to have her two sons, she joined the Chinese Welfare Association in 1987 as a community interpreter. Four years later she returned to full-time education and qualified as a social worker from the University of Ulster in 1993 and worked in a health and social services trust and Barnardos before taking up the post of director in the Chinese Welfare Association in 1997. She was a founder member of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities and a commissioner for the first Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. She was also the first chair of the South Belfast Partnership Board and the South Belfast Racism Roundtable. She currently is a member of various equality committees including the OFMDFM Race Forum and Belfast City Council Good Relations Panel.