Communications and Project Management
Kate began her career as a radio journalist and senior producer for public radio networks in Australia and Canada. She has also managed communication teams for the Museum of Vancouver and the Victorian government agency, Public Record Office Victoria at the Victorian Archives Centre. She has been responsible for strategic planning and management of all projects for the units which has included digital communication plans, public programming curation and digital innovation. Communication responsibilities included media relations and promotions, social media strategy and content production, website maintenance and SEO training, video production, publications, training materials and the production of the annual report.
Communications Management: Kate wrote the annual communications and marketing strategies for the Museum of Vancouver MOV (2009-2013) and was responsible for applying a new brand and vision for both MOV and the state records of Victoria based at the Victorian Archives Centre (2014-2023). She takes an evidence based approach to strategic planning applying the most effective communication solutions based on data. This includes story planning to promote the value of collection items, promotion of public programs (grants, awards, exhibitions and events) or producing training materials which effectively reach target markets. Media relations work has included overseeing her teams media campaigns for the annual Victorian Premier's History Awards, all VAC Gallery exhibition promotions and previously all Museum of Vancouver exhibitions. Kate won a Canadian Sector Marketing Award for her work with the Museum of Vancouver in building their new brand. Kate has also been responsible for designing effective social media strategies including designing content streams which engage audiences in conversation about shared history; leadership in the sector; contemporary relevance and; public facing services or products. (Click on image for link)
Media Management: Kate was a radio journalist and program producer for a decade with Local ABC Radio, Australia and CBC Radio, Canada. She has since managed teams responsible for media relations across two cultural institutions. As head of development and audience engagement for the Museum of Vancouver and for Public Record Office Victoria she is familiar with the needs of media agencies. This has included requests for research support for the TV shows Who Do You Think You Are or for more pressing requests from daily news producers. Kate is familiar with pressurized deadlines, fact checking and required formats for republication of content across digital and broadcast media.
Social Media: Building an engaged following of 31 thousand followers across 5 social media platforms took a consistent strategic vision under 5 pillars. Leadership, nostalgia, relevance, behind the scenes and diversity. Content was sought and produced under those 5 strategic targets to engage the public with the historic collection, and has helped to earn brand recognition across the Melbourne's broader cultural landscape.
Long Format Articles: Kate has written a number of long format journalistic articles as a freelance writer. From travel articles to personal lifestyle pieces Kate has been published by a range of publications. She has written for: Vietnam Airlines Magazine; Slate Magazine, for Me and My Mutation; The respected Canadian publication The Tyee on repatriation of indigenous artifacts; for Traces Magazine, on modernist design in reducing 20th Century pandemics; and for communications journal Story.com she wrote a 'How To' sector article on persuasive communication techniques.
Behind The Scenes Video: To satisfy the curiosity of the public interested in the work of paper conservators, and archival collection management staff, Kate produced a profile video of the conservation teams working on historic prison registers at the Victorian Archives Centre. The video explained the value of the prison registers and the process conservators follow to remove mould from the large volumes. (Click on image for link)
First People's Respectful Language Guide: Kate completed a project in 2023 to write a respectful language guide for staff to assist them in writing respectfully about Victorian Aboriginal First Peoples' history. It was the first comprehensive guidance document written specifically to service the needs of the staff and clients of the agency. The guide draws from a range of recommendations made by indigenous led organisations such as the Indigenous Archives Collective, Yoorrook Justice Commission media protocols, University of NSW guide to indigenous terminology and Vic Gov's First People's State Relations (among others). She sought cultural advisory guidance during the production of the guide from Liz Allen.
Publications: Kate and her team designed and co-wrote the key promotional publication for the Victorian Archives Centre. The publication showcases a range of historic archives available to researchers and university students, presented as mini stories per page. This includes records related to Aboriginal Victorians, Royal Commission witness testimonies into the 2019 bushfires, historic photographic collections of Port Melbourne and case files of those in mental health institutions. The publication is now used as a researcher training tool and is given to all masters students of history at Melbourne University as part of their introductory training into the collection. In addition Kate has written a number of other training publications including How to research your historic home. (Click on image for link)
Video Training Materials: The complexity of researching archived collections triggered the need for a range of researcher training videos. This included writing an animation script and working with animators to visually explain and simplify how 19th century letters to government were organised. The animation is used by history lecturers, internal support staff and online researchers to aid in their research.(Click on image for link)