Sometimes my career has felt a bit circuitous and it’s been difficult to see a larger picture. But lately I can see how every step I’ve taken has led me here and that no experience has been wasted.
I fell into communications and public relations after uni. I had planned on working in the international policy arena, but life intervened and set me off on a comms path. I never lost my love of good policy work and have often sat at the intersection of communications and policy.
I can see now that my circuitous route – including experiences like working at Amazon in the UK in the company’s early days have shaped me. (When I started at Amazon we only sold books, when I left we sold everything). The comms work I did there directly educated early online customers about the safety of online shopping.
The experience of being one of the first to embrace social media in healthcare in Australia also shaped me. I saw the good as I trained hundreds of healthcare professionals in social media tools. And saw the bad side, when doing what I loved led to years of personal online abuse and harassment that took its toll on my mental health and on my home life.
Running my own business to teach people how to navigate online abuse helped save me at that time.
I’ve seen and experienced the good, the bad and the downright ugly online. Today I see fake news and watch as my own family members are completely hoodwinked by it.
My past few years of working in communications in the early childhood education, domestic violence and rural health sectors in Australia have taught me valuable lessons about how people in each of those areas use, and often rely on, online communications. Sometimes using them for social benefit and sometimes it is to their detriment. This period of my career strengthened my belief that good policies and education are important.
Now I’m in Samoa.
I arrived nine months ago thinking that I was mentoring an organisation on their communications. But it’s turned into something much bigger. I’m now designing a digital and media literacy pilot program that focuses on digital and media literacy with a focus on human rights for all Samoans.
This past week was the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Digital Samoa Week and I spent most of it in forums talking with a range of people about cybersecurity, digital literacy and child online protection. Two days were spent being trained by the United Nations’ ICT arm, ITU, to be a trainer of trainers on Child Online Protection.
It feels like all the pieces are starting to fall together in a cohesive way. And while this feels great, it also feels odd, especially since I’ve been feeling a bit like my career has been drifting since living through the COVID years.
My daughters are currently early in their career journeys and wonder what direction they should take. They ask for advice that I feel very unprepared to give.
If pressed I tell them, and any others who ask, to be curious and follow their joy. My joy has led me to work around the world, with many different people, from all walks of life. And that has influenced me in a multitude of ways while I’ve attempted to connect the dots. Sometimes it’s too difficult to see the road ahead when you are starting out.
At a time in life where many my age are retiring, I feel like I’m able to make a real impact. I love that I’m working on something I’m passionate about and I’m in a place where my life experiences are appreciated.
I’m curious to see where this latest project and opportunity takes me.
Believing in Me 
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