Irene is a communicator and radio producer who specializes in amplifying the voices of communities affected by crisis. For close to two decades, she has been working with people displaced by conflict, natural disasters, or climate change around the world and at home in Australia.  She believes that access to timely and accurate information in the right language allows people to make lifesaving decisions for themselves and their families.

 

She specializes in working with communities to shift power by telling their stories and highlighting their needs to first responders through community media. She has run narrowcasting services off the back of motorbikes in South Sudan, trained journalists for the United Nations, and designed systems to enable Rohingya refugees to communicate their needs and preferences to humanitarian workers in Bangladesh.

 

Before entering this field, Irene worked as a journalist, radio producer, and presenter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) for eight years. Her reporting on refugee rights in Australia for the national current affairs program ‘Hack’ saw her nominated for the Walkley Young Journalist of the Year award.