Some of Australia’s most prominent women journalists have thrown their support behind Women in Media – our national initiative aimed at increasing opportunities and outcomes for all women working in media. Based on a successful group operating in Western Australia for the past eight years, Women in Media has drawn together senior industry figures to offer younger women in the industry support, advice and mentoring.
Our Mentors
Women in Media (WiM) is a nationwide networking and mentoring initiative to support and nurture women working in all facets of the media – from journalism and media advising to public relations and corporate affairs.
Through the influence and backing of MEAA members, Women in Media aims to improve the working lives of women in media across Australia.
We operate across every state and territory in Australia. Find your local Mentors.
ACT
Emma Macdonald
Emma is the convenor of Women in Media Canberra. She has been a journalist for 20 years – 13 of which were spent in the Press Gallery where she was Canberra Times Bureau Chief. Emma has covered a number of rounds but specialises in education and social affairs. She has won two Walkley Awards and was a national finalist for breaking the Reith Telecard scandal in 2000. Emma was awarded the John Douglas British Prize for Journalism in 1998, and in 2002 was awarded a Vincent Fairfax Ethics in Leadership Fellowship. She has been highly commended for her political journalism through the Paul Lyneham Press Gallery Journalism Award and was recognised with a University of Canberra Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011. She has been published widely, from The Times (UK) to the Business Standard (India), to Cosmopolitan Magazine. Emma is passionate about her craft and is regularly invited to speak about her experiences in the media. A mother of two, Emma co-founded the maternal health charity Send Hope Not Flowers shortly after the birth of her now 5-year-old daughter. She is becoming increasingly adept at juggling.
Alex Sloan
Alex Sloan began her radio career as a rural reporter with the ABC in Tasmania where she quickly learnt to wear an engagement ring to sheep and cattle sales. Finally landing at the ABC in Sydney she travelled as a reporter to the United States, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Homesick, Alex returned to a reporter-producer position on RN breakfast. Rapidly realising she was not a morning person, Alex leapt at the opportunity to sleep in a little later and present the 666 Drive program in 1995. It was like a homecoming and she’s refused to budge ever since.
Gillian Blandford
Gillian Bradford is ABC News’ Bureau Chief in Parliament House, managing the operation across radio, digital and television. She’s worked in the Canberra Bureau on and off over 15 years and has been a reporter on AM and PM, TV News and a producer on 7.30 and the documentary series The Howard Years .Gillian also enjoyed a 3 year stint as the ABC’s New Zealand correspondent, setting up the Auckland bureau in 2002. On weekends you’ll find her on the family sheep and cattle property in Bombala.
Michelle Ainsworth
Michelle has had a long and extensive career as a reporter and producer working for radio and television in both the commercial media and at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. When Michelle was in her final years at high school she had work experience at Channel Seven in Sydney. That lead to an overnight job monitoring police scanners at the end of year twelve and as they say in the classics she’s never looked back. For the last 20 years she’s been based in the Press Gallery in Canberra, reporting on overseas visits by the PM of the day to countless budgets, elections and leadership challenges. Her return to the ABC five years ago saw her start up the Canberra component of News 24. She’s also produced the political stories for the national 7.30 program and is currently enduring an alarm which goes off at 0345 so she can produce the political segments on the ABC’s radio current affairs program, AM.
Lenore Taylor
Lenore Taylor is the political editor of Guardian Australia. She has won two Walkley awards and has twice won the Paul Lyneham award for excellence in press gallery journalism. She co-authored a book, Shitstorm, on the Rudd government’s response to the global economic crisis. She has worked in the press gallery for most of the past 27 years. She was also Europe correspondent for The Australian Financial Review.
Ginger Gorman
Ginger Gorman is a multi-award winning print and radio journalist, and a 2006 World Press Institute Fellow. She specialises in creative boundary-pushing radio and social justice journalism. Ginger is also passionate about social media, crowdsourcing and its integration with traditional journalism. She has just left the ABC after 13 years and is currently teaching journalism at the University of Canberra and writing freelance, mostly for news.com.au. Ginger is an ambassador for the Cancer Council and PANDSI, Canberra’s post and antenatal depression support service.
Amanda Whitley
Amanda Whitley graduated from the University of Canberra in 1994 and has over 20 years of experience in the communication industry. Over the course of her career, she has worked in all facets of public relations and media, in both the private and public sectors. In 2011 Amanda launched www.hercanberra.com.au, a website for local women which today reaches an audience of over 70 000 readers each month. Amanda was named on the UN Women’s “100 Years, 100 Great Women” list in 2013 for making a significant difference to Canberra in its Centenary Year and has won numerous service awards in her career as a public servant. Prior to her transition to HerCanberra as a full time role in September 2013, Amanda worked as Communication Director at the Department of Health and Ageing, and Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and in her own private public relations consultancy.
Genevieve Jacobs
Genevieve began her career as a journalist on local and regional papers across the South West Slopes, where she won the EC Sommerlad Award for coverage of a major regional news story for her work on major bushfires in the Cootamundra district. As a freelance journalist she has written for national gardening and fine arts magazines and has lectured widely on artists and their gardens. She spent eight years as the ACT and Southern NSW co-ordinator for Australia’s Open Garden Scheme, working with a wide range of commercial and public broadcasters in the non-profit sector. She joined the ABC in 2006 and has presented Weekends and Afternoons before moving to her current role on 666 ABC Canberra Mornings. Genevieve works widely with the charity sector in Canberra and is the patron of the Asthma Foundation, a board member of Gift of Life ACT and Open Gardens Australia in ACT/NSW, and president of the Friends of the Old Parliament House Rose Gardens.
Virginia Haussegger AM
Virginia is an award winning journalist and commentator, with over 25 years experience in news broadcasting. She has reported from around the globe for Australia’s leading current affairs programs on Channel 9, the 7 Network and the ABC. Virginia currently anchors ABC TV News in Canberra, and hosts a variety of forums and panel discussions. She is an Adjunct Professor with the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis (IGPA) at the University of Canberra, and sits on various Boards, including UN Women National Committee Australia, and the ACT Government’s Cultural Facilities Corporation. She is Patron of the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, and Save the Children ACT, and a founding committee member of Women in Media Canberra. In 2014 Virginia was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to women’s rights, gender equity, and to the media.
Susanne Roberts
Susanne is a senior communications manager with the ACT Government. She has a background as a journalist, media secretary, speechwriter and corporate communications consultant, and at various times also owned a kitchenware shop and worked in executive recruitment. Susanne ran her own PR consultancy in Perth for nine years before moving to Canberra in 2009. She rates her role as senior PR Manager for the Centenary of Canberra in 2013 as the best PR gig in town. Susanne is a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, has served on several arts boards in Perth and Canberra and for 12 years was The West Australian’s accredited ski writer, reporting on resorts around the world.
NSW
Marina Go
I have agreed to be one of the mentors that will kick off a wonderful initiative by a bunch of amazing women who I have long admired. Women who have developed a reputation for showing the next generation of women, and also often their peers, the path to success. It’s an honour to be in their number and a bonus that we also get to help women. Read Marina’s Article ‘Women who help women (and those who don’t)
Tracey Spicer
When I graduated from a journalism degree in the 1980s, almost all of my classmates were women. Gone were the days of the media being a male-dominated industry. Or so I thought. Sadly, many of these women have gone missing. For some, the structural discrimination became too much. Others found it difficult to get back into the workforce after having children. Few saw a clear career path. That’s why I’m delighted to be a Mentor for Women in Media. I’m privileged to enjoy a rich ‘portfolio career’ as an anchor on Sky News, columnist for Fairfax Media and The Hoopla, and trainer at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. I want to help other women navigate these, at times, treacherous waters. Together, we can build a brighter future for women in media.”
Gemma Hudson
Gemma joined Buchan Consulting as General Manager across Sydney and Melbourne in May 2013. She is responsible for overall business growth and strategic counsel across all practices. Gemma has spent the last 12 years advising clients both in Australia and overseas working across the health, consumer, technology and corporate sectors. Most recently, Gemma has also become a Director of the company. Prior to joining Buchan, Gemma lead the health team at Haystac and drove campaigns encompassing stakeholder and media relations, issues management and integrated marketing for pharmaceutical companies, biotech’s and not-for profits including award winning campaigns for Berocca and Ovarian Cancer Australia. Gemma is a member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and has a BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Sheffield, England.
Kate McClymont
Kate McClymont is an investigative journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald. She is a five-time winner of journalism’s most prestigious award, the Walkley, including the Gold Walkley for her coverage of the Bulldogs salary cap rorts. She was also named the 2012 NSW Journalist of the Year for her investigations into the Health Services Union and the business activities of former NSW Labor minister, Eddie Obeid. She has survived death threats, a trip out to sea with an underworld figure and the wrath of Paul Keating who once wrote a letter to the paper complaining Kate spent her time “sniffing bicycle seats” and “chasing subterranean odours.”
Vanessa Liell
Vanessa leads n2n communications, one of Australia’s largest and fastest growing independent communication agencies. She has 20 years’ experience in public relations and is committed to running an agency that values relationships, the careers of her team and great work. She’s passionate about the future of the PR industry and creating an agency with the skills, talent and agility to adapt, innovate and create in this dynamic and fast changing environment. Among numerous awards, n2n communications was named 2013 PRIA NSW Consultancy of the Year and 2012 Australian PR Agency of the Year by the Holmes Report.
Caro Meldrum-Hanna
Caro Meldrum-Hanna is an investigative reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners program. Prior to joining Four Corners in 2014, Caro reported for the ABC’s nightly current affairs program, 7:30 from 2011 – 2013, where she was nominated for six Walkley Awards, winning two. In 2014 Caro was also nominated for the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Current Affairs Report for her exclusive series of reports on the sports supplements saga involving several NRL and AFL clubs. Prior to becoming a reporter in 2011, Caro was a researcher for Four Corners, where she earned the nickname ‘NSU’ or ‘No Stone Unturned’.”
Emma Alberici
Emma Alberici is the presenter of ABC1’s Lateline Program. Prior to taking up her latest role, Emma spent four years as the Europe Correspondent for the ABC based in the UK. She arrived in London just as Lehmann Bros was collapsing and as the world began questioning every accepted orthodoxy attaching to global financial markets. For someone who had spent most of the previous two decades as a business and finance journalist, it was a case of right place, right time. Emma worked at the Nine Network and did her cadetship at News Limited’s Herald Sun Newspaper (Melbourne). The daughter of a greengrocer, born and raised in Melbourne by migrant Italian parents, Emma has been a finalist three times in the Walkley Awards for journalistic excellence. She is the author of three editions of The Small Business Book.”
Liza-Jaybe Loch
Liza-Jayne (LJ) has an extensive background in corporate and organisational positioning, strategic communications, financial communications, public affairs, and reputation management. LJ co-founded REPUBLIC Consulting, one of Asia-Pacific’s leading reputation protection consultancies, after a career as Corporate Affairs Manager for one of Australia’s top 20 listed companies. She has also served as a senior ministerial advisor to QLD’s Premier, Attorney-General, and Justice and Tourism Ministers and is a former State Political Reporter, having worked for both ABC and commercial networks. LJ’s expertise and experience mean she’s in high demand as an industry expert and commentator.”
Nicole Jeffery
Nicole Jeffery is a senior sports journalist at The Australian, where she has worked since 1988. She did her journalism cadetship at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland. She is an Olympic specialist who has covered every summer Olympics since 1992, and ever Winter Games since 1998. She was a founding member of the group Australian Women in the Sports Media in the 1990s. She has won a number of awards for journalism, including Best Feature at the 2000 Australian Olympic Writers and Photographers Association awards, and the 2013 Kennedy Award for sports journalism. She has written one sports biography – Beyond the Limits, the Alyson Annan story (2004), and chapters for Olympic Gold – our greatest individual Olympians since 1986 (2012), This Sporting Year (2006) and Best Australian Sports Writing (2004).”
Fiona Harari
Fiona Harari is a journalist, television producer, and author. After starting as a cadet at The Age in 1984, she wrote for Time (Australia) magazine and spent many years as a senior writer with The Australian. She has worked in television on programs including Enough Rope and Elders, and is the author of A Tragedy in Two Acts: Marcus Einfeld and Teresa Brennan. Now working as a feature writer, in 2013 she was named Freelance Journalist of the Year.”
Angela Mollard
Angela Mollard is a national columnist in News Corp publications each Sunday. She writes about lifestyle, relationships, parenting, politics, society and news-based issues. She appears regularly as a commentator on Channel 9 and Sky, as well as various radio. After beginning her career as a news reporter at the New Zealand Herald, she moved to London where she spent seven years as a news and feature writer for the Daily Mail. She has also written for The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday, Marie Claire, Harpers & Queen, Cosmopolitan, Grazia, Madison, Woman’s Day and New Idea. She is married with two daughters and recently wrote her first book. When she’s not writing or reading she attempts exercise.
Jennifer Cooke
Jennifer is a multi award-winning journalist who has worked in Sydney, Hong Kong, London and Washington DC, throughout more than three decades in journalism. The first of her books, Cannibals, Cows and the CJD Catastrophe, won the Eureka Science Book Prize in 1999. In various reporting and news desk roles she worked at the Sydney Morning Herald for 29 years in total with stints in between as chief reporter of the South China Morning Post and on staff at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in Washington, DC. Among the launch team of the online fact-checking organisation, PolitiFact Australia, Jennifer has also taught news reporting at the University of Technology, Sydney, and is currently the editor of the GP news magazine, Medical Observer.
Sandy Aloisi
Sandy Aloisi has had more than 30 years experience as a journalist, broadcaster and radio executive. She currently hosts the breakfast program on the ABC’s 24 hour rolling news network, ABC NewsRadio. Prior to joining the ABC, Sandy was the News Director and then Program Director at Sydney Radio 2UE, before embarking on a three year stint as co-host of the 2UE breakfast program, firstly with Mike Carlton, and then John Stanley. Sandy has covered major national and international news events during her career, has tutored in journalism at Queensland University, lectured at the Australian Film and Television School in Sydney, and been a Walkley Awards and Commercial Industry Awards judge as well as a past Commercial Industry Awards winner.
Wendy Harmer
As a stand-up comedian, Wendy performed her one-woman shows at the Melbourne, Edinburgh, Montreal and Glasgow Mayfest Comedy Festivals, in London’s West End and the Sydney Theatre Company. Wendy enjoyed huge popularity at leading Sydney radio station 2Day FM’s top-rating Breakfast Show for 11 years. She has hosted, wrote and appeared in a variety of TV shows including ABC’s The Big Gig. A former political journalist, Wendy is the author of eight books including best-selling novel Farewell My Ovaries, Love And Punishment and Nagging For Beginners. Stuff, a four-part television documentary series which Wendy produced, wrote and presented, premiered on ABC TV in March 2008. In late 2008, Wendy and Angela Catterns recorded a 16 part podcasting series for ABC Radio Local called Is It Just Me? She has been a columnist for the Good Weekend, The Sunday Telegraph and many magazines. These days she’s a regular columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald and Yours magazine. She is the co-founder of We magazines with Jane Watergouse and Editor in Chief of the daily online site for women The Hoopla.
Sally Sara
Sally Sara, AM, is an award winning journalist and foreign correspondent with the ABC. She has reported from more than 30 countries including Iraq, Lebanon and Sierra Leone. Sally spent 2011 covering the news from the frontline of the war in Afghanistan. During her career, she has broken the glass ceiling, as the first female correspondent appointed to the ABC’s Africa, South Asia and Kabul bureaus. Sally has written for The New York Times and The Boston Globe and is the author of the best selling biography, ‘Gogo Mama.’ Sally has been named South Australian Young Journalist of the Year and Queensland Journalist of the Year. She has won United Nations Media Peace Awards and medals at the New York Festival Radio and Television Awards. She has been a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Journalism, six times. Sally received a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of South Australia. In 2011, Sally was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia, AM, for service to journalism and the community.
Sheryle Bagwell
Sheryle Bagwell has been the Business Editor of ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program since 2006. RN Breakfast, presented by Fran Kelly, is Australia’s only national current affairs and talks breakfast program. As an on-air broadcaster, Sheryle regularly interviews business leaders and experts for the program. She also provides easy to understand analysis of complex economic and finance issues in her weekly commentary spot each Monday morning. Before joining the ABC, Sheryle was the European correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, based in London. In her 14 years with the AFR, she has also served as features writer, editor and ‘Corporate Woman’ columnist for the newspaper, based in Sydney. During her eight years abroad between 1998-2006, Sheryle also contributed to leading international news organisations including the Financial Times of London, the BBC and Euronews in France. A nonfiction book on Sheryle’s experiences living and working in France titled ‘My French Connection’ was published by Harper Collins in 2006. Sheryle has been a journalist for 30 years and has won several awards for her work, including Australia’s leading journalism honour, The Walkley, in 1996.
Celina Edmonds
Celina Edmonds is National Affairs Correspondent with SKY NEWS and the anchor of NewsDay on SKY NEWS National. Celina has worked in the media industry for 20 years, beginning her career in country New South Wales working for newspapers the Western Advocate in Bathurst and the Central Western Daily in Orange. She made the move into television with regional broadcaster Prime, Orange and also worked for WIN Television, Wollongong. In 1995, she joined the ABC, working from the Hobart Bureau and was part of the Logie Award winning team that covered the Port Arthur Tragedy. Celina was then promoted to the role of Social and Ethnic Affairs Reporter for ABC TV-News before taking on the role of Presenter for the Late News in 2000. As one of SKY NEWS’ most senior news reporters, Celina has covered some of the biggest news events on the world stage including; the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics, the Royal Wedding in 2011 and the canonisation of Mary MacKillop in Rome in 2010.
Helen Tzarimas
With two decades in the news business, nothing much shocks Helen Tzarimas any more. Although bad grammar can sometimes come close. Helen is a veteran journalist who’s worked as a reporter, editor, news and program presenter (including a national radio show) and a broadcast and online producer. She was seconded to help pioneer the transformation of the ABC News Online site, to include video and audio. Helen is also a journalism, program and presentation trainer who’s has travelled internationally in that role. She’s taught journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and online/digital journalism at the University of Sydney. Helen also trains people in Social Media and Presentation Skills. She’s currently the afternoon/drive newsreader for 702 ABC Sydney, Radio National and ABC current affairs program, PM, and had been recognised as one of the top 40 newsreaders of all time.
Helen is a firm believer that women can do anything.
Helen is a firm believer that women can do anything.
Deborah Dickson-Smith
Deborah is a Content Strategist, travel writer and blogger with over 20 years experience in publishing. I’ve worked on the editorial development, marketing and launch of many consumer magazines, custom magazines and websites both in Australia and the UK, including Holidays With Kids, Parents, DMAG, Australian Geographic, Out & About with Kids, Spa Life and Cruise Passenger. These days I blog about travelling with teens and mid-life style at Where To Next? (where-to-next.com), while managing the launch of dive-travel website DivePlanit.com. I also contribute to a number of travel publications as a freelance travel writer and manage blog content for
TotalTravel.Yahoo.com,
wego.com, Christmas.net.au,
Thailand.net.au and
JungleBuddies.com.au
TotalTravel.Yahoo.com,
wego.com, Christmas.net.au,
Thailand.net.au and
JungleBuddies.com.au
Jacinta Tynan
Jacinta Tynan is a columnist (Sunday Life), author and news presenter (Sky News), and mumma to two little boys 19 months apart. She is regarded as a commentator for her generation with her popular and candid columns about contemporary life, love and motherhood. She is about to launch her first blog aimed at making motherhood easier www.motherzen.com and is working on a book of the same title. She has also published two books, Good Man Hunting, and Some Girls Do: My Life as a Teenager and is Patron of SISTER2Sister – a mentor program for teenage girls.
Victoria
Fiona Myers
Fiona is a rural-based freelance journalist and communications professional who has spent most of her career working for Australia’s biggest selling agriculture newspaper, The Weekly Times. She held various positions in the paper over 20 years including livestock editor, before leaving earlier this year. She won numerous awards for news and farm stories, including being at the forefront of the four-wheel drive bikes safety issue, which led to governments mandating safety equipment and standards. Fiona lives on a farm near Holbrook, NSW and has lived in rural areas for most of her career, and has proved being based in regional Australia is no barrier to a successful journalism career.
Wendy Tuohy
Wendy Tuohy is a columnist and feature writer at the Herald Sun. Wendy has worked in a wide variety of writing and editing roles including being a feature writer and sections editor at The Age, The Sunday Age and Sunday Life magazine. She was also a feature writer for the Saturday Insight Section. She is a regular guest on several shows on ABC’s 774 Melbourne radio station and has also filled in as presenter at this station, including a three month stint hosting 774’s Saturday morning show. Wendy is an Ambassador for the Cancer Council’s ‘Girls Night In’ and Champion for the Breast Cancer Council Network, Australia’s Field of Women event.
Josephine Cafagna
Josephine Cafagna is one of Australia’s most accomplished and decorated broadcast journalists, having anchored ABC-TV’s Stateline, presented The Morning Show on 3AW, hosted Insightforums on SBS and conducted political debates during election campaigns. She has reported from Italy, Greece and East Timor, as well as Sydney and Melbourne. After a successful career in journalism, during which she received a Walkley award, was runner-up for a second Walkley award and was the winner of six Quill awards for her investigative stories, Josephine was recruited to the Victorian Premier’s Office, where she was Communications Director and then Executive Director. She was a WIM mentor last year and has agreed to continue in the program again in 2017.
Sue Neales
Sue Neales is the national rural affairs reporter for The Australian. She has spent 30 years working around the world as a Walkley-award winning foreign correspondent, financial journalist and magazine editor but her current job has returned her to her roots. Her first job was with Victoria’s agricultural paper the Stock and Land, but since then has worked for most major newspapers including The Financial Review and The Age, the Hobart Mercury, the Bulletin and Australian Geographic magazines. Her international stints includes reporting from Paris, London, Moscow and for The Sunday Times in London, and she spent about a decade of her career as a freelancer.
Eileen Berry
Eileen Berry started in journalism at Leader newspapers in 1984. Five years later she joined The Age, assigned to the lifestyle features desk (day shift), fondly referred to as “cosy corner” (by the night shift). From 1989-2007, Eileen moved between the floors at The Age learning the ropes: editorial to administration (loos and car parking) to classifieds (introduction of colour) and new technology (microwaving images to the new computer-to-plate press site at Tullamarine). Post The Age, Eileen has worked in Queensland (APN), New Zealand (FXJ) and South Melbourne (Metro Media Publishing) as the founding editor of The Weekly Review. Eileen left MMP in October 2014. Her Eileen Berry Trust produces not-for-profit education publications for parents of teenagers.
Kathy Bowlen
Kathy Bowlen is currently the head of Media and Communications at St Vincent’s Hospital, and Director of Media-Savvy, an executive media training company. For 20 years Kathy was a working journalist, spending a decade as the host of ABC TV’s current affairs program Stateline, and weekend news presenter. Kathy began her journalistic career in radio, at Macquarie News, and throughout her career, often returned to that medium to host radio talkback programs. Kathy has spent many years on Boards including Swinburne University, Genazzano FCJ College, the Next Wave Festival, and the Australian Sustainable Industry Research Council. Kathy is also an alumni of Leadership Victoria, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Beverley O’Connor
Beverley O’Connor has over 20 years’ experience working in the media, and is the Presenter of The World on ABC News 24. Beverley specialised in economics and politics, and spent several years as part of the ABC News Breakfast team. Over the years Beverley has combined her passion for sport with both the Seven Network and ABC Sport. Beverley was the first female director of the Melbourne Football Club, where she served for nine years, seven of those as Vice-President.
Anita Barraud
Anita Barraud has worked at the ABC for over 28 years as a journalist, producer and presenter. She has won numerous awards including a Walkley and two UN Association Media Peace awards. For more than ten years Anita had a particular focus on the Asian region as producer and presenter of Indian Pacific and Asia Pacific. She has produced and presented Radio National programs covering many areas such as law, science, religion, music, art, and literature. She is currently producer on Radio National’s Law Report.
Amanda Buckley
Amanda Buckley began her career in journalism at the Sydney Morning Herald and spent 13 years working for many of Australia’s leading mastheads, and for Network Nine and Bloomberg News. She then served in Washington DC and Canberra in senior public affairs roles in the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and later as speechwriter to several political leaders in Canberra and Darwin. Amanda has extensive corporate communications experience, including as General Manager communications and media at Myer, and senior media management roles at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Before her retirement from full time work at the end of 2016 Amanda worked as a communications consultant for a range of clients in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
Queensland
Jillian Whiting
Jillian Whiting is a journalist, TV presenter and mother of 2 girls who’s enjoyed a successful 20 year media career in Queensland. Best known as a television newsreader and reporter, Jillian currently works as a presenter on Channel Seven’s popular lifestyle program, ‘The Great South-East’ and also as reporter for ‘Sunrise’. Her extensive experience and high profile has now led to role as director at Media Potential, working with businesses and individuals in media and presentation training and communication workshops.
Madonna King
Madonna King is an award-winning journalist and author, with 25 years experience across newspapers and radio. She writes for the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Weekend, publishes a weekly column on Brisbane Times and her fifth book, a biography of Joe Hockey, will be released in July.
Cathie Schnitzerling
Cathie Schnitzerling is Senior Director of Media and Communications for Queensland’s Department of Health. She took up the position in May 2013 after a 27 year career in television and radio. After starting as a cadet reporter with Nine News Brisbane she has worked in television news for two commercial networks, numerous national public affairs programs for the Nine network and presented and reported for the ABC’s national rural program Landline. She’s reported and presented for ABC radio, produced independent documentaries and a short drama. In 15 years at the Ten Network she progressed from news producer in Melbourne, to news editor and then News Director firstly in Brisbane, then Sydney and back to Brisbane. Cathie has won two awards recognising her writing and producing skills. She is a proud single mother of a 20-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son.
Sharon Marshall
Communications expert at the Together Union and the Australian Services Union and formerly senior journalist and long term court reporter at Ten News.
Karina Carvalho
Karina Carvalho began her journalism career with the BBC, working for BBC World News and HARDtalk as a producer.
Karina headed back to Australia and began work at ABC News in Perth in 2007 as a TV and radio reporter before landing the role as Western Australia’s 7pm ABC News anchor. In 2012, Karina moved to Melbourne and co-hosted the national daily program ABC News Breakfast on ABC1 and ABC News 24. She was one of the last journalists to interview the author Bryce Courtenay before his death and anchored coverage from Brisbane during the latest flood crisis. Last year, Karina moved to Brisbane to present the 7pm News for Qld. She’s presented the news from various locations around the state including Cairns and the Gold Coast.
Karina headed back to Australia and began work at ABC News in Perth in 2007 as a TV and radio reporter before landing the role as Western Australia’s 7pm ABC News anchor. In 2012, Karina moved to Melbourne and co-hosted the national daily program ABC News Breakfast on ABC1 and ABC News 24. She was one of the last journalists to interview the author Bryce Courtenay before his death and anchored coverage from Brisbane during the latest flood crisis. Last year, Karina moved to Brisbane to present the 7pm News for Qld. She’s presented the news from various locations around the state including Cairns and the Gold Coast.
Paula Doneman
A multi-award winning journalist and author, Paula Doneman is a Senior Investigative Producer with 7News. Her 24-year career has spanned both newspapers and TV, having worked as the Chief Police Reporter and Crime Editor at The Courier-Mail. During her stint at The Courier-Mail she covered the story of serial killer Leonard Fraser and went on to write his biography “Things A Killer Would Know”. In 2013, she helped reveal highly sensitive information showing a cover up of the Australian Defence Force’s “Jedi Council” sex ring – under investigation for distributing details and images of themselves having sex with unwitting women. Alongside her fellow journalist Rob Ovadia, they received a Walkley for the best TV/AV story and the 2014 NSW Media Les Kennedy award for outstanding investigative reporting in 2014.
Selina Steele
Selina Steele, Sports Editor of The Gold Coast Bulletin, moved back to Queensland in November after working as Deputy Head of News for News Corp in Sydney. With more than 20 years in journalism, Selina is a sports nut and has covered sport for years including Commonwealth and Olympic Games – as well as local and state election campaigns, police and courts. Having been Sports Editor at The Sunday Mail, Campaigns and Partnerships Editor at The Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail, Deputy I-Pad editor for Queensland Newspapers and has an extensive background in general news reporting plus chief of staffing on the news desk. Selina has moved to the Gold Coast in time to see the Suns win an AFL premiership. GO SUNS!
Paula Tapiolas
Paula Tapiolas is a Queensland journalist and broadcaster with 20 years experience reporting on national and local issues throughout the state. Paula started her career with Australian Provincial Newspapers in 1990 and joined the ABC’s Radio newsroom in Townsville in 1998. Five years ago Paula made a natural progression from regional news editor to presenting the 630 ABC North Queensland morning current affairs program. She won a Queensland Media Award for her coverage of the 2004 Palm Island riot, and in 2008 was shortlisted for the Best New Talent on ABC Local Radio nationwide.
Michelle Tuahine
Michelle is a veteran of Indigenous media starting out as a cadet journalist with ABC TV News and spending the next decade there before becoming Director of News at NIRS.
Jen Brennen
Jen Brennen is ABC Radio’s Content Manager in Queensland. A 30 year veteran broadcaster, Jen Brennen previously worked at JJJ where she was responsible for ‘Unearthed’ and ‘The Hot 100’ and managing the ABCs first website. She’s passionate about developing leadership and management skills in young journalists.
South Australia
Samela Harris
Samela is the convenor of Women in Media South Australaia. Samela’s extensive career has included being the first woman reporter employed on two news floors and being Australia’s first female Aussie Rules football columnist. She has worked for The News in Australia, AAP-Reuter in London, The Evening News in Edinburgh and The Advertiser in Adelaide. She has written issues, opinion, features, arts, food and even did a 9-year stint writing daily gossip columns. She written regular opinion columns, Internet columns and cookery columns. She’s been arts editor and inaugural online editor of her paper. A veteran theatre critic, she was long-term chair of the Adelaide Critics Circle. She is MEAA President of Journalists in SA, special events organiser for the Lyceum Club, Adelaide Inc, an Australia Day Ambassador and author of a humorous cookbook.
Tory Shepherd
Tory Shepherd is The Advertiser’s federal political editor and one of their most controversial columnists. She splits her time between Adelaide and Canberra. As well as federal politics, her interests include religion, science, social justice, feminism, chilli, soccer, hoaxes and conspiracy theories. Before becoming a journalist she studied social anthropology and once wrote a thesis on UFO cults, which was perfect training for observing politicians in Canberra.
Emma Schwartz
Emma Schwartz is an established media professional who has worked in the local media industry for more than 10 years.
For the past year she has worked as a Senior Consultant at Michels Warren PR. Her clients include Adelaide Oval, Bedford, TRILITY and TAFE SA. A former Senior Media Adviser in the South Australian Government, Emma has worked hard to maintain a sound rapport with journalists across the State. For 7 years she offered strategic political and media advice to many Ministers. Emma’s career in broadcast journalism began at Channel 7 where she was a general reporter for 2 years before moving to Channel 9 to become their chief police reporter for 3 years.
For the past year she has worked as a Senior Consultant at Michels Warren PR. Her clients include Adelaide Oval, Bedford, TRILITY and TAFE SA. A former Senior Media Adviser in the South Australian Government, Emma has worked hard to maintain a sound rapport with journalists across the State. For 7 years she offered strategic political and media advice to many Ministers. Emma’s career in broadcast journalism began at Channel 7 where she was a general reporter for 2 years before moving to Channel 9 to become their chief police reporter for 3 years.
Penny Debelle
Journalist, writer, lover of words. Worked for the The Age in Melbourne as a features writer, and for Good Weekend magazine as a staff writer in the early 1990s. Returned to Adelaide in the mid-90s for a short stint of feature writing at The Advertiser, then became Melbourne correspondent for The Age for a decade. (Still loving the David Hicks scoop, first one to get him.) Since 2009, back at The Advertiser as magazine writer with SA Weekend, colour writer, editorials, whatever.In 2011 published a biography of Elliott Johnston QC, a communist lawyer who became a Supreme Court judge and later headed the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Red Silk: The Life of Elliott Johnston was published by Wakefield Press.
Carole Whitelock
An Adelaide household name renowned as an always well-informed and generous-spirited radio interviewer. Carole was born in London and migrated to Australia in 1972. As an avid radio listener her most admired on air talent was the legendary Alistair Cook. (Letter from America etc. etc.) A chance conversation with a friend in 1980 alerted her to the fact that the ABC was holding auditions, and after a series of “talk to this tape recorder on the topics listed on the page” auditions, Carole joined the organisation. During her 32 year career Carole hosted every radio shift between dawn and midnight and also read some T.V. news. Her first love was always radio – for its immediacy and intimacy. Respect and fairness, both for guests and listeners was always paramount.
Michelle Prak
Michelle Prak is a public relations consultant and formerly South Australia’s leading social media consultant, aka ‘Prakky’. Prakky is a highly-experienced public speaker, media presenter and social media trainer. Since 2009 she has been keen caretaker of the Adelaide social media community ‘SocAdl’. She sits on the Board of Crime Stoppers SA and the PRIA SA Council. Prakky has more than 20 years experience in communications, social media, website management, journalism and politics. She has a BA (Journalism) and MA (Communication Management).
Rebecca Morse
Newsreader at Channel 10. Formerly presenter of Adelaide’s TEN Eyewitness News bulletin for almost a decade. Rebecca Morse was born in Adelaide and educated at Blackwood High School, before completing a Journalism degree at the University of South Australia. After winning a cadetship with the ABC in Adelaide in 1998, Rebecca embarked on successful postings in Port Pirie, Darwin and Brisbane before returning to her home town as a senior reporter and presenter for ABC TV and radio news. In 2004 Rebecca was a finalist in the Walkley Awards for excellence in Australian journalism. She was awarded Best TV News Report in the 2005 SA Media Awards and was named Journalist of the Year. Rebecca is a proud Ambassador for the Port Adelaide Football Club, the Animal Welfare League, the Premier’s Reading Challenge and Uniting Care Pancake Day. Rebecca is married with three daughters, Grace, Milla and Frankie
Women in Media aims to improve the working lives of women in the industry by:
Women in Media campaigns to close the equity and opportunity gap for women in media, namely, superannuation for periods of parental leave, better reporting breakdowns on staff make-up, pay rates and management structure by gender and access to family violence leave.
Women in Media works directly with media companies, educating senior management on the need for greater support for women in the media, the need for sponsorship and mentoring within organisations and creating a best-practice environment to ensure women are able to fully and equitably contribute to their industry – be it news, public relations, communications or creative freelance.
Our national mentoring program draws together senior industry figures to offer women in the early stages of their career support, advice and the benefit of their experience. Find out more about our mentoring program.
Women in Media holds events that focus on women’s issues including panel discussions, keynote addresses, professional development and Q&A sessions that aim to bolster confidence, offer networking opportunities, training and the chance to hear from women in senior positions in the media industry. Find out more about our events.
Women in Media commissions important research regarding gender and women’s participation in media industries. Read the Women in Media Report 2016.
Findings from our latest research
41% of women said they’d been harassed, bullied or trolled on social media, while engaging with audiences; several were silenced, or changed career.
Only 16% of respondents were aware of their employer’s strategies to deal with threats.
Almost half (48%) said they’d experienced intimidation, abuse or sexual harassment in the workplace.
A quarter of the women who’d taken maternity leave said they’d been discriminated against, upon return to work. Some said they’d been put on the ‘mummy track’.
One in three (34%) said they didn’t feel confident to speak up about discrimination.
There’s evidence of an entrenched gender pay gap (reinforced by research from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency of a 23.3% gap in the sector).
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