Deborah is a communications professional who has worked at both strategic and operational levels. In the past 30 years she has been a cleaner, barmaid, journalist, and communications advisor, all of which she considers to be an important part of the communications experience.
A North Otago girl, schooled at Waitaki Girl’s High School in Oamaru, she did an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at the University of Otago, worked as a journalist for a time, and 1986 was awarded a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study overseas. Deborah completed an MA in Mass Communications at the University of Wales, Cardiff, in 1987.
After further work as a journalist, she tutored at, and then headed the Aoraki Polytechnic Journalism School (Timaru), moved on to help develop and establish the third year courses for New Zealand’s first degree qualification offered in mass communications (at the then AIT, Auckland), and then tutored on the University of Canterbury’s Post Graduate Diploma of Journalism programme. In between she did the odd stint as a sub-editor and advertorial writer for The Press (Christchurch).
Deborah has since worked in senior communications roles at the University of Canterbury, Southpower (now Orion), HITLabNZ, and the Christchurch City Council. These roles saw her involved in a variety of projects including raising awareness of the Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy, advising on a major University restructuring project, promoting Council’s heritage protection projects and co-ordinating communications for the annual BECA Heritage week, and developing and implementing a marketing strategy for Christchurch’s Central City South Master Plan.
Deborah`s strengths are in listening and intuitively understanding what a client wants but also in encouraging a very forward looking, quite challenging approach . . . dig deeper, let’s do the research, and let’s take it forward.
Qualifications and Achievements
- 1980 Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology, Otago University
- 1987 Master of Arts in Mass Communications, University of Wales
- Project Management, University of Canterbury
- IAP2 Certificate in Public Participation – the International Association of Public Participation