Professional Experience:
SUMMARY OF RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Ms Thomson is a qualified designer and experienced editor of government and corporate marketing and administrative communications; vocational education and training materials; and health training materials. Her specific experience involves copyediting, proofreading, layout and typesetting, research, and graphic design for print-based and electronic government and corporate training resources. She has a history of working with a collaborative approach in marketing communication strategies while selling the concept to partners and stakeholders. Her experience displays her practice of working to agreed inputs and outputs, while managing workplans and meeting reporting requirements. Ms Thomson has displayed a commitment during development projects for overseas government departments, Australian government departments, and registered training organisations, to supporting cross-cultural, gender, and technical considerations of clients and publication end users. She has key skills in Adobe Creative Suite and advanced MS Word functions for publishing. Ms Thomson has 13 years experience in the vocational education and training sector, including 8 years project experience with programs as diverse as support training for community workers, ELICOS and other literacy/numeracy initiatives, and a major national program to assist parents and carers in remote areas to return to the workforce. Her area of speciality is communication design for online environments, focusing on conceptual aspects of managing information in database-driven web sites, and creative production.
SUMMARY OF OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE
In 2009 Ms Thomson travelled to Dili, Timor-Leste, as Adviser for the Development and Implementation of a Style Guide for the Government of Timor-Leste. Ms Thomson was tasked with creating a consistent and user-friendly government Style Guide with relevant templates and pro-formas, and implementing a pilot strategy for the Style Guide and complementary documents. Ms Thomson consulted widely and established a whole-of-government Reference Group to inform and endorse the development of the Style Guide, while promoting regular liaison with relevant ministry Focus Groups.
For her Masters research project in 2003, Ms Thomson analysed digital initiatives in developing countries while undertaking field research in the Lao PDR. This project involved significant consultation with participants. She conducted interviews, facilitated discussion groups, and implemented methods of obtaining data using creative activities, for example, distributing disposable cameras to gain insight into areas of participant’s lives that would otherwise have been unavailable. This experience highlighted her ability to work appropriately and flexibly within different cultural contexts.
In 2004 Ms Thomson travelled to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea as a short-term project worker for Australian Business Volunteers. The project required her to work collaboratively