Professional Experience
Program Manager
Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation / June 2021 – present
The Firesticks Alliance is an Indigenous not for profit organisation that provides leadership, advocacy and action to protect, conserve and enhance cultural and natural values of people and Country through Cultural fire and land management practices. Firesticks values and respects Country, local knowledge, protocols of Elders and Ancestors and are committed to providing a supportive Indigenous-led network that fosters a community of practice to maintain and share Cultural Fire knowledge and practice on Country.
Communication consultant
Various / January 2015 – June 2021
My role varies from client to client. I provide strategic communications advice, media management, writing, editing, training and workshop facilitation.
Clients include: Australian Academy of Science, Australia-Indonesia Centre, Future Earth, Future Earth Media Lab, gemaker, Hobsons Bay City Council, Renton and Co, RMIT, SBS, SciDev.Net, Science in Public, the World Trade Organisation, University of Oslo, University of Copenhagen.
The Welcome Dinner Project
National co-coordinator / Melbourne, Australia / 2017 – 2019
- Oversaw HR, finance, strategy, OHS, collaborative partnerships, team building, national meetings and retreats, mentoring, communications, legal and compliance reporting to ACNC and organisational board.
- Implemented an overhaul of the organisation’s customer management system, which included system migration and implementation, organisation-wide training and technical support.
The Welcome Dinner Project
Victorian state co-coordinator / Melbourne, Australia / 2016 – 2019
- Built partnerships with 30+ organisations (councils, settlement services, universities, neighbourhood houses, foundations and state government) to enable doubling of Victorian project budget
- Overhauled volunteer training and professional development program, leading to doubling of Victorian volunteer pool. 100% of volunteers reported a growth in their 21st century work skills (such as online collaboration, team work, professional phone communication and public speaking).
- Oversaw 100+ Welcome Dinners run across metropolitan Melbourne, engaging thousands of community members.
- Managed 10 staff members across Australia and 120 volunteers in Victoria
- Received impactful feedback from the community such as:
“If we had more of these dinners, we wouldn’t have any wars.”
“I want this to become normal.”
“I feel enriched, warm and hopeful for the future of our multicultural community.”
“This feels just like family to me.”
Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD)
Mentoring program coordinator and Fundraising Adviser / 2015 – 2018
- Ran mentoring programs that helped hundreds of young farmers, students, entrepreneurs and extension agents access the support, guidance and networks they need to realise their ideas. Read more at “What we’ve learnt about mentoring young people in agriculture“
- Project manager and lead author on a mentoring toolkit aimed at people who are considering setting up a mentoring program in or for their organisation, community, or wider sector, synthesising a decade of learnings and resources from agriculture and forestry mentoring programs implemented by a variety of organisations.
- Provided strategic advice to the Director on international fundraising and partnerships.
Global Landscapes Forum
Co-founder, Youth in Landscapes Initiative / 2013 – 2015
- Oversaw the establishment and growth of an initiative to provide travel scholarships, workshops, mentoring and networking opportunities for over 100 young people to meaningfully participate in international conferences on landscape management and climate change
- Empowered team of 20+ volunteers from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Pacific to design and deliver the program.
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Communications and capacity building specialist / 2013 – 2016
- Devise and implement external training programs to improve skills and scientific understanding of environmental journalists, young forestry professionals and other audiences of strategic interest.
- Devise and implement internal training programs to improve communication skills of scientific staff and knowledge sharing between communication departments
- Projects:
- Created the Benefits Sharing knowledge tree
- Coordinator of journalist training and youth session at Forests Asia Summit.
- Strategized re-launch of ForestsClimateChange.org – the only online hub for news, research, debate, analysis and tools providing contextualized, policy-relevant information on forests and climate change issues. Managed editorial team and expert advisory board.
Our Common Future Under Climate Change conference
Communications coordinator /Paris, France / Feb – August 2015
- Coordinated social media activities for the biggest climate science meeting in 2015 which involved managing the conference Twitter handle, generating content for the conference blog and coordinating a team of delegates to live report from the conference. Our achievements far exceeded the conference organisers’ expectations:
- Edited and published 97 blogs by conference delegates, some of which led to direct press coverage of their science.
- 400,000 hits on commonfuture-paris2015.org
- Grew conference twitter feed by 2,000 followers in the space of 4 months
- 1 tweet every 6 seconds during the conference, with #CFCC15 tweets were delivered to 22 million accounts
- 500 slides and posters loaded to SlideShare receiving 36,000 views.
- One conference delegate remarked: “You have raised the profile and demonstrated the value of online engagement to the climate research community, which will mean that more researchers will use it themselves for their own science communication for the benefit of science in society.”
Office of the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor
Social media coordinator, Science Advice to Governments Conference /Auckland, New Zealand / June – September 2014
- Tripled website traffic after setting up and curating conference blog (www.globalscienceadvice.org/news).
- Coordinated virtual social media team (over 30 members).
- Set up Twitter channel (@GlobalSciAdvice) and ran Twitter chats with distinguished speakers.
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Blog Editor and Social Media Coordinator / Bogor, Indonesia / 2011 – 2013
- Devised and oversaw implementation of an innovative social media strategy. As a result, pageviews of CIFOR’s Forests blog increased by 1000% and associated social media channels in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian grew to over 30,000 followers.
- Line managed contributions from a team of eight full-time and freelance writers, a graphic designer and social media consultant.
- Coordinated Forests: The 8th Roundtable at Rio+20 event in Rio de Janeiro, attended by 600 stakeholders. This involved concept note preparation; managing a budget of US$100,000, speaker selection, invitation and logistics; communication materials preparation; and donor report writing.
- Wrote and pitched various stories to top-tier media outlets such as Reuters Alertnet, BBC, Mongabay, the Guardian, National Geographic, SciDev.Net, as well as building partnerships with local media networks in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
- Prepared and performed science shows on the environment to school children and educational seminars on forests and social media for teachers, educators and policymakers.
Florey Neuroscience Institutes
Personal Assistant to Professor James Wiley / Melbourne, Australia / September 2010 – November 2011
- Wrote and edited manuscripts, review articles, conference abstracts, ethics and grant applications.
- Assisted with the analysis of experimental data
- Coordinated interstate board meetings
- Prepared Professor Wiley’s lecture material
Science in Public
Project Officer / Melbourne, Australia / January 2010 – July 2010
- Managed the production of and wrote articles for the 2010 Australia-China Commemorative research booklet, which was distributed at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.
- Compiled a monthly bulletin for the Australian Institute of Physics and the International Year of Biodiversity.
- Assisted with media strategies for the 2010 International Conference of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, RACI/IUPAC Conference, UN DPI Conference, Fresh Science 2010.
University of Melbourne Student Union
Clubs and Societies Office Bearer / Melbourne, Australia / 2008
Advised and process grant applications from over 50 university clubs and societies, 12 articles published in the Melbourne university newspaper, chaired fortnightly council meetings.
Volunteer work and internships
World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community
Member / Melbourne, Australia / 2014 – 2018
- Invited to join the World Economic Forum’s network of young leaders who are “exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities.”
- Helped set up the Fair Food Challenge
Ranwadi Churches of Christ College
Science and Nutrition teacher / Pentecost, Vanuatu / July – December 2009
- Developed upon science and nutrition curriculum for years 9 and 10
- Ran national-level exams
- Worked with science teachers and village nurses to implement comprehensive sexual education program.
3RRR 102.7 FM community radio
Co-producer and online editor / Melbourne, Australia / 2008-2010
- Organised guests from various scientific fields for interview on the weekly radio show Einstein a Go Go
- Managed the website and wrote online content
- Briefed and prepared the guests and broadcasters before we went on-air
- Answered listener’s queries
Luna Media
Editorial Intern / Sydney, Australia / January 2007
Seven articles published (online and in the March/April print edition) in Australia’s largest science magazine – COSMOS and G Magazine.
Melbourne University Science Communicators Pilot Program
Science Communicator / Melbourne, Australia / 2009
Prepared and delivered a 6 week science and engineering immersion program for high achieving primary school students. See more here.
Science Students Society
Treasurer / 2007
The largest student club at Melbourne University, with a six-figure turnover. Managed budgets of over 12 events and helped increase profit margins from the previous year.
Melbourne University Physics Promotion Education and Teaching Services (MUPPETS) (now defunct)
Cast and crew member / 2006-11
Performed physics shows to primary and high school students.
Museums Victoria (Scienceworks), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)
Science presenter / 2000-2005
Ran holiday science activity programs for thousands of primary and high school children.
Education
Advanced Diploma in Group Facilitation
Groupwork Institute/ 2017
BSc (Hons) in Neuroscience, Pharmacology with High Distinction Average
University of Melbourne / 2006 – 2011
My honours thesis explored how the biology of a protective cell in the brain, the astrocyte, could be manipulated when grown on nanofibrous scaffolds. This strategy has the potential to facilitate repair following brain injury.
Diploma in Modern Languages (Indonesian)
University of Melbourne / 2006 – 2011
Awards
- Fellow, Centre for Sustainability Leadership (2015)
- University of Melbourne Global Mobility Scholarship (2011)
- Selected to attend a Journalism Practicum Program run by the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) and was awarded the highest score (95%) in the Indonesian language component (2011)
- Offered a Dean’s Scholarship for Academic Excellence at Latrobe University, Australia (2006)
- Selected to attend Australia’s National Youth Science Forum (2005)
- State semi finalist, Plain English speaking award, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority state semi finalist, (2005)
- Inaugural recipient of the Aitken College Foundation Scholarship (2004)
Skills
Polyglot:
- English (native)
- Indonesian (fluent)
- Croatian (intermediate)
- Bislama (intermediate)
- Portuguese (beginner)
Advanced knowledge of: Microsoft Office suite, Mac OS, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Canva, Mailchimp,SlideShare, Google+, YouTube, Flickr, Storify, Soundcloud, Paper.li, Pintrest, Google Analytics, Hootsuite, Social Report, Addthis, Crowdbooster, Bit.ly and TweetDeck.
Basic knowledge of: HTML, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Final Cut Pro.
Academic Publications
Kovacevic, M., Dickson-Hoyle, S., Mukhebi, D. and Yoga-Yieke, P. (2018) Coordinating a mentoring program: a toolkit for agriculture, forestry, landscapes and other sectors. V4. YPARD, Rome.
Dickson-Hoyle, S; Kovacevic, M; Cherbonnier, M; Nicholas, K.A (2018) Towards meaningful youth participation in science-policy processes: a case study of the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.
Lau, CL and Kovacevic, M et al. (2014) 3D Electrospun scaffolds promote a cytotrophic phenotype of cultured primary astrocytes. Journal of Neurochemistry.
Presentations and workshops
“Engaging with change” A workshop with Prof Karen O’Brien for Climates. Australia. March, 2017
Pre-conference youth workshop, Young Africa Works Summit. Rwanda. February 2017.
Why is global hunger and food insecurity still a thing? Global Hunger Hack at Monash University, Australia. February, 2016.
Data expedition: Explore Copenhagen’s bike paths using data. Kopenlab Citizen Science Festival (on the sidelines of the Euroscience Open Forum), School of Data and Open Knowledge Foundation. Copenhagen, Denmark. June, 2014.
“Working with scientists in developing countries to communicate research that delivers real outcomes”. Australian Science Communicators Conference. Brisbane, Australia. February 2014.
“Looking for solutions in climate change communications” Be the Movement Workshop, Connect4Climate (World Bank). Warsaw, Poland, 2013
“Board games, role-playing and 3D maps: Facilitating forestry research uptake in Indonesia”. Public Communication of Science and Technology Symposium, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2013.
“Marketing your Green Project” International Youth Green Summit. Jakarta, Indonesia, 2013.
“Cara berkomunikasi ide-ide ilmiah yang kompleks” (How to communicate complex scientific ideas). Center for Forestry Organization Capacity and Institution Development, Bogor Agricultural University. Indonesia, 2012.
Memberships
Friends of Truganina Wetlands
Altona Community Garden