Barbara Ryan

Background

About Barbara Ryan

I'm a communication and community engagement teacher and practitioner who specialises in disaster but has wide experience across industries from mining, to government to education. I've just finished with Queensland State Emergency Service volunteers co-designing a community engagement training package for SES volunteers. My particular skills are facilitating collaboration, writing and research, especially building connective and motivating campaign creative and key messaging from what the data shows us. In 2020, I was made a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia after 35 years in PR practice and teaching. A career highlight was a recent Bushfire and Natural Hazards project with QUT and UTS colleagues mapping emergency agency practice and aspiration in community engagement for preparedness in Australia. From that we built a model of participative engagement that links aims and research with community engagement techniques that are relevant to the range of community types. My role at Queensland State Emergency Service filled the gap between the research and the practice. I also worked on community experiences of the 2022 floods research for Natural Hazards Research Australia. My PhD was on how people look for information when their community experiences a disaster (ie channels and sources) and done localised research on community engagement to motivate people to get ready for bushfire. I have 35 years experience in journalism and communication management, including local government, Bayly Willey Holt (part of global firm Porter Novelli), The Big Event Company, and various positions managing the PR function, specialising in writing and organising. As well as a PRIA Fellow, I'm a founding Fellow and former Chair of Emergency Media and Public Affairs and a member of the PRIA's Education Committee measurement and evaluation sub-committee.