Rachael Thomson Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria

Contract editor and publishing project specialist with more than 20 years' experience working with educational, technology, health, international development, government and corporate content.I also post storytelling words at www.medium.com/@hello_rachael.

Sunshine Coast, Queenlsand

* Collaborated with authors, editors, designers and logistics to develop primary school print and digital resources to a professional standard for publication.* Edited not only for structure, language, clarity, spelling, punctuation and grammar, but also for all formatting (e.g. font stylisation and line spacing) and digital uploads.* Negotiated on behalf of the company for copyright permission fees with agents, authors, and publishers.* Recognised annually at the Australian Educational Publishing Awards, Firefly Education programs have been winners or finalists in multiple categories for excellence and innovation in the field.* I was an integral member of the production team for the Foundation to Year 6 handwriting series, Writing Time, which was shortlisted in 2015 at the Educational Publishing Awards Australia. The hard copy publication and digital supplementary resources were contextualised for three different state handwriting fonts. * The ramifications of three different state handwriting fonts altered the instructional design and content of the series; I researched and edited extensively, and helped to deliver a beautiful, full-colour illustrated series with Australian Curriculum-themed activities.'

Vientiane, Lao Pdr

* Trained staff at the Research Institute for Educational Sciences (Ministry of Education and Sports, Government of Lao PDR), and increased their skills and knowledge in the areas of page layout, cover design, and editing practices.* Collaborated with staff to develop professional standards for the publication of textbooks for primary and secondary schools.* Facilitated weekly practical and theoretical workshops, using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop tutorials for the hands-on design training, covering the requirements of professional textbook publishing including: the anatomy of a book, ISBNs, copyright, and the approved Lao font.* It was satisfying to leave staff with a toolkit of resources and cheat sheets to assist them when I departed. It was also a learning experience for me to understand the peculiarities of multi-lingual fonts — in this case, the Lao font has no upper or lower case and few breaks in words or sentences.

Dili, Timor-Leste

* 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.* 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.* Collated existing government administrative document templates and revised these or developed new additional templates to meet the needs of administration officers and provide a common approach to general administrative tasks. * The Style Guide is an authority of conditions for government branding. The clear guidelines encourage standardisation and professionally presented documents, e.g. letterheads, internal memos, submissions, and standard reply letters to clients.* Available in Tetun, Portuguese and English, the Style Guide print version includes a CD with electronic files of all forms, standard communication, and Tetun electronic word list (28 000 words). Mid-way through the project, I received feedback from staff that a Tetun spellchecker would be a huge winner. After much investigation, I obtained the authorised Tetun word list and incorporated this with instructions in the accompanying CD-ROM. This add-on feature became a huge success for users to load onto their computers.

Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Joined the team at AusVoc Educational Publishing (Jul 2007–Dec 2008, formerly known as PDP), a trading entity and publishing imprint of Sunshine Coast Institute of TAFE (SCIT) after completing my master’s degree and a short-term project in PNG. Under the guidance of the Managing Editor, Roslyn Copas, I undertook an editorial apprenticeship and provided specialist services to develop and publish educational and government publications on behalf of managing contractors and other educational and government organisations in Australia and overseas. These included:* Capacity Development Support project for the Ministry of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan; 2008; UniQuest and Sunshine Coast TAFE.* HIV and AIDS awareness training support materials; 2008; Australia-Pacific Technical College. * Provincial Health Services Management Training; 2004–2007; JTA International for Papua New Guinea Capacity Building Service Centre and Health Services Support Program.* Community Health Worker Certificate Program; 2003–2006; JTA International (for Papua New Guinea Capacity Building Service Centre and Health Services Support Program).I was a team member awarded the Queensland Department of Employment and Training (DET) Staff Recognition Award for Teamwork and Partnering (in relation to AusAID-funded health-sector development program in Papua New Guinea) in 2005.

Sunshine Coast, Queensland

* Working in the Business Development Directorate became my training ground for tendering for vocational education and training funding (under the guidance of Roslyn Copas).* Developed and/or edited and proofread reports, submissions, handbooks, and marketing materials for Cooloola Sunshine Institute of TAFE. I worked with programs as diverse as support training for community workers, ELICOS and other literacy/numeracy initiatives, and a major program delivering specialised labour market services to regional and remote clients in North Queensland, for the Commonwealth Government funded Transition to Work Program.* I was a team member awarded the Queensland Department of Employment and Training (DET) Staff Recognition Award for Customer Service (in relation to a Commonwealth-funded program to assist parents and carers in remote areas to return to the workforce) in 2004.

Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea

* delivered marketing and communications training* produced print and digital marketing and communications materials* facilitated training workshops* researched tourism market.

Sunshine Coast, Queensland

* first opportunity to practise some of the coursework learnt during my master’s degree.* provided a critical analysis of web design in terms of aesthetics and functionality, and in particular interactive narrative as applied in information and education titles* oversaw creative production, including server and publishing systems, security, interface design, content editing and proofreading, and the application of advanced multimedia in the construction of dynamic websites.

Graduate Certificate In Emergency And Disaster Management

[current part-time study]

Master Of Creative Industries (Communication Design)

Bachelor Of Arts (Politics, Sociology)