Katharina is a researcher, senior lecturer and course coordinator of the public relations program at Curtin University in Western Australia. Her research interests include activism, (community) advocacy, public interest communication, diversity and employability. She has published in PR Review, Journal of Communication Management, Higher Education Research & Development, and Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, among others.
Katharina has more than twenty years of communication and media experience, as an educator and practitioner. Her industry experience encompasses communication and research roles in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Australia. Katharina is passionate about student-centred and work integrated learning; a commitment that has been recognised with a number of local, national and international awards, including a 2011 Australian Learning and Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching and a 2018 PR Educator of the Year award by the Public Relations Institute of Australia. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HEA (previously Higher Education Academy) and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA). In 2014 Katharina was named as one of the inaugural Fellows of the Curtin Academy, an active honorary network of exceptional leaders committed to and passionate about the collaboration and dissemination of teaching excellence at Curtin University. She is a co-author of Curtin’s MKT2x Reputation Management in a Digital World MOOC, which was a finalist for the 2018 edX Prize for Exceptional Contributions in Online Teaching and Learning.
Katharina is the Chairperson of the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s (PRIA) national Education Committee, a former President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (WA Chapter) and national Board member. She is a regular judge of the PRIA Golden Target Awards for excellence in communication. Katharina is a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and a member / Accredited Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
Katharina holds a first class honours degree in Media and Communication Studies & Spanish Studies from the University of Wolverhampton, a MA Public Relations from Manchester Metropolitan University and a Doctor of Philosophy from Murdoch University.
Prior to entering university Katharina completed a qualification as Foreign Language Secretary and completed an apprenticeship as Publishing Manager with Delius Klasing Verlag GmbH in Germany, one of Europe's leading special interest publishing houses, specialising in water sports, cycling and motoring.
My Public Relations Journey
My career in public relations was never planned. On reflection, I believe it found me.
I literally stumbled across the public relations job profile by accident - however, I have been ‘hooked’ ever since. There are very few careers out there that provide you with the same level of variety, stimulation and personal challenges.
Following a passion for books and magazines, I initially trained as a publishing manager in Europe's largest watersport-focused publishing house, based in Western Germany. I loved the apprenticeship experience. However, what I enjoyed most were my regular rotations, which provided me with an opportunity to gradually move around the entire organisation, gaining an insight into all areas of the business and – most importantly - engaging with people from all types of different professional and cultural backgrounds.
The underlying expectation had always been that I would choose an area of ‘specialisation’ once my apprenticeship would come to an end. However, at the time the idea of ‘specialisation’ somehow felt like some form of ‘limitation’, which simply did not appeal to me.
Instead of settling on an in house career in publishing, I decided to continue my studies. This was at a time when I wasn't even aware that public relations existed. Even media focused degrees were rather limited in Germany, which forced me to investigate opportunities abroad. Eventually, I packed my bags and moved to central England, where I spent the next three years studying for a BA in Media & Communication and Spanish Studies.
Much would change over that time. Most importantly, after a stint as freelance media release writer and time in the university's communication department, I discovered public relations as a career path. This was a true eye opener to me; all of a sudden all my interests and passions were complementing each other: my interest in photography, background in publishing, love for writing, university courses in video production, languages (those seven years of school French had to eventually come in useful), my passion for travel and discovering different cultures - all of them became valuable and meaningful in a PR context.
Much had also changed at home. When I left Germany the publishing house had one person responsible for traditional ‘press relations’; when I returned five years later as a consultant, it was to a fully integrated, five people strong department.
In my opinion, there are few careers that are as varied, exciting and full of opportunities as public relations. No other profession would enable you to go from re-launching My Little Pony to writing a feature story for a special interest trade journal in one day. Personally, it has also provided me with many travel opportunities across Europe and eventually a re-location to Australia.
Over the past years I’ve been able to combine public relations with one of my other passions: education. As an academic I am now in the lucky position to pass on some of my experience – and passion - to the industry’s future high achievers. However, something I am very conscious of is that working in an emerging profession comes with a high level of responsibility. I strongly believe that it is our duty – and especially that of recent graduates and emerging practitioners – to become involved and actively shape the industry. We need to be consciously aware of its role and standing, not solely as a business discipline in its own right, but even more so within society.