My journey

Karen Collier
Founder/Director
@BraveMediaAus

As a multidisciplinary communications specialist, Karen has over 15 years experience working across the not for profit, government and private sectors, primarily in the areas of multicultural health communication, consumer health and mass communication at the intersection with human rights and global PR.

From 2003-2008 she worked with one of BRW’s Fast 100 Company and award-winning integrated health marketing communications agencies in the area of consumer health promotion, whilst undertaking a joint project-based internship with the Australia-based Not For Profit, Vision of Humanity and the Charitable Foundation (founders of the Global Peace Index).

In 2004 she was invited to an internship with Tibet Information Office Australia (Tibetan Government in Exile) later serving as a personal aide assisting the then Dalai Lama’s Representatives in Australia, NZ, SE Asia and Oceania between 2004-2010, and again from 2010-2014 respectively.

At an international level, Karen was professionally involved with the official Australia wide visits of the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet between 2008-2013 and collaborated on local and international projects in the areas of human rights, peace building and community development in conjunction with Tibet Information Office, Central Tibetan Administration and its key stakeholders. This involved participating in a delegation to visit Dharamsala, North India in planning with an executive committee for the official visit of the then Tibetan Prime Minister in Exile to Australia leading up to the Year of Tibet in Australia in 2006.

In 2012, Karen completed a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Sydney and served on the governing council of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (Faculty of Social & Political Sciences) up until 2018. During this time she delivered special projects pertaining to human rights, peace building and social justice with affiliates of the Centre’s flagship research programs.

Karen has published various articles in print and online in The Journal for Business, Peace & Sustainable Development (BPSD), the Globalist (Global21 Network of International Affairs Magazines), Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), Refugee Transitions and consulted and collaborated on communications strategies and global campaigns for various international human rights and advocacy organisations including Amnesty International Australia, African Australian Advocacy Centre and the Copenhagen-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT).

Karen is currently working in the trauma field as Head of Communications at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) while furthering postgraduate studies at the Australian College of Applied Psychology with research interests in the areas of traumatic stress, moral injury and trauma literacy in the global media. In 2020 she was nominated as the Australian Representative of the International Human Rights Observer (IHRO), an Islamabad-based NGO in Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and to the board of directors of the Australia Tibet Council in 2022.