The co-ordinated management of comms, outreach and engagement has been fantastic and better than anything I can remember from a NZ science discovery point of view. Beyond expectations!
Tim Naish, Co-Leader, NZ SeaRise Programme
Ceridwyn joined our team to help with the public launch of scientific tool. She brought a wealth of science communication knowledge, experience and networks which significantly improved engagement from media and the public. Ceridwyn upskilled our own Science Communicator, Leaders and Scientists with a knack for understanding exactly what each person needed. She was patient, curious and enthusiastic, and we won’t hesitate to work with her again.
Catherine Kirby, Communication & Relationships Manager, The Eco-index Programme
Ceridwyn is a fantastic science communicator. She came in and worked closely with our team to communicate very technical climate change advice. Her constructive and collaborative approach made the process so easy – in a way that I’ve never seen with any other writer.
Karen Lavin, Principal Analyst, Climate Change Commission
Ceridwyn is a terrific science communicator, and a real pleasure to work with. Working with a team of engineers and social scientists, she helped us translate research findings into a series of accessible, and visually appealing fact sheets for the wine industry focused on earthquake resilience. Ceridwyn was able to take complex and detailed information, and synthesise for a lay audience, and helped coordinate graphic design and production aspects too. I can’t recommend her and her work highly enough!
Nick Cradock-Henry, Senior Scientist, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research
It is fantastic working with you, and your patience is admirable. A great write up incorporating input from just about a whole organisation.
Joel Cook, Head of Regulation, Transpower
Enthusiastic, professional and curious are ways to describe Ceridwyn. She supported us by translating complex technical science information into case studies and stories that can be easily understood and appreciated by a variety of audiences. She picked up the briefs and delivered on time with no fuss – a dream to work with.
Jess Maccagno, Manager Insights, Communications & Influence, SfTI
I managed Ceridwyn during her contract at MPI. She picked up technical and thematic information quickly, understood the politics and mechanisms of government, and worked well with scientists and analysts alike. Ceridwyn fitted into the team quickly, and her cheerfulness and professionalism were a welcome addition. She has a great way of translating scientific jargon into something useful for everyday people. I’d be very happy to work with her again.
Sarah Crysell, Manager Strategic Engagement, Fisheries NZ, Ministry for Primary Industries
Ceridwyn is the real deal. She gets new information noticed in the short term and and the long term, and that long term discoverablity is really important and usually forgotten. She’s able to amplify to all the right places, to get lasting impact. She’s also a great team player, highly adaptable, level headed and just plain good to have around.
Deb Potter, Principal Analyst, Ministry for Women
I hired Ceridwyn because I perceived that Motu’s public profile was far less prominent than it could be, given the quality of our work and the respect and following we had from experts. Ceridwyn quickly and creatively created a public communications strategy that effectively raised our profile and allowed us to engage with the public. In doing this, she had to figure out how to engage both our technical staff (many of whom had little experience engaging with the public) and the wider community. Ceridwyn’s (almost) endless patience and good cheer made everyone feel good about this and thereby brought everyone on board.
Adam Jaffe, Freelance Economic (previous Director, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)
In both of my work experiences with Ceridwyn (Sigma and Motu), I have been absolutely blown away by her ability to quickly grasp complex content. Ceridwyn can effortlessly condense and translate scientific and academic work into impactful communications tailored to the audience required. She also has the ability to quickly connect with people (always putting clients and colleagues at ease), has an incredible work ethic, is absolutely authentic everyday, and will always keep the public good in mind. Look forward to working together again one day!
Sally Owen, Research Fellow, Victoria University of Wellington
I have known Ceridwyn since February 2015 when she joined Motu as our first Communications Director. At the time I was a Senior Fellow at Motu, an organization I had co-founded and hence felt a strong level of responsibility for. She transformed our external communications. She provided outstanding support for release of working papers by writing executive summaries, media releases, connections to media. Even on topics where she had little previous knowledge she was able to quickly identify the key messages, when sometimes we, as authors could not, and with relatively few technical corrections communicate them to a much less technical audience. She was rapid, accurate and responsive. She got our senior staff, including me, trained to deal more effectively with the media and then followed through to develop our relationships with key journalists. We essentially went from no media coverage before she joined to regularly informing or being mentioned or quoted in major media outlets. She also transformed our social media presence which previously had involved one weak blogsite despite a general lack of interest among researchers in engaging directly. We trusted her completely to tweet on our behalf and where she was unsure about promoting certain things she used excellent judgement to check with the relevant in house expert. Beyond her communications role she played an essential human support role by identifying challenges within our team, advocating for and supporting staff who were struggling in a small organization with quite a few wonderful but highly strung individuals and no human resources department. Ceridwyn is fun and has a great sense of humour. She stays calm under stress and is an excellent team player. I would hire her again if I had the chance.
Suzi Kerr, Chief Economist, Environmental Defense Fund, USA
Ceridwyn is an expert communicator, a smart, fast-thinking strategist, and an incredibly warm and kind person. As well as making an enormous contribution to our organisation’s communications, she mentored staff, created a great team culture, and brought joy into the room whenever she came in.
Thalia Kehoe Rowden, Strategy and Communication Lead, Human Rights Measurement Initiative