ABOUT
Strategic Storytelling
Too busy making change to stop and tell people about it?
I’m a freelance journalist, publicist and communications consultant working with established and emerging thought leaders in design, business and social impact to tell timely stories of substance. What I bring to every collaboration is an editor’s nose for news, a journalist’s eye for detail, and a publicist’s strategic hat. (And matching shoes.)
My editorial features and profiles appear regularly in Green and Houses magazine. My communications work includes managing Publicity, Events + Partnerships at ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects and custom projects for organisations like Cantilever and Craft Victoria.
I’ve been a writer and editor at Lonely Planet and Niche. For 15 years I was a freelance journalist and columnist at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald covering visual and performing arts, design, food, travel, culture, property and education. My weekly column Meet the Maker was syndicated nationally and inspired my passion project, Why Thankyou, I Made it Myself: interviews with creatives about making a crust. That landed me a spot in the Walkley Foundation’s 2017 Media Incubator and Innovation Fund. I was part of Craft Victoria’s inaugural Writer’s Program in 2016.
SERVICES
Editorial
Digital content creation
Co-writing + ghost writing
Publicity + communications
Custom projects
EXPERIENCE
Diverse collaborations with clients have been broadcast on ABC Radio National, Triple R and The Doyenne Interviews. Recognised by the Australian Interior Design Awards, Victorian School Design Awards and Learning Environments Australasia Awards. Programmed at Urban Future Sweden, OpenHouse Melbourne, NGV Melbourne Design Week, The Australian Institute of Architects First Nations Symposium Country Culture and Community, Melbourne Connect Innovation Week and the Australian Healthcare Design Council’s Australasian Conference. Published in Architecture Australia, Architecture AU, Australian Ageing Agenda, Architecture and Design, Artichoke, Australian Design Review, Australian Educator, Building Connections: Designing Schools as Community Hubs, Craft.org, Habitus, Healthcare Design, Indesign, IndesignLive, The Fifth Estate and Parlour.
WORK
Wetlands House
Freelance features and profiles about outstanding people and projects shaping sustainable architecture, landscape design and social change.
Singular Simplicity
Website feature about Vue de monde executive chef Hugh Allen’s choice of home kitchen.
Services: Digital Content Creation
Caring for ourselves as we co-design for mental health
First-person column by an emerging thought leader in mental health co-design.
Service: Co-writing + Ghost Writing
New 8-star Northcote project shows sustainable townhouse design is doable
Media campaign for Australia’s first 8-star townhouse development at scale achieved widespread coverage in news, design and sustainability media.
Kath’s words shine a spotlight on everything that’s great about this practice’s culture, work and ideas. She enables the team to share knowledge and opens the door to great opportunitiesMilli Steele, Strategic Marketing, ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects
Kath Dolan delivers engaging and well researched articles on time, every time.Tamsin O’Neill, Editor Green magazine, Walkers Journal and greendesignbook.com
Kath is smart, thorough, proactive and eloquent.Jacquie Byron, Managing Editor The Place Economy, Hoyne
I’d recommend Kath in a heartbeat. She conducts thorough research; takes the time to drill down and eke out the most compelling stories for interviews; understands her audience; delivers consistently on time and writes to brief.Suzi Taylor, Editor Australian Education Union News
Superb. Inviting prose, engaging ideas and practical implications nicely organised for diverse readers. A gem in this book.Melbourne University book reviewer, Building Schools as Community Hubs.
Thank you for such a great article, I really think it’s one of the best anyone has written about our work. You have done such a great job of balancing the complexity and seriousness with joyful writing.Alex Lake, architect, Therefore
Thank you for the great story you put together to accompany my photography, I love your style of writing. So entertaining.Alison Hoelzer, photographer
CONTACT
Maybe you want to raise your organisation’s profile to win more of the work that feels like the future? Distill a complex specialty into a simple story that resonates? Land a speaking opportunity?
First, we’ll discuss where you’re headed and what success looks like. Then we strategise to get you there in a way that feels apt, achievable and vaguely exciting.
My combination of journalism, publicity + communications is pretty versatile. Want to chat about one-off or regular projects that feel like a good fit?