Engagement Team Co-Lead: Alexandra Keeble

In a series of short profiles we are spotlighting the work of our engagement team with a focus on how they are available to support our researchers.

Alexandra Keeble is our Engagement Team Co-Lead. She supports the whole engagement team to be equitable, efficient and effective in our work. She has a wealth of knowledge she is always happy to share on communications and storytelling.

Alexandra Keeble

Nō hea koe?

Nō Ateria, Tiamana, Kōtimana me Aerani ōku tūpuna. Nō Īnia tōku matakēkē me ētahi o ōku tuākana. I tipu ake au i runga i te whenua tapu o te iwi Wirudjeri, arā kō Naarm (Poi Piripi), i te whenua moemoeā. With my European ancestors, I grew up in Naarm (Melbourne), in and on the Birrarung River, and in and around the Bunurong Coast (South Gippsland).

I came to Aotearoa in 2008, after working and living in Cuba, the United States and on Larrakia Country (Darwin). I’ve worked as just about everything, from a mud crab farmer to a community organiser, from a film producer to a publisher. I’ve never been paid a wage to work as a poet or fiction writer, but imagine that!

I’m lucky enough to live in Pari-ā-rua, on unceded Ngāti Toa whenua, with my partner, our three kids, dog and countless tiu, tūī, rūrū, kāwau, kōtare, blackbirds, starlings, tauhou and gulls, some of whom turn up at our window every day for a feed.

When did you join the DSC and how do you describe what you do in one sentence?

I started in the Challenge in 2017, when the Engagement Team was much smaller. These days I work in the background, looking for ways to use our time and resources in ways that are equitable, effective, collaborative and efficient.

Why might a researcher want to get in touch with you?

I’m both a big picture person, and someone who likes getting my hands dirty. If you want to think about strategy (for anything, from funding to adaptation to communications and engagement), I might be useful to speak to. I have lots of media contacts, and lots of experience with different forms and formats for storytelling. Depending on what else is going on, I also love supporting you to tell your stories in your own ways (this could be through workshopping ideas, or organising relevant support, or ghost writing or editing/proofing, for example).

When you’re not working at DSC, where are you most likely to be?

Collecting kaimoana with the kids, up the bush pulling out asparagus weed, gasbagging with family, on writing retreats with mates, watching my partner dig the garden (it’s hard work but someone’s gotta do it), or somewhere with my head in a book.

How can people find you, and what’s your availability like

I work part time and in hours that suit my family (during school hours, and late at night…), so email is the best bet for first contact. That said, I love to talk, so give me a call.

Contact me on: [email protected]