Irene Scott is Internews’ Humanitarian Director, responsible for overseeing programming and providing strategic leadership for our programming in humanitarian contexts. 

Irene has extensive experience in designing and implementing programming in humanitarian contexts. Since joining Internews in 2015, she has worked to implement programming that ensures communities impacted by crisis can access quality information and have their needs and concerns prioritized by responders. She has worked in the Pacific, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, and Europe, specializing in the management of misinformation, Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA), risk communication, and humanitarian media.   

Irene started her career as a radio producer, presenter, and award-winning digital storyteller with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Hack current affairs program on the national Triple J network. She helped to implement the organization’s emergency broadcasting protocols and, through her work with ABC International Development, contributed to programming strategies to strengthen emergency broadcasting in the Asia Pacific region. After leaving Australia, she led the development of news and programming at Paoa FM in the Solomon Islands and worked as an Editorial Advisor at Radio Miraya – the United Nations radio station in South Sudan.   

Irene has a Bachelor of Professional Communication (Journalism) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, a graduate Diploma in Community and International Development, and a Masters in Humanitarian Response from Deakin University. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, and is always excited to sample food and music culture from around the world.