Meet #TeamCP.
Rachael Sweeney
Owner - Advocate - Strategy
A big picture thinker Rachael is able to convert ideas and complicated issues into implementable, award-winning strategies and campaigns.
Working through various channels, Rachael has captured the attention of community, government and industry stakeholders. She has a proven ability to engage and motivate, while building working relationships that deliver real outcomes for her clients.
Rachael founded Collective Position in 2012 and has continued to oversee its growth and operations since. Prior to this she was the Strategic Communications Manager for two of Australia’s largest public infrastructure projects. She has also held senior consulting roles where she managed the government relation’s activities for various clients focused on regional development issues.
Rachael has sat on the Deakin University Academic Review Board (Public Relations) and been a guest lecturer. She mentors young professionals including newly arrived refugees.
Rachael holds a Bachelor of Arts Public Relations (Honours) and has received both a national and state award for excellence in her field.
Edwina Blackburn
Manager client Coordination - Policy
Edwina is our Senior Client Coordinator and policy support.
Prior to joining us she was employed at the Australian Institute of International Affairs working as a research and policy project officer.
Edwina holds a Bachelor of Arts (major - Politics and International Relations) and a Juris Doctorate (Law) at Monash University.
pATRICK bUCHAN
Policy aDVISOR
Pat is the Collective Position’s Policy Advisor.
Pat previously worked at a large consulting firm in Canberra and at the Washington D.C-based think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he was responsible for leading a research team providing policy advice on political, trade and strategic issues.
Pat served for three years in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon where he worked as Senior Policy Adviser. He was awarded the United States Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service by Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis for his service.
Prior to his time in Washington, Pat worked in Canberra where he held a number of policy, advisory and regulatory positions in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Defence.
Pat was raised in Melbourne, served in the Australian Army, and holds both an MA and BA (Hons) in Politics. He is also a graduate of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu.
vicki miller
Senior media and communications advisor
Vicki Miller is the Collective Position’s Senior Media and Communications Advisor.
Vicki has a long career in media, communications and policy at local and federal government level and in the private sector.
A skilled communicator, Vicki builds comprehensive communications campaigns to support clients’ objectives and distils complex ideas into succinct media messages.
Vicki’s career has taken her from newspaper and television newsrooms in regional Victoria to National Nine News in Melbourne as a producer, then line-up producer.
Vicki has also worked as a media advisor in the City of Melbourne’s busy Media Relations unit, and as both a ministerial media advisor and an electorate media adviser to a Federal Government minister and Member of Parliament.
Vicki held several policy positions with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, before she was posted to Jakarta as First Secretary (Cultural).
Vicki holds a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) from RMIT.