Sonia Cahill is an Australian communications professional. A passionate, second generation wordsmith and eagle-eyed editor, Sonia trained as a ministerial speechwriter in the Queensland Government before moving to China with her family in 2008, where they lived in Beijing and Shanghai for almost six years.
She repatriated to Australia in early 2015 and resumed her corporate communications career. She has worked across state and local government, engineering and construction, insurance, education and training, the arts and professional membership organisations.
Sonia currently manages communications and engagement for the Energy and Water Ombudsman Queensland (EWOQ), including media relations, corporate communication, website and social media management, publications (including the annual report), stakeholder engagement and awareness raising. As a member of EWOQ’s executive management team, her role is integral to delivering the strategic objectives of the organisation.
She is a director of the MacDiarmid Arts Trust, which is responsible for the creative legacy of New Zealand-born expatriate artist Douglas MacDiarmid, and a director of the Queensland chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC Qld). She is also a member of the International Association of Public Participation Australasia (iap2).
Qualifications
Sonia holds a business degree in communications and marketing from QUT, an arts masters in editing and publishing from USQ, and a Cert IV in Training and Assessment. She speaks basic Mandarin (HSK2), is an accredited Mental Health First Aider (2021-2024) and is currently studying the iap2 Certificate of Engagement.
International experience
Sonia is the former editor of Shanghai Family magazine, the city’s most popular monthly English-language publication for the international community. She was also a features writer, parenting columnist and editorial advisor for beijingkids magazine.
While in Shanghai, Sonia also taught expats how to use Taobao at the Community Center Shanghai, and English to children at a local migrant school through Stepping Stones. She also sang in the WISS Community Choir and performed at Disneyland Hong Kong and Shanghai F1. In Beijing, she volunteered as communications and events manager for Viva Beijing Professional Women’s Association.
In her spare time
Sonia loves to travel, capture quirky aspects of life through the lens of a camera and spend time with her husband and three daughters. A strategist at heart, she’s a serial scenario planner, a skill originally developed during her childhood hosting ‘committee meetings’ for fun with her friends. Sonia loves storytelling and holds ambitions to pen a book and produce a podcast.
An occasional runner, she collects running medals, with her favourite being from the Great Wall half marathon in 2013. She dreams of running the New York marathon and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro.