Tess is a communications strategist and former journalist with more than a decade of experience leading high-impact communications and advocacy across some of the world’s most complex humanitarian and social issues. Her work has spanned conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa, global health emergencies, climate advocacy and social change campaigns, earning her a reputation for communications that are both strategically rigorous and deeply human.
Most recently, Tess served as UNICEF’s Communications Manager for the Middle East and North Africa. Between late 2023 and early 2026, she spent extended periods inside the Gaza Strip, working alongside Palestinian families, frontline workers and humanitarian colleagues to document the impact of the conflict on children and advocate for international action. UNICEF’s advocacy helped keep children’s rights central to the global conversation and contributed to tangible outcomes, including increased medical evacuations for critically injured children. During this period, Tess became UNICEF’s most-booked spokesperson on Gaza, conducting close to 800 media interviews in just over two years.
At the same time, Tess conceived and led a significant advocacy campaign aimed at safeguarding children from conflict-related sexual violence in Sudan. The work involved travelling across the country during the war to meet with child survivors and their families, and document their experiences with care and ethical rigour. Within months of the campaign’s launch, the Sudanese government signed a Framework of Cooperation with the United Nations to address the issue. The campaign received the Human Rights Award at the 10th Annual Shorty Impact Awards for putting "a devastating yet hidden children's rights crisis on the global agenda" while amplifying the voices and resilience of the Sudanese women supporting survivors.
Across nearly five years at UNICEF, Tess also served as the organisation’s global media lead for immunisation and climate change. She contributed to international advocacy efforts for vaccine equity during COVID-19 and worked with youth activists from climate-affected countries ahead of several COP summits, helping centre their voices in debates on climate justice and loss and damage funding.
Tess is passionate about the social and psychological factors that shape participation in collective action, and how a deeper understanding of these dynamics can help organisations engage publics more meaningfully in efforts to create social change. Previously, Tess managed communications at Minderoo Foundation, one of Asia Pacific’s largest philanthropies, where she worked on issues including modern slavery and ocean plastic pollution. She began her career as a journalist in Australia, where her reporting earned national recognition. Tess holds a Bachelor of Communications from Edith Cowan University.
Change requires incredible thought and effort. It also requires powerful stories that remind us of our humanity and collective power. Inequity depends on distance — emotional, political and moral. The most effective advocacy closes that distance, helping people see both their connection to injustice and their ability to change what once seemed impossible.Tess Ingram