Kirsty Cockburn is the Director of Communications for the BBC World Service Trust.
Before joining the BBC World Service Trust, Kirsty was Head of Communications at ODI, the UK's leading independent research institute on international development and humanitarian affairs.
She returned to the BBC in October 2007, after seven years away from the Corporation. (She was previously a senior manager in the Marketing and Communications department of the BBC World Service).
Kirsty now manages a communications team responsible for external and internal relations, including media, events, publications, websites, email newsletters and internal communications.
Prior to joining ODI, Kirsty was Managing Editor at the Science and Development Network (SciDev.Net) where she managed a team of online journalists producing daily news along with policy- and practitioner- focused resources.
Kirsty has also held the post of Communications Manager at the Institute of Development Studies.
In addition she has worked for Sightsavers International, travelling to projects in Ghana, Kenya and Bangladesh to provide communications support to local partners and to collate stories and images for information outputs.
Kirsty has a Master's degree in English from Newhall, Cambridge University.
