Soledad Muñiz – Head of Innovation and Development, InsightShare
I graduated from the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development in 2008 with a distinction in MSc in Communication for Innovation and Development, and now work with communities around the world to address key issues through participatory video.
InsightShare is a community development organisation, working to capture the best aspects of communications technology and participatory techniques; supporting communities to explore their issues and devise solutions to the challenges they face. We aim to amplify unheard voices, and bring people together to focus on change.
As the Head of Innovation and Development, I sit on the organisation's senior management team, and am responsible for overseeing key areas of innovation, including the use of participatory video in M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation), research and humanitarian contexts. I am also in charge of project and business development.
I really enjoy the diversity of issues, projects and partners that I work on, as well as seeing tangible impacts in people's lives.
My position at InsightShare is directly linked to my career aspirations when studying, as I wanted to specialise in participatory communication. I benefitted immensely from studying at Reading, from the programme and professors who encouraged me to rethink my understanding of many issues, as well as the diversity of classmates who provided me with an international look into many subjects.
I chose Reading as I wanted to study the connection between communication and development, and not many other universities have a degree as well as the experience that Reading has in this area.
I was also drawn to the interdisciplinary perspective and experience of the professors in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. I loved the fact that the course allowed us to choose modules based on our individual interests.