Janine Roberts
Snapshot:
Industry / Sector: Academia & Research, Education, Not-For-Profits
Current Professional Life: Academic / Researcher, Consultant / Contractor
Education Pathway: University
Mid Coast Connection: Lives on the Mid Coast
The Blurb:
Janine Roberts is a community historian and educator who channels her lifelong passion for local and family history into her work with MidCoast Stories. With a background in teaching and university education, Janine brings determination, adaptability, and an insatiable drive for knowledge to everything she does.
From rural health education to grassroots storytelling, she’s shaped a career from curiosity, community, and a commitment to continuous learning.
-
Many of our Human Library participants are happy to continue sharing their insights beyond these videos. Whether it’s a chat over email, a phone call, or even a visit to your school or group, they may be open to offering further advice and perspective.
Every person’s availability is different, so we’ll work with you to find the best way to connect.
Click the link below to get in touch — we’d love to help you
-
Current Roles: Co-owner of MidCoast Stories; resilience evaluation contractor with Taree Universities Campus
Career Path: Former high school teacher and deputy principal; transitioned into university education roles and later community storytelling
Key Skills: Determination, adaptability, research, communication
Challenges Shared: Creating medical education content without a health background; developing an award-winning program on Parkinson’s for rural GPs
What She Loves: Turning her hobbies into work; contributing to community resilience and connection
Advice to Younger Self: “Don’t stress. Just start something—you never know what opportunities will come.”
-
“I just have this inbuilt drive to be the best I can in the work that I choose to do.”
“I feel like I’m doing my hobby… things that I find fun.”
“Just keep going and following what you love doing.”
“Everything is so much more flexible now… it would have been nice to know that things were going to be okay.”
-
[0:10] Intro
Hi, my name is Hailey. This is the Human Library video series. In this video series, we interview people from the local community and hear their stories.
Today, we met with Janine Roberts, who is the co-owner of MidCoast Stories. Janine interviews people and learns about local history in her work. Today, Janine told us all about how she uses the skill of determination and drive to get her through her career.
[0:43] What does your professional life look like at the moment?
At the moment, I do two jobs. One is working on a local history project called MidCoast Stories, and the other is a contract job doing an evaluation on a resilience project with the Taree Universities Campus.
As far as what my job looks like at the moment for MidCoast Stories, I research different stories around the whole MidCoast region. We write those stories up and put them onto our website. We also have heritage trails that run throughout the MidCoast, where we join those stories together into a trail that people can do.
[1:30] Can you describe a skill that has helped you get to where you are at the moment?
I think hard work. I do work hard. I am determined, and I just have this inbuilt drive to be the best I can in the work that I choose to do.
I've had a lot of different jobs over my career. I used to be a high school teacher, teaching Mandarin Chinese, and a deputy principal. Then I worked at the University of Queensland in a number of jobs. I feel like I have the ability to change or adapt my skills to suit whatever it is that I'm working in at the moment.
[2:15] Is there a specific time where determination and adaptability have been really beneficial for your work?
Yeah, one that comes to mind—obviously, being a teacher, I was involved in education with high school students. When I worked for the University of Queensland, I was writing education for doctors and medical staff, so nurses. Because I didn't have that medical background, I put a lot of energy into understanding the position or the perspective of the people that I was writing for.
One project I worked on was a program about Parkinson's disease for rural and remote doctors. It's notoriously difficult to diagnose. I used my determination and my ability to adapt and look at different people's perspectives to try to get the best angle on creating a program that would suit the medical staff.
The program ended up—I was invited to Parliament House in Canberra to present the program. It was an online program for doctors and nurses, particularly for GPs in rural areas, so they knew how to diagnose patients and titrate their medications to help people within their rural location, rather than patients having to go to cities all the time, which was really difficult.
That brought me a great sense of achievement in being able to create that program and have it be so successful. Of course, it's never done just with one person; it wasn't just me. It was a team of people and experts in that process.
[4:16] What do you love about your professional life now?
What I love about my professional life now is that I have turned my hobbies and interests into a job. I have been interested in local history and family history for a really long time. When I came to Taree, I felt a bit lonely actually, working from home. So I decided to explore my new environment. I was looking at different buildings, different stories of people that lived here, and it gave me a way of connecting with my new community.
I was able to put that into a job in that we got a grant. Another lady, Penny Teerman, and I applied for a state grant, and we were able to get it to create MidCoast Stories. When I am working on MidCoast Stories, I feel like I'm doing my hobby and things that I find fun.
With Taree Universities Campus, I can't tell you the opportunities that I've had to work in different fields. I'm learning a lot about artwork at the moment. I'm learning about doing evaluations. I'm learning from people who work at TUC how they put events together and really are making a difference with people in the community. I love seeing the results of all of these events that are happening in the community and how people are building resilience, building connections, and achieving different goals in their lives.
[5:56] What is one piece of advice that you would give your younger self?
When I was going to university, I think at the time—in the late '80s—it was a time when people still had a job for life. They would go into a company or organization or career, and that was your job for life. Things changed very quickly after that, but I didn't know that when I was younger.
I would stress about what I would do. I had so many interests; I couldn't tie myself down to following one career or one uni course. I would tell my younger self not to worry. Just start doing something, and you never know the opportunities that come up along the way through your studies, through your career. Just keep going and following what you love doing.
[6:46] What do you think it would have meant if your younger self had heard this piece of advice?
I would have ignored it because that's my nature. I think I would—I just worry. But it would have been nice to know that you don't have to have a career right from the beginning and follow that through for the rest of your life. Everything is so much more flexible now. So I probably would have ignored my own advice, but it would have been nice to know that things were going to be okay.
Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.
