Avril Benoît is the host of the podcast MSF Frontline Reports. As director of communications for the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Canada, she’s one of the leaders of a global team that’s responsible for media work, publications, exhibits, crisis and operational communications — and, of course, a robust online presence that includes podcasts, web videos, audio-slideshows and blogs. She was the aid agency’s emergency communications coordinator in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake — a crisis that turbocharged MSF’s social media presence on Twitter and Facebook, in particular.

Avril joined MSF in 2006 after more than two decades in radio, television and print journalism. She’s probably best known for the 10 years she worked as a current affairs host and producer at CBC Radio. This year, she becomes a PABster when she delivers her session Independent humanitarian organizations and social media during which she will talk about how the independent humanitarian organization harnesses social media to engage the global public.

We asked Avril five very important questions.

What is your best memory of creating media for other people to enjoy?

We asked visitors to our mini-website Condition-Critical.org to send messages of support to the people of Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But we never really thought through how we planned to deliver those messages, even symbolically. The daunting task fell to me. Here’s the result, a video I filmed in December 2009 in the camps around Kitchanga in North Kivu.

Which media creator has been most inspiring to you and why?

When I first became a communications director, the podcast Manager Toolshelped me gain the confidence to run a department and interact with colleagues around the world. The podcast features a couple of executive coaches who tend to ramble on in a way that’s oddly reassuring.

What do you think is the most important consideration to media relevance?

When creating high fibre content, at least give us some high production values to make it taste better.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?

Nothing, really. I’m sanguine about all the lumps, bumps and detours.

How do you hope your PAB2010 session will change the way people think and/or act?

Geeks can make the world a better place when they roll up their sleeves for a good cause.