2021 Juges

Leslie Andrachuk is a global digital publishing and marketing executive, having spearheaded digital media and marketing at the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Global Television and a number of global brands such as Vodafone and McCann Erickson Worldwide. She recently launched AlphaWomanCo, a media company with the mission to help women optimize their lives physically, mentally and professionally so they are prepared to step into leadership roles in both corporate and government positions. The company includes a digital publication, a podcast and events. She is also co-founder of the recently launched Eve’s Collective.

Leslie is happiest when connecting with inspiring womxn and telling their stories to encourage others. She is passionate about changing biases that hold all womxn back from realizing their true power and is grateful that at this point in her career she has the skills to drive real change. Leslie is an avid skier and mother to her amazing 16 year old son.

Emily Baron Cadloff is a freelance writer and reporter with over a decade of experience. With a background in television journalism, Emily has worked for all three major networks in Canada, in newsrooms across the country. Now, as a freelance reporter, Emily writes for many outlets including Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, and Vice, with a focus on culture, news, and education. She was nominated for a 2020 DPA in the category of Best Personal Essay, and now shares her thoughts in a weekly newsletter examining Canadian culture, Up Here, which is found at uphere.substack.com

Arjun Basu is a writer and editor living in Montreal. He is a past President of the National Magazine Awards Foundation.

Oscar Beardmore-Gray is a freelance producer, videographer and podcaster based in Vancouver, BC. His recent work includes producing a documentary on medicinal cannabis for Telus and working on VII Foundation’s multimedia project Imagine: Reflections on Peace. He won Best Digital Editorial Package at last year’s Digital Publishing Awards for The Fish You (Don’t Know You) Eat, produced while enrolled in the Global Reporting Program.

Sheima Benembarek is a Moroccan Canadian freelance writer and publishing professional. She is a graduate of the Centennial College book, magazine, and electronic publishing program and has held various positions within the magazine sector. Currently, she works as an events manager at The Walrus.

Jamie Bradburn is a Toronto-based writer and historian. His work has been published by TVO, Spacing, Historica Canada, The Grid, and the Toronto Star, as well as custom publications for clients ranging from the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to Tourism Toronto. He received a National Magazine Award in 2014 for his work on Torontoist’s «Historicist» column.

Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours is an independent journalist and a co-founder and editor of Ricochet media. She worked and published in almost all Québec media as a journalist and did research for several TV and radio shows around Québec. She teaches journalism at Concordia University and is the president of the Association des journalistes indépendants du Québec.

Anne Burke — I have prior experience in being an award judge, with the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award, as well as the Manitoba Book Awards, the Robert Kroetch City of Edmonton Prize, the Canadian Authors Association, and many others. I was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, the Alberta Centennial Medal, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to the Province of Alberta and to Canada.

I am a publisher and literary editor of an arts, literary, and cultural magazine (we will not be entering the awards this year). I read in English and I live in Calgary, Alberta. I was President of the Writers Guild of Alberta, founding and pro tem President of the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, and Vice President of the Alberta Cultural Industries Association (representing the Magazine sector). I currently serve on the Board of Directors for Magazines Canada. As a voting member of Alberta Magazine Publishers Association, I serve on the blue box committee as well as the arts, literary, and cultural task force.

I am a Full Member of the League of Canadian Poets and was Membership Chair for eight years, in addition to being Chair of the Feminist Caucus and series editor for the Living Archive chapbook series.I remain an active member of the Writers Guild of Alberta.

I completed studies for a Ph.D. in Contemporary and Canadian Literature at the University of Ottawa and U.B.C. with a B.Ed in Elementary and Secondary Education from Queen’s University. I earned an M.A. magna cum laude in Canadian Literature from York University and a B.A. with Honours in English from Concordia University in Montreal.

John Carson is the former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of The Lawyer’s Daily, the fifth editorship in his career, and is now the Content Director at Motum B2B. He brings 25 years of journalism, online content and digital communications experience to the role as an editor and reporter in the U.K. and Canada, specializing in technology and business. He also runs a digital consultancy called Herb Communications.

Erin D. Cauchi is an investigative journalist covering people and institutions in power with a focus on global security, civil liberties & human rights. She has reported for NBC News, National Geographic, BBC News, Al Jazeera, CNN, and Newsweek among others, producing everything from breaking news to investigative features and international documentaries. She recently co-wrote a nonfiction book that serves as a fact-check on post-9/11 U.S. warfare, published by Simon & Schuster in April 2021. Her work creating an original Netflix documentary series was recognized in 2020 with the James Beard Broadcast Media Award for Visual Reporting as well as an Emmy nomination. Cauchi has also been a judge for the News & Documentary Emmy Awards since 2015. She holds a Master of Science from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a BA(Hons) in world history from the University of Toronto.

Nouhaila Chelkhaoui is the Manager of Women Founders Programs at the DMZ, Ryerson University. In her role, she advises and supports women entrepreneurs, as well as builds programs to help the startups grow. Nouhaila is especially passionate about supporting underestimated entrepreneurs. Outside the DMZ and Ryerson, Nouhaila is the founder of a social venture called Scale Without Borders helping self-identifying immigrants and newcomers in tech and entrepreneurship.

Jason A. Chiu is the UX and Design lead at Export Development Canada where he’s leading an overhaul of digital experiences and how government financial support reaches Canadian business coast to coast. Prior to joining EDC in 2019 he was at The Globe and Mail where he led photo, design, graphics, interactive, video and magazine teams as the Deputy Head of Visuals. He was at The Globe for a decade as an Art Director, UX lead, and creative on some of The Globe‘s most ambitious editorial and product endeavours. His work has received accolades from the NNAs, SNDs, DPAs, POYi, IMMA, and EPPYs.

With nearly 10 years’ digital development experience in the media industry, Caroline Choinière is a Product Owner with Rad, Radio-Canada’s journalism laboratory. She holds a graduate diploma in entrepreneurial management and a master’s degree in e-commerce. Her role at Rad is to leverage the power of digital to develop innovative new ways of covering the news.

Jean-François Cloutier est journaliste financier depuis plus de dix ans. Il a commencé sa carrière en France comme stagiaire dans un hebdomadaire économique régional avant de faire le saut au Québec à La Presse en 2006. En 2008, il s’est joint à temps plein au journal Les Affaires. En 2010, il a été engagé chez Québecor, tout d’abord à la chaîne financière Argent et ensuite au Journal de Montréal. Depuis 2013, il est membre du Bureau d’enquête de Québecor. En 2019, il s’est mérité avec d’autres collègues le prix Judith-Jasmin, catégorie enquête, de la Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ), pour une série de reportages sur des problèmes d’éthique au sein de la filiale immobilière de la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Féru de littérature et d’enquêtes financières, il possède une maîtrise en Études françaises et un MBA de HEC Montréal. Il est l’auteur de deux livres, dont un essai remarqué sur les paradis fiscaux en 2017 (La Grande Dérive), et un essai sur le phénomène de la radio parlée à Québec en 2008 (Jeff Fillion et le malaise québécois). Il a aussi collaboré à d’autres ouvrages, dont PLQ inc., sur le financement au Parti libéral à l’époque de Jean Charest.

Ian Cockfield is Managing Editor of EVENT magazine and runs its Reading Service for Writers. He is a past fiction editor of PRISM international. He has been a juror for the Alberta Magazine Awards (Fiction category, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020); National Magazine Awards (Essays category, 2018); Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (USA, Personal Essay & Memoir category, 2019, 2020); and an assessor for the Manitoba Arts Council. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, was a past president of the Magazine Association of BC, and has been a freelance editor since 2003. His fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in various Canadian journals. He has been on publishing panels at Word on the Street Vancouver, MagNet (Toronto), BC Book and Magazine Week, the Magazine Writers’ Craft Fair (Vancouver) and SFU’s The Writer’s Studio.    

Francine Compton is the Assignment Producer for CBC Indigenous. She is the president of the Native American Journalists Association and a director for World Press Freedom Canada.

Julia De Laurentiis Johnston has been involved with Canadian media for over fifteen years and has won national and international awards for podcast creation. She’s worked at Maclean’s, The Walrus and Azure but has spent the bulk of her time with Shameless magazine. She’s held various roles at the publication, including running the Shameless Podcast Camp for teen girls and trans youth, and she currently sits on the board. Julia won the first DPA for Best Podcast Series for the Maclean’s culture podcast, The Thrill, which she co-produced/co-hosted.

Matthew DiMera is an award-winning editor and journalist currently living in Toronto, and is the Founder of The Resolve, a new digital publication centring Black, Indigenous and racialized people in Canada. 

Most recently he was the Acting Editor-in-Chief at rabble.ca where he was leading strategy for an editorial refocusing and relaunch, and the Managing Editor at Xtra where he drove new and innovative digital-only editorial and engagement strategies.

He is a long-time advocate for the importance and power of social justice and community reporting.

Aileen Donnelly is deputy news editor, digital at the National Post. She has also worked as a copy editor, web producer and reporter at the Post.

Christian Duperron is news director for HuffPost Québec, a team that he joined 8 years ago. Previously, he worked as director of digital platforms and web editor-in-chief for the Métro Montréal newspaper.

After a successful 15 year career in PR and Marketing, Risa Feldman decided to pivot her career and try her hand in the travel and culinary niche. She quickly climbed that ladder, with immediate national travel features and being recognized as host of the top radio show, LA Eats. 

Risa’s career has included positions as Vice President at Integrated Sports International,  President of New Leaf Events and Marketing, Producer/Celebrity Interviewer for the 2002 and 2010 Olympic Winter Games amongst many other impressive titles.

Over the last 10 years she has created a name for herself in the travel/culinary world, appearing on numerous TV shows as the Epicurean Explorer.

Currently, Risa is Editor of Journey Beyond Aspen magazine and Host of Epicurean Exploring (a show on Healthy Life Network). 

When she is not traveling for work, she calls home Southern California, Aspen, and where she is originally is from, East Brunswick, New Jersey. Risa is a graduate of the University of Miami. 

Laurie Few is a journalist with 32 years’ experience producing news and current affairs, digital content and investigative journalism.

Laurie is currently the Executive Producer, Digital at TVO. Prior to joining TVO Laurie was the Managing Editor at Canada’s National Observer and before that she held the title of Director of Digital and Creative Content at CPAC, Canada’s Cable Public Affairs Channel.

Laurie started her journalism career at CTV, first as the producer of the investigative segment Goldhawk Fights Back airing on CTV national news for 10 years and then as an investigative producer for CTV’s long running news and current affairs show, W5 for nine years. Laurie was then hired as the Executive Producer of the award winning investigative and current affairs show, 16×9, on Global Television from 2009 – 2016. Laurie’s exacting standards and visual production sense created a strong brand identity that was recognized with multiple industry awards.

Laurie has taught various courses in investigative journalism. Laurie was a lawyer prior to becoming a journalist.

Despite completing a degree in Film Studies at Concordia University, Élodie Gagnon fell in love with radio as she made her debut behind the microphone at the university radio station CISM. Getting picked up by Radio-Canada, she joined the institution and learned the basics of radio production by crafting longform reportage on social and cultural matters. This journey became 12 years of experimentation with all aspects of radio: from ideation to hosting, reporting, producing and directing. After more than a decade in public service, she switched to the private sector as the Producer of The Aquarium, a live-broadcast radio space for C2 Montréal’s world-class conference on commerce and creativity, as well as producing the C2 Podcast, a series that tackled big issues with the most forward-thinking leaders in the world. Élodie is now the head of RECreation, a podcast production studio headquartered in Montreal and which is behind the hit podcast Pourquoi Julie?.

Cody Gault is the director of digital products for Toronto Life, Ottawa, Fashion, Weddingbells, Quill & Quire and Strategic Content Labs. Before that he was the director of digital for The Walrus and The Walrus Talks, and before that the manager of digital products for the National Post and the Financial Post. He has a BA and an MA in English literature and began his career as a writer and an editor, but crossed the proverbial aisle with the ambition of helping to ensure the ongoing financial viability of Canadian journalism.

Lianne George is the director of strategic communications for the Brookfield Institute of Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Ryerson University. She is the founder of George&Co., a Toronto-based editorial consultancy. Previously, she was editor-in-chief of Chatelaine and director of lifestyle content for Rogers Digital Content & Publishing. She was the founding editor of Torstar’s The Grid and has held senior-level positions at Maclean’s and Canadian Business. Her feature writing has appeared in publications including Maclean’s, Report on Business and New York magazine. She was awarded the Grand Prix Editor of the Year award at the 2018 National Magazine Awards.

Emma Gilchrist is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Narwhal, an online magazine that publishes in-depth and investigative reporting about Canada’s natural world. When she’s not tethered to her computer, Emma is happiest reading a book or surfing the waves of Vancouver Island (not simultaneously).

Peter Goddard, a freelance music and visual arts critic for the Toronto Star, Canadian Art, The WholeNote Magazine and The Globe and Mail, is an award-winning journalist and writer/producer for radio and television. He is the first Canadian critic of pop culture to win a National Newspaper Award, the Canadian equivalent of a Pulitzer.

Stéphan Guénette acquired superb people skills after 15 years in the hospitality industry, along with project management experience working within the creative agency world executing integrated marketing campaigns and premier events. Today, as PUSH Media Inc. bilingual (French/English) Studio Director and Sr Project Manager, Stephan enables teams to achieve the best possible outcomes for our clients by identifying risks and outlining the tasks required to complete every project on-time and on-budget.

Alison Hall is a multimedia journalist based in New York City, currently serving as a Correspondent & Producer at America’s longest-running national news magazine, Inside Edition. Alison is the host of a popular podcast, Between Headlines, which she launched in Fall 2020, interviewing story subjects and the people behind today’s biggest news stories. Alison’s first independent documentary-short ‘Ken’s Story’ was published online by Canada’s largest national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, to much critical acclaim.

With Inside Edition, Alison has traveled across the United States, telling the stories that people talk about and share. She has covered the biggest stories of the last decade, from the Black Lives Matter protests of 2014 and 2020, to how America is adjusting to the new reality of Covid-19 to serving as a court reporter for the landmark #MeToo cases of both the Weinstein and Cosby trials. Alison is equally versed in legalese as entertainment jargon, having covered award shows, red carpets and the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in England in 2018. Alison frequently appears on the Inside Edition YouTube channel which is the #1 news and politics channel with 8.1 million subscribers.

Alison has put her passion to work in both the United States, Canada in online, television and documentary mediums, always striving to understand the people behind the headlines. Alison is the co-founder of a charity event, The Challenge for Life, that has raised over $8 million dollars for cancer research in her hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Alison was once named Canada’s Top 20 Under 20 and carried the Olympic torch over the Esplanade Riel Bridge helping to kick off the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

Tory Healy is the editor-in-chief of Designlines magazine, a Toronto quarterly that shines the spotlight on the city’s stalwart and rising design talents, most fascinating architectural projects and very best modern products, made here and abroad. A journalist with over two decades of professional experience in magazine publishing, this position at Designlines is one that Healy has held for 12 years. Reporting on Toronto’s ever-evolving design landscape and multitude of creatives is a true passion for her and one that inspires her daily. (Photo credit: Elena Zaralieva)

Jessica Hotson started her career designing for some of Canada’s leading Fashion and Beauty magazines such as Flare and Glow. In 2013 she joined The Kit as Creative Director, overseeing all design and art direction for the brand as well as co-branded and white label content for brands such as Shoppers Drug Mart, HBC and L’Oréal Beauty. In 2019 Jessica moved in-house as Director of Brand Creative at jewelry brand Jenny Bird. In this role she directed all e-commerce and marketing creative for the brand. Jessica is currently the Director of Content, Creative and Social at Loblaws, overseeing a team of creatives that produce all marketing collateral for the Market division.

Greg Hudson was born and raised in Alberta. After studying journalism at Ryerson University, he wrote pieces for Alberta Oil, Canadian Business, Elle Canada, Flare, Toronto Life, and The Globe and Mail, among others. In 2010 he moved to Sharp, Canada’s largest magazine for men, and was named Sharp‘s Editor-in-Chief a few years later. Most recently, Greg was the Features Editor at FASHION magazine. Despite the fact that he’s writing this bio, in real life he rarely speaks in the third person.

Katie Jensen is the principal of Vocal Fry Studios, a Toronto podcast company creating original podcasts. She’s spoken about media at Hot Docs Podcast Festival, Atlantic Podcast Summit & World Radio Day. She’s made podcasts for CBC Podcasts, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, The Globe and Mail, Polaris Music Prize, St. Joseph Media, Canada Media Fund, The Atkinson Foundation, George Brown College, StarMetro, and Canadaland.

Hugo Joncas est journaliste d’enquête.

Il s’est consacré au journalisme économique à l’hebdomadaire Les Affaires avant de commencer à faire de plus en plus d’investigations. Il est passé au Bureau d’enquête du Journal de Montréal en 2014 et il vient tout juste de se joindre à La Presse, comme journaliste d’enquête économique. Il se penche sur la face cachée de l’immobilier, la fraude, les relations entre le crime organisé et l’économie légale. Il porte aussi un regard attentif sur les questions de cybersécurité et de piratage informatique.

Avec ses collègues Philippe Langlois, Jean-François Coutier, Andrea Valeria, Félix Séguin et Jean-Louis Fortin, Hugo a remporté en 2020 le CAJ Award 2020 dans la catégorie «Open Media», pour une enquête sur des manquements éthiques et des liens mafieux à la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.

Pierre Kattar is a video journalist and documentary filmmaker. He started at The Washington Post’s website in 1999 where he produced video news stories and short documentaries. He left The Post in 2010 and now works as an independent filmmaker. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, he grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Kattar graduated from DePaul University with an International Studies degree focusing on gender, power and race. He now lives in Rome, Italy.

Amorina Kingdon is the staff writer and researcher for Hakai Magazine. She has won multiple awards including Best New Magazine Writer from the National Magazine Awards in 2017. Her work has appeared in Best Canadian Essays 2020 (Biblioasis), and she also writes creative nonfiction and has forthcoming fiction in Speculative North. She lives in Victoria, BC.

Xavier Kronström Richard is a digital content strategist based in Montreal. Throughout his 15 years career in the media, he designed and produced innovative and engaging content for digital platforms. At CBC/Radio-Canada, he managed major engagement strategies and programs to promote digital innovation. In 2019, he founded the podcast production studio Grand public where he acts as creative director.

Robin Levinson King is an audience engagement producer and writer at the BBC, where she is part of the team that launched the broadcaster’s first bureau in Canada. Recently, she took the lead for the BBC’s coverage of North American news on social media, including editorial planning for events such as the Capitol riots and Joe Biden’s inauguration. Prior to joining the BBC, she was a reporter at the Toronto Star, where she covered breaking news and worked closely with the data-visual team on multi-media storytelling. She earned her Master’s of Journalism from Carleton University in 2013. 

Dan Levy is a Montreal-based writer, editor and content strategist. Since earning a master’s degree in journalism from Boston University, he has navigated the fascinating waters of media think tanks, global marketing agencies, and fast-growing tech startups. He was the founding editor of the National Magazine Award-winning blog Sparksheet and currently serves as Editorial Director at Zendesk.

Carly Lewis is a writer living in Toronto. 

Her work has appeared at The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vulture, The Cut, The Atlantic, Elle, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, The Guardian, Interview Magazine, The Fader, the Toronto Star, Hazlitt, Spin, Maisonneuve and Maclean’s. 

She is a course instructor at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism.

Anita Li is a media strategist, consultant and commentator with a decade of full-time experience as a multi-platform journalist at outlets across North America. She is also a journalism instructor at Ryerson University, the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and Centennial College. Her areas of expertise include community-driven journalism, audience engagement, journalism entrepreneurship, consumer revenue business models, newsroom diversity, media ethics and journalism innovation. Anita co-founded Canadian Journalists of Colour in 2018, and is also a member of the 2020-21 Online News Association board of directors. To keep up with Anita, subscribe to The Other Wave, her newsletter about challenging the status quo in journalism.

Markian Lozowchuk is an award winning freelance photographer. You’d have to circumvent the globe to trace his career path. He’s encountered hunter-gatherer tribes in East Africa & the Amazon, studied at ACAD, and assisted famed photographer, Martin Schoeller. Now Markian splits his work and family life between Toronto and New York City. Staring down his lens into the fierce gazes of today’s most talked-about personalities, Markian has a knack for capturing people without pretension. He has contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, ESPN, Stern, GQ, Report on Business, Maclean’s and Toronto Life, among numerous other publications.

Valerian Mazataud is a Montreal-based documentary photographer, born in
France in 1978.

He is part of the team of photographers at daily newspaper Le Devoir in
Montreal since 2018. He has published photos essays with a a number of
Canadian and International publications (The Globe and Mail, Le Temps,
The Walrus, Le Courrier International, Le Monde, der Spiegel…)
He has shown his work during numerous exhibitions and art installations
in artist-run centres, galeries and festivals: The ends of the earth
(2014-2020, Rencontres internationales de la photo en Gaspésie, Canada),
Great Nordth (2012-2020, Voies Off Arles, France), We are no more
(2011-2015, Festival Art souterrain, Montreal, Canada).

A self-taught photographer since 2009, he owns a Msc in agronomy with a
specialty in marine biology. His projects led him to travel in more than
fifty countries around the globe.

He has won various photography awards, including grants from the
Canadian council for the arts (CAC) and the Quebec council for the arts
(CALQ). He was invited as an artist in residency by the Aberystwyth Arts
Centre in Wales as well as at artist-run centres DAÏMÔN, in Gatineau,
and Centre VU, in Quebec, Canada. His book liwa mairin was shortlisted
for the 2019 Burtynsky Grant.

Since 2015 he shares his time between Canada and Central-America
(Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua) where he works on various documentary
projects.

He also cycled 21000 km around the world and along the five continents
between 2002 and 2004.

Rob McLaughlin is a Canadian journalist, producer and currently the head of the National Film Board of Canada’s Digital Studio where he leads in the development of the institution’s digital-first programming and strategy, including interactive and immersive projects.

From 2011 to 2015, Rob was a senior executive, editor and publisher at Canada’s largest newspaper chain, responsible for leading newsroom staff through a time of radical transformation in the newspaper industry.

Rob also worked for a decade as a producer and executive at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation developing online audio-visual content designed to attract new audiences for public broadcasting, including the pioneering interactive radio service CBC Radio 3. He also served as Director of Digital Programming and Business Development at CBC responsible for the growth of digital platforms in the areas of documentaries, TV arts and entertainment and national radio programming.

Neal McLennan is the Vancouver-based Food & Travel Editor at sister publications Western Living and Vancouver Magazine. He’s a frequent contributor to magazines in Canada and the Untied States and his wine writing has twice been recognized by the National Magazine Awards.

Greg McLeod is Director of the Cottage Life Consumer Shows at Blue Ant Media. The Cottage Life consumer show portfolio includes the Spring and Fall Cottage Life Shows in Toronto, the Edmonton Cottage Life Cabin & Outdoor Show, the Ottawa Cottage Life & Backyard Show, and the Seasons Christmas Show in Toronto. Collectively these shows attract 80,000 attendees and more than 1,000 exhibiting companies each (non-COVID) year. Prompted by pandemic event restrictions, Greg led Cottage Life’s foray into virtual events with the 2020 Virtual Fall Cottage Life Show, and the upcoming 2021 Virtual Cottage Life & Outdoor Living Show.

Journalist and digital content strategist Megan McPhaden has spent the past eight years managing the production and strategy of editorial content from end-to-end for major market news organizations and nonprofits including 660 NEWS, MaRS Discovery District, and CBC. She specializes in leveraging data to inform the development of cross-platform strategies for social media, video, print, and audio content.

Stephen Meurice is a former journalist who spent time at the Sherbrooke Record, Ottawa Citizen, National Post and The Canadian Press. He was EIC at the last two. He now toils happily at Scotiabank.

Sofia Misenheimer is a multimedia journalist based in Montreal. She works as a morning news anchor at CJAD 800 news/talk radio station. She’s the award-winning founder and editor-in-chief of Art/iculation magazine and is currently working on a #SofiaStaycations project to share hidden local gems, encourage safe city exploration, and support of local businesses amid the pandemic. Sofia has an MA in communication studies from McGill University and a graduate diploma in journalism from Concordia University.

John Montgomery is an experienced graphic designer + art director. Currently art director for Reader’s Digest Canada and Sélection, he’s previously worked on Canadian Business, MoneySense, Toronto Life, Financial Post Magazine and Taddle Creek magazines. He’s been nominated for several National Magazine Awards—including winning silver for cover of the year in 2016—and has won two Canadian Cover awards in 2012 and 2016. A part of the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association’s Pros On The Road series, he has spoken numerous times on cover design, as well as done consultations with publications on what they can do to help improve their design. John has been a judge for the National Magazine Awards numerous times, and was an editorial category judge for the Society of Illustrators’ 62nd annual in 2019. He’s also a PAC member for Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Illustration program and Centennial College’s graphic design program.

Ancienne rédactrice en chef mode et web du magazine Clin d’oeil, Sophie Montminy est fascinée par la passion et le feu sacré des femmes qui l’entourent. Elle crée le podcast de Femmes de Fer pour faire briller les femmes qui décident de changer les choses dans leur carrière et leur communauté. Elle est également journaliste et productrice de contenus pour différents médias et compagnies depuis plus de quinze ans.

@sofym

Susan Nerberg is a freelance journalist and writer of nonfiction narratives on science, nature, culture and place. Based in Montreal, she contributes to Azure, Broadview, Canadian Geographic, explore, enRoute and Hakai Magazine, among others.

Mary Nersessian is currently the senior producer for CTVNews.ca where she leads the national digital team. Before joining CTV News in 2004, Mary worked at the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism and certificate in Book Publishing from Toronto’s Ryerson University.

Amil Niazi is an award-winning writer and producer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, New York Magazine and Maclean’s amongst others. She has worked in the commissioning departments at BBC and The Guardian and was an associate editor at VICE Canada. She is currently a freelance writer and the showrunner of CBC’s weekly pop culture podcast, Pop Chat.

Olamide Olaniyan is the associate editor at The Tyee, an online news magazine based in British Columbia. He is interested in investigating power and telling underreported stories in new and interesting ways. Olaniyan led the work on The Tyee’s federal election newsletter which won gold at the 2020 Digital Publishing Awards.

Luke Ottenhof is a freelance writer based in Kingston, Ontario.

Ed Ou is a visual journalist and documentary filmmaker.

He started his career early as a teenager, covering the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, and the fall of the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, Somalia while he was studying in the Middle East. He first worked for Reuters and the Associated Press, covering a wide range of news stories in the region. He then worked for the New York Times covering East Africa and the Middle East during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Since then has covered the lasting trauma of colonialism in indigenous communities in Canada, the drug war in the Philippines, and the rise of extremism in the United States for NBC News.

He just completed a feature documentary looking at the intersection of American policing and those living with mental illness and has been covering the ongoing social justice protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

His documentaries have been awarded a Peabody, an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award, an International Reporting Award from the Overseas Press Club, a Canadian Screen Award, and a team Edward. R Murrow award, among others.

His photojournalism has been recognised by multiple World Press Photo Awards, a Global Vision Award, World Understanding Award, Documentary Journalism Awards, and Photographer of the Year Award from POYi.

He has been selected for a Getty Images Editorial Grant, PDN 30 Under 30, and took part in the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. He was also awarded the City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award at Visa Pour L’Image and the Young Reporter Prize from the Prix Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents.

He is a TED Senior Fellow.

He is represented by Reportage by Getty Images.

Shree Paradkar is a Toronto Star columnist who writes on anti-oppression and social justice issues. She is also the Star’s first internal ombud, a position created to create an anti-racist newsroom. She is the 2018-2019 recipient of the Atkinson Fellowship in Public Policy and winner of two Amnesty Awards for Human Rights reporting. Shree recently won the Racial Justice in Media award by the Urban Alliance of Race Relations. The author of Betrayed: My cousin’s wrongful conviction for the murder of her daughter, Aarushi, Shree has been a journalist in Bangalore, Mumbai, Singapore and Toronto.

When she’s not out gallivanting in nature, Katrina Pyne is a video editor and producer with the Hakai Institute and Hakai Magazine, telling stories about coastal science and societies from Victoria, BC. She comes from a background in journalism and has created media content for a variety of publications from coast to coast.

For more than a decade, National Magazine Award-winning journalist Bonny Reichert honed her skills at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, two of Canada’s biggest consumer magazines. Ready for a change, Reichert packed up her knives and headed to chef school. In the years since, she has focused almost exclusively on food writing and communications. Reichert has been a Globe and Mail columnist and a frequent contributor to the Style, Life and Travel sections. She’s written for publications like Best Health, Style Advisor, Report on Business and the Toronto Star. A writer, editor, recipe developer, food stylist and photographer, Reichert creates a range of content for print, web, video and social media. This year, she also joined the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies as an instructor in creative writing.

Sébastien Rodrigue est journaliste et directeur des plateformes web et mobile à La Presse. Son travail a été reconnu en 2005 avec une mention d’honneur aux Prix Michener. Il oeuvre depuis plus de 10 ans à la transformation numérique de La Presse. Il a été l’un des architectes principaux de la création de La Presse +. Son travail a permis de transformer un quotidien imprimé en salle de rédaction entièrement numérique. Il a participé à de multiples projets innovants autant sur le web que le mobile. Il a aussi dirigé plusieurs équipes de journalistes comme directeur de contenus. Depuis plusieurs années, il mène de nombreuses initiatives pour favoriser la diversité à La Presse, un sujet qui lui tient particulièrement à coeur. Il vit à Montréal.

Jessica Rose is a writer, editor, and book reviewer who has written for publications across Canada. She is the current book reviews editor for THIS Magazine, an assistant editor at MarQuee Magazine, a senior editor at the Hamilton Review of Books, and a founding editor of The Inlet, a digital arts and culture publication. Her book reviews have appeared in Quill and Quire, Room, rabble.ca, Herizons, THIS, the Children’s Book News, and the Humber Literary Review. She was also a longtime contributor to Hamilton Magazine before the publication ceased in 2019 and is the former Editor in Chief of Brainspace Magazine. Jessica has almost 15 years of experience in educational publishing, writing and editing resources for children, and she is the current Marketing Manager at gritLIT: Hamilton’s Readers and Writers Festival. She also works in the field of digital storytelling, working with many local and national not-for-profits.

Danielle Stanton est journaliste depuis plus de 25 ans. Elle a signé au-delà
d’une centaine d’articles (reportages, portraits, dossiers…) touchant aussi
bien la culture que les tendances sociales émergentes ou la science dans de
nombreux magazines au Québec (L’actualité, Elle Québec, La Gazette des
femmes, Sélection du Reader’s Digest, Québec Science…) et ailleurs
(L’Express). Elle est aussi l’auteure de l’ouvrage Nous sommes
Télé-Québécois paru en 2018 pour souligner les 50 ans de Télé-Québec et la coauteure  Jean de Grandpré : l’héritage d’un géant relatant le parcours de l’ancien PDG de Bell et de BCE. Quand elle n’écrit pas, cette marathonienne court!

Carmine Starnino is an editor-at-large with The Walrus. His most recent book is Dirty Words: Selected Poems 1997-2016. He lives in Montreal.

Fatima Syed is a Mississauga-based freelance journalist who has reported for The Logic, National Observer, and the Toronto Star. She is a Digital Publishing Award winner and National Magazine Award finalist.

Nick Taylor-Vaisey is an associate editor at Maclean’s, where he writes the daily Politics Insider newsletter and works on the magazine’s digital team. He served a two-year stint as the city editor of OpenFile Ottawa, a collaborative local news platform. He lives in Ottawa.

Outdoor Canada editor-in-chief and brand manager Patrick Walsh began his journalism career in 1983 as assistant editor of Muskoka Life. Among his resumé highlights, he taught journalism for four years in Tanzania and edited Masthead, the magazine industry trade journal. He joined Outdoor Canada in 2000, and in 2005, 2011 and 2012, the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors named him Editor of the Year, while Outdoor Canada was honoured as Magazine of the Year (medium circulation). Among his volunteer positions, Walsh has served as chair of Magazines Canada’s membership committee, and president of the National Magazine Awards Foundation. He also spearheaded two Magazines Canada task forces on advertising-editorial guidelines, and was named the association’s volunteer of the year in 2009.

H.G. Watson is a freelance journalist based in Toronto, Ontario. She’s currently a senior editor at Indiegraf, and an instructor at the Ryerson School of Journalism. She has written for Chatelaine, Flare, National Observer, Maisonneuve, TVO and many others.

Kate Wells is the Digital Experience and Content Specialist at OPB (Ontario Pension Board). She has worked in digital media for the past 12 years, including roles as acting digital director at Canadian Living and senior digital editor at Air Canada enRoute.

Patrick White is professor of journalism at the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) and director of the Journalism program at UQAM. Prior to that, he founded and managed HuffPost Quebec from 2012 to late 2018. Born in Quebec City, he worked as field producer for CTV National News at the Quebec legislature (1990-1997), correspondent for Reuters in Canada, Britain and France (1997-2004); deputy managing editor of La Presse Canadienne (CP’s French service) from 2004-2006; chief news editor at Le Journal de Québec daily (2006-2009) and editor in chief at Canoe.ca from 2010 to late 2011.

Fadi Yaacoub is currently the executive creative director, visuals and digital design of the Toronto Star. He joined the Star in 2015 after a career of 13 years in broadcast design at Radio-Canada Television in Montreal. Fadi is adept at leading diverse and multicultural operational teams, as well as building a creative workplace culture through effective leadership style. His main area of expertise is on the intersection between Visual Storytelling, Product Design, Branding, and Design Management. His interests include the effectiveness of VR and AR in visual journalism and creative content. He holds a T.S. in IT Management, B.A. in Graphic Design and a Master in Management.