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Alexandra Gillespie
Professor Alexandra Gillespie (she/her) began her first term as Principal of the University of Toronto Mississauga on July 1, 2020. The first woman appointed to the position, Gillespie brings to the Principal’s Office a spirit of innovation, interdisciplinarity, and inclusion that have defined her academic career for the past two decades.
After completing her BA (Hons) in English at Victoria University of Wellington in her native New Zealand, Gillespie attended Oxford’s Corpus Christi College where she earned an MSt and DPhil. She went on to a Research Fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, and the Munby Fellowship at Darwin College, Cambridge, before coming to UTM in 2004. Since then, she has worked successfully as both a Professor of English literature and a leader across the tri-campus system: as Chair of UTM’s Department of English & Drama; as an early member of Toronto’s Initiative for Diversity & Excellence; as the first Director of the Jackman Humanities Institute’s Digital Humanities Network; and as UTM’s Vice-Presidential Special Advisor in Research.
In her role as director of Toronto’s Old Books New Science Lab, Gillespie’s own research combines tradition with innovation, old books with new scientific technologies.
As Principal, Gillespie seeks to find even more opportunities to strengthen relationships with UTM and the wider community. Media Camp is part of a commitment by Principal Gillespie and other senior leadership at UTM to ensure digital safety and share best practices in keeping online spaces safer. Media Camp reaffirms priorities set out in UTM’s Strategic Framework: to Empower Research Discovery and Impact and to Encourage Collaboration and Belonging.
Shari Graydon
As a print and broadcast columnist, best-selling author and award-winning women’s advocate, Shari Graydon has spent 30 years using media to draw attention to issues she knows and cares about. Now she motivates and trains others to do the same. Through Informed Opinions, she has helped thousands of subject matter experts share their knowledge in accessible and engaging ways, and built a database of diverse, qualified sources to make them easier to find. She previously taught communications at Simon Fraser University, wrote speeches for cabinet ministers and the Governor General, and served as president of two national women’s organizations.
Tamika Forrester
Tamika Forrester (she/her) is the senior producer of CBC's Being Black in Canada where she leads the amplification of stories related to Black communities. Tamika has spent over 16 years in journalism. Her career highlights include producing on CBC News Network's breaking news desk and helping to launch the CBC News Snapchat channel. She is a firm believer in truth-telling specifically through the lens of diversity and inclusion.
Chris Glover
For the past 15 years, Chris Glover (he/him) has been an anchor and reporter with CBC News. Currently, he’s based out of Toronto, but he’s lived and worked in Winnipeg and Halifax as well. When he’s not filling TV and radio stories for CBC Toronto you can often catch him anchoring CBC News Network, helping audiences navigate the biggest national and international stories of the day. Chris has a passion for political reporting and was CBC’s legislative reporter in Manitoba amid one of the province’s most tumultuous times, when there was a cabinet revolt against a sitting Premier. He’s also been a correspondent for CBC in Washington D.C. and has led several investigations, including a national series on Canada’s unregulated surrogacy industry. Chris loves pushing boundaries when it comes to video and audio storytelling and currently teaches a course about imaginative storytelling for CBC. Fresh off a 2021 nomination for the Best Local Reporter award at the Canadian Screen Awards, he’s excited to see what the next chapter of his career brings.
Bree McEwan
Bree McEwan (she/her) is an associate professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and an associate director of the Data Science Institute. Her research focuses on social interaction via mediated channels, including social media and virtual reality. She is an alumna of the OpEd project's Public Voices Fellowship and has published OpEds in multiple venues including The Conversation, The Conversation Canada, Psychology Today, The Week, and NBC News.
Carla DeMarco
Carla DeMarco (she/her) is in UofT Mississauga’s (UTM) Office of the Dean in a 6-month secondment as Communications Manager. Carla has worked at UTM since 2006, cutting her chops in the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research (OVPR) as the Research Communications & Grants Manager, where she reviewed 100s of grant applications, and wrote 300+ research-related profiles, as well as spearheading the SURGE newsletter. She is the host, creator, and producer of VIEW to the U, a monthly podcast she launched in 2016. A long-time U of T employee, she started her career at OISE while completing her undergraduate degree in Cinema Studies and English Literature at U of T. She has worked at the U of T Magazine as Editorial Coordinator, and has also written for various UofT publications. In 2020, Carla crossed off two significant accomplishments on her to-do list: she obtained her Master's in the Faculty of Information Studies with a focus on archives and user-experience design, and also completed an author fellowship with the Society of Research Administrators International (SRAI), becoming a published author on podcasting in research. A frequent contributor to various research-administration blogs and volunteer stints with SRAI, she is the host and producer of a second podcast, SRAI's Shop Talk.
Kasia Mychajlowycz
Kasia Mychajlowycz (she/her) is the senior producer of The Decibel, a daily podcast from The Globe and Mail. She was the host and reporter for Cool Mules, an award-winning six-episode podcast from Canadaland. She’s worked at NPR’s Planet Money, WNYC’s On the Media, Freakonomics Radio, MTV News, and The Atlantic.
Dr. Sonia Kang
Dr. Sonia Kang (she/her) holds the Canada Research Chair in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the University of Toronto, where she is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the Rotman School of Management’s Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) and Chief Scientist, Organizations in the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman (BEAR). Sonia is also the University of Toronto Mississauga’s Special Advisor on Anti-Racism and Equity. Sonia’s research explores the challenges and opportunities of identity, diversity, and inclusion. She takes a novel approach by harnessing the power of behavioral insights and organizational design to disrupt systems, processes, and structures that block the path toward diversity and inclusion for individuals, organizations, and society. Sonia is a sought-after speaker, consultant, and expert commentator with a unique ability to translate complex research findings into actionable and impactful insights. She is the host of For the Love of Work, a podcast that explores practical solutions to today’s workplace challenges, touching on important and timely topics including resilience, values, diversity and inclusion, and psychological safety. Sonia was recently honored for her work with a 2021 Report on Business Changemakers Award.
Mio Adilman
Mio Adilman is a show runner at Pacific Content where he develops and produces original podcasts. Previously he worked in television, film and radio as a producer and executive producer as well as a host, reporter, columnist and actor. He is well known for multiple credits on CBC-TV and Radio, and perhaps best known for his role in the Trailer Park Boys TV series.
Jessica Boafo
Jessica Boafo (she/her) is the communications coordinator for the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute at University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She has a back-ground in digital media and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television from Ryerson University. She has a passion for using media to create interesting narratives and distinctive branding, especially when it comes to promoting one of the top programs within the rehab sector.
Ravisha Mall
Ravisha Mall (she/her) is a queer India-born Canadian settler who joined the School of Cities after working as a communications specialist and content creator in corporate, public and non-profit sectors across three continents. She has a deep passion for equity and social justice issues and constantly seeks opportunities to further her learning and understanding of the complexity of challenges faced by marginalized communities.
Blake Eligh
Blake Eligh (she/her) is a staff reporter covering the fascinating researchers, superstar students and accomplished alumni of the UTM community. Her stories appear across U of T news channels and alumni publications.
Before joining the Office of Communications team, Blake covered city planning and provincial politics, lifestyle, parenting and food beats for national newspapers and magazines. She holds a James Beard Award nomination, and a Gold National Magazine Award for a story about cupcakes.
When she isn’t writing, Blake helps journalists connect with expert sources and teaches clear writing in science communication. She is forever in search of the next great story.
Gabrielle (Gabe) Giroday
Gabrielle (Gabe) Giroday (she/her) is the media and communications specialist for the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and editor of U of T Med Magazine. Before joining U of T in 2019, she worked as a newspaper editor and reporter, and as a provincial government spokeswoman. She was a judge for the National Newspaper Awards in 2021.
Shauna Rempel
Shauna Rempel (she/her) has been UTM's Senior Social Media Strategist since November 2020. As part of the Office of Communications, she works with stakeholders across the campus and all of U of T to engage social media audiences. One of the projects she's had a chance to work on is the Battling Burnout video series, which won a Higher Ed Social Media award. Prior to that, she managed a cross-functional team of journalists in the Global News network. She also spent close to a decade as an editor at the Toronto Star. Individually and as part of a team, Shauna's work has won several journalism industry awards including accolades from Radio, Television & Digital News Association (RTDNA), Digital Publishing Awards, Canadian Online Publishing Awards and National Newspaper Awards. She has taught journalism at Centennial College and Ryerson University. Shauna holds a Master of Journalism from Carleton University and a Bachelor of English from the University of Saskatchewan.
Marius Zoican
Marius Zoican (he/him) joined the University of Toronto in 2018. He is appointed with the Department of Management at UTM, and cross-appointed at the Rotman School of Management and the Institute for Management and Innovation. Previously, Marius held a position at Paris-Dauphine University in France from 2015. Marius’ research agenda focuses on theoretical and empirical market microstructure, and particularly on the impact of technology on securities exchanges. His research was published in leading academic journals (The Review of Financial Studies, Management Science, or Journal of Financial Markets), as well as covered by media outlets such as The Economist and Bloomberg News. Marius obtained academic grants for work in the field of financial technology, e.g., from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canadian Securities Institute, and the French National Research Agency (ANR). He received several awards, including the Federation of European Securities Exchanges "De la Vega Award" (2016, 2021 runner up) for outstanding research in financial markets.
Jordana Garbati
Jordana Garbati (she/her) is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP) where she teaches ISP100: Writing for University and Beyond. She will soon begin as Director, Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, where she will oversee programming for writing, numeracy, and study skills for students, staff, and faculty at UTM. Prior to joining UTM, Jordana was a Writing Consultant at Wilfrid Laurier University where she provided in-class writing instruction, worked with faculty to develop discipline- and course-specific writing assignments, and mentored a team of undergraduate and graduate writing tutors. She also developed and taught the required undergraduate course EC281: Writing and Presentations in Economics in the School of Business and Economics at Laurier. Jordana’s research interests include academic writing as well as business communication. She has co-developed online writing resources (e.g., WriteOnline.ca), and in 2019, her first book Mastering Academic Writing (co-author: Dr. Boba Samuels) was published by Sage. Jordana holds a PhD in Education (focus: Applied Linguistics), an MBA, an MEd, a BEd, and a BA. She regularly tweets about writing in post-secondary education and posts grammar tips on LinkedIn.
Fiona Rawle
Fiona Rawle (she/her) has a Ph.D in Pathology and Molecular Medicine and is the Associate Dean, Undergraduate, at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Director of the Robert Gillespie Academic Skills Centre, and a Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Dept. of Biology. Her research focuses on public communication of science, science misinformation, the science of learning, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in science. She has received numerous awards focused on teaching, including the University of Toronto’s President’s Teaching Award. Dr. Rawle is also the acting Co-Chair of the University of Toronto’s TIDE group (Toronto Initiative for Diversity & Excellence), through which she gives lectures and workshops on bias, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Michael Corrin
Michael Corrin (he/him) is the Associate Director of the University of Toronto's Master of Science in Biomedical Communications program, and an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto Mississauga where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on visual storytelling for instructional and explanatory multimedia. Michael designs and develops digital tools to improve instruction in the visual communication domain; recently this work has included collaborations with anatomists to develop protocols for creating digital three-dimensional, human cadaveric specimens as well as instructional methods for teaching with them. Michael is also a Certified Medical Illustrator (CMI) who continues to work professionally creating visual multimedia for professional medical education.
Dr. Madeleine Mant
Dr. Madeleine Mant (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Her research examines health inequities in marginalized and institutionalized human groups through an interdisciplinary integration of bioanthropological and archival datasets. Her work investigates and amplifies previously unheard voices, demonstrating the powerful legacy of historical health in shaping health consequences and experiences today. She integrates historical costume and artifacts into her classroom, seeking to highlight universal human experiences with health and disease through time.
Chen Wang
Chen Wang (she/her) joined The Globe and Mail's visual journalism team in 2018 and has worked as a data journalist since then. Her work often involves data-driven storytelling and visualization. Chen has been part of a group at the Globe that tracks COVID-19 data daily and supports reporting related to the pandemic. She also co-authored an investigative series on gender disparities in the Canadian workplace that was nominated for two Online Journalism Awards in 2021. In 2019, she was part of a team that received a National Newspaper Award in business reporting for an investigation about inactive oil and gas wells in Western Canada.
Jodie Jenkinson
Jodie Jenkinson (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Director of Biomedical Communications (Dept. of Biology) and principal investigator of the Science Visualization Lab (www.sciencevis.ca).
Her research focuses on the role that visual representations play in learning. This includes investigation along various lines of inquiry including the efficacy of visual media within different learning contexts, the design of visual representations for optimal impact, and the development of standards of visual communication in the scientific visualization community. She teaches graduate level courses in Research Methods for Visualization and Information Design & Data Visualization.
Maleeha Sheikh
At a very young age Maleeha Sheikh (she/her) knew she wanted to be a reporter because she loved to ask questions and tell stories. She is currently a Journalist at CityNews Toronto covering everything from politics to human interest pieces. Maleeha has an Honours degree in Professional Writing from York University and a diploma in Broadcasting Journalism from Seneca College.Since graduating in 2010, Maleeha has worked as a web journalist, morning show reporter and videographer for a number of local outlets in TV. Maleeha was born in Toronto and in her spare time she loves to read, write, exercise, try new restaurants and most importantly spend time with her little boy and husband.
Daniel Tsai
Daniel Tsai, JD, LLM in Technology Law, MBA (Cornell University), MBA (Queen's University), PhD (ABD) (Osgoode Hall Law School), is a lawyer, business executive, former senior policy advisor, academic, and teacher. As a freelance columnist, Daniel has written on business, policy, and legal issues with his work in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, and The Hill Times, among others. Daniel has also appeared as a business and law expert on CBC News, Toronto Star, Global News, and others.
Daniel is the author of two books, the Business of Social Media and Entertainment and Law, Technology and Culture published by Top Hat Publishing. Daniel is also the Editor of ConsumerRights.ca - one of Canada's leading consumer advocacy websites. An excellent public speaker, Daniel has a teaching certificate from the University of Cambridge. Daniel has won prestigious awards including the JSD Tory Writing Award for Legal Writing and Research, the B.B. Dubienski Scholarship, and the Nathanson Fellowship at Osgoode Hall Law School. As a senior policy advisor in the Canadian government’s Recruiting Policy Leaders Program, Daniel wrote new laws and advised senior government officials on law reform. Daniel has studied French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, German and Chinese, scoring in the top decile on Harvard's Modern Languages Aptitude Test.
Shauna Brail
Shauna Brail (she/her) is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto. As an economic geographer and urban planner, her research focuses on the transformation of cities as a result of economic, social, and cultural change. Brail’s research encompasses studies of broad urban economic challenges and transformations associated with 21st century cities – including the impacts of COVID-19 on cities; the relationship between cities and the digital platform economy; and shifts in urban governance, policy and planning in connection to innovation and technological change. Brail is a Senior Associate at the Innovation Policy Lab in the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and Associate Director, UTM at the Mobility Network.
Ali Raza
Ali Raza (he/him) is a journalist at CBC News Toronto. Born and raised in Brampton, Ontario, Ali has worked in local newsrooms across the Greater Toronto Area covering nearly everything before moving over to digital and broadcast reporting for Canada's public broadcaster where he has reported on Peel Region and Toronto. His writing has appeared in The Narwhal, University of Toronto Magazine, and the Toronto Star. He's an avid soccer fan, occasional rock climber, and speaks English, Urdu, and Portuguese.
Nicolle Wahl
Nicolle Wahl (she/her) received an antique typewriter as a child and has been writing ever since. She completed her undergraduate degree in journalism at Ryerson University and spent several years as a freelance science and health reporter. In 2002, She joined the University of Toronto as a media relations officer, and later edited U of T’s faculty and staff newspaper before moving to U of T’s Mississauga campus as manager of communications and editor of the alumni magazine.
Over several years, Nicolle’s role expanded to include managing the campus’s website, social media and the growing editorial team. Today she is the Acting Executive Director, overseeing a team of eight people and liaising with communications colleagues across the University of Toronto’s three campuses.
Nicolle worked on communications for the COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic at UTM and is currently overseeing communications around UTM’s five-year strategic plan and completing her master’s in communications management from McMaster/Syracuse.
A chronically curious individual, she lives in Freelton, Ontario with her husband, two children, various pets and more books than she cares to acknowledge. Nicolle enjoys curating a Little Free Library at the end of her driveway, loves The Chicago Manual of Style but is vehemently anti-Oxford comma.