ABOUT ME
I am the Graduate Program chair of the Master of Media in Journalism and Communication program. I am involved in course creation, hiring, student recruitment, promotion, MMJC social media accounts and many other parts of running the professional Master’s level program. In the past I served as the MMJC internship coordinator. I continue to help set up student internships.
TEACHING
I teach in the following FIMS programs: Master of Media in Journalism and Communication; Media, Information and Technoculture program; and the Media in the Public Interest.
In 2015 I was honoured with the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. I have been on the Dean’s Honour Roll for Excellence in Teaching every year since it was created in 2015. I have been on Western’s University Student Council Teaching Honour Roll in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
My areas of research include international news, news coverage of the people and places on the margins, innovative ways of video storytelling, mobile journalism and multimedia reporting.
JOURNALISM CAREER
Prior to joining the Faculty of Information and Media Studies I spent 15 years as a multimedia journalist with some of the biggest news networks in the world. I worked in newsrooms and in the field for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation and Al Jazeera English TV. I’ve lived and worked across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and South Asia. I took one year away from journalism to work in communications. I helped run Iraq’s first elections after Saddam Hussein. I worked in Washington, D.C. as the Chief of External Relations for the Iraq Out of Country Voting Program and then I was posted to Baghdad to serve as an international adviser to Iraq’s Electoral Commission.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Part of the team that launched Al Jazeera English from its broadcast centre in Washington, D.C.
- Worked as a foreign correspondent in my own country by covering Canada for Al Jazeera English. As a Video Journalist I covered stories from across the country.
- Opened and ran a mini-news bureau in New Delhi.
- Interviewed the Dalai Lama as part of my coverage of the Tibetan Exile community in India.
- Covered numerous US and Canadian national elections.
- Reported on Ottawa’s apology to indigenous Canadians for residential schools and also covered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
- Helped lead a $10-million voting program for Iraqis in the United States where in a period of five weeks we grew from a team of three to staff of 1,300 with offices and polling centres in Washington, Nashville, Detroit, Chicago and Los Angeles.
- Served as the spokesperson for the Out of Country Voting Program in the US where I was interviewed by many of the biggest newspapers in the country and by most of the major American TV networks.