Michelle Shephard (Toronto Star)

"Unbeatably fierce as a reporter, unmatchably kind as a mentor to other journalists, Michelle Shephard had an extraordinary year. Beginning with her on-the-ground, bullet-dodging reports from Yemen as one of the few Western journalists to document that country's role in the Arab Uprising, to her unwavering determination to report on the famine in Somalia from Mogadishu, Shephard's work was a rarity: mature, intelligent and world-class. It became clear that in this, her 10th year as the Star's terrorism and security reporter, Shephard has set the standard for Canadian journalism in this field, a role reinforced on the international stage with the fall publication of Decade of Fear, her highly praised analysis of 9/11."

Here are some of Shephard's stories from Mogadishu and Yemen:

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/12/04/in_somalia_the_solutions_are_in_the_details.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/10/29/burying_dead_to_feed_the_living_in_mogadishu.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2011/06/03/as_yemeni_president_digs_in_his_country_burns.html

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2011/02/15/the_unlikely_face_of_yemens_uprising.html