Speaker Information

Innovation in Fact-Based Reporting

Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation Canada

Vinita Srivastava is an award-winning journalist. From 2021-25, she hosted and produced TCC’s podcast, Don’t Call Me Resilient (2024 Gold Anthem Award, 2025 NMA best current affairs nominee). She has edited and reported for the New York Times Magazine, VIBE, the Village Voice and Savoy. She cohosted on WBAI radio and CKLN for over a decade. She was a member of the Journalism Innovation Lab at UBC and has taught journalism at SFU’s Podcast School, TMU and the National University of Rwanda.

Wendy Cox, The Globe and Mail

Wendy Cox has been The Globe and Mail’s B.C. Bureau Chief since November 2013. Prior to The Globe, Wendy was the B.C. and Yukon bureau chief for the Canadian Press. She has also worked as a reporter in Toronto and Winnipeg, and as a politics reporter in the Ontario and B.C. legislatures and on Parliament Hill.

Reporting on Climate in the Current Climate

Michelle Cyca, The Narwhal

Michelle Cyca is a journalist from Vancouver, and a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6. She joined The Narwhal in 2023 as the editor of Indigenous-led conservation, and is now the bureau chief of conservation and fellowships. In addition to assigning stories, Michelle covers the intersections of Indigenous Rights, Canadian politics and economic development. She also loves stories about under-appreciated animals in Canada, such as bats and eels.

Her writing at The Narwhal has been a finalist for the Jack Webster Awards and Digital Publishing Awards, and stories she has edited have been finalists and winners at the Indigenous Media Awards, Canadian Association of Journalists Awards, Jack Webster Awards and Digital Publishing Awards. Michelle is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Indigenous Journalists Association, and a board member of tâpwêwin media, an Indigenous-led media non-profit.

Laura Johnson, CBC/Radio-Canada

Lisa Johnson is a senior writer and editor at CBC News. She co-created and teaches CBC’s climate journalism course and helped launch CBC Radio’s What On Earth. Over more than 20 years at CBC, she’s covered big breaking news like extreme weather, kidnappings and the Stanley Cup riot, and dug into issues in our natural world, from pesticides and plastic to carbon offsets and killer whales. She holds a BSc (Honours) and Masters in Journalism from UBC. Lisa specializes in finding the spark and sense in complicated topics, and her work has won a Gracie Award, RTDNA and the CJF award for Climate Solutions Reporting.

Beyond her work at The Narwhal, she is an adjunct professor at the UBC School of Journalism, Writing and Media. Her reporting and essays can also be found in The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, The Walrus, Chatelaine, IndigiNews and other publications. From 2013 to 2018, she was the co-publisher of SAD Mag, a biannual print publication focused on art, design and storytelling from Vancouver.

Explanatory Journalism in an Era of News Avoidance

Angela Pacienza, The Globe and Mail

Angela Pacienza is the Executive Editor at The Globe and Mail, where she’s responsible for delivering quality, audience-first journalism, as well as driving culture change to create a more nimble, inclusive and forward-thinking newsroom. Angela is passionate about closing the gap between storytelling and audience, as well as devising new approaches to digital, print and visual journalism. Angela is a graduate of the Online News Association’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator program (2018) and a mentor with Digital Women Leaders. She currently sits on the board of directors for the Canadian Journalism Foundation and the Online News Association. She first got involved with ONA as a volunteer stuffing delegate bags at ONA07.

Mary Lynn Young, Global Journalism Innovation Lab and UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media

Mary Lynn Young, PhD, is a full professor, co-founder and board member of The Conversation Canada, a national non-profit journalism organization, and affiliate of The Conversation global network. She has held a number of academic administrative positions at UBC, including Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts (2011-2016), Director of the UBC School of Journalism (2008-2011), and Acting Director (June-December 2007). Her research interests include gender and the media, newsroom sociology, data and computational journalism, journalism startups and representations of crime. She has written two separate co-authored books, Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities (Oxford, 2020) with Candis Callison, and Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News (Routledge, 2019) with Alfred Hermida.

She has worked as a journalist in a variety of roles (reporter, copy/slot editor, national business columnist) with major daily news organizations in Canada and the United States. She was certified as a professional coach in 2013. She has been recognized for her overall contributions, most recently with the 2016 University College Alumni of Influence Award at the University of Toronto. Prior to that she was nominated for the 2013 YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the Education, Training and Development category, and named one of BC’s 100 Women of Influence by the Vancouver Sun in 2010. Mary Lynn was an expert witness in the Cornwall Public Inquiry, producing a comprehensive media analysis about allegations of historical abuse over a 20-year period involving youth in that community.

In 2007, she launched the Feminist Media Project in partnership with other feminist academics. The project included a website that provided a feminist perspective on media depictions of missing and murdered women. As part of this work, she was a member of the Board of Directors (2006-2009) at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre in Vancouver. Mary Lynn holds a PhD in Criminology from the University of Toronto.

The Money Side

Canada’s New News Mix: How Independent Creators are Changing Journalism

Risks and Opportunities of AI in Journalism

Alfred Hermida, Global Journalism Innovation Lab and UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media

Alfred Hermida, PhD, is an online news pioneer, digital media scholar, and journalism educator with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of journalism and technology. As a Full Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, he has significantly influenced the evolution of journalism education and practice. Hermida served as the school’s director from June 2015 to December 2020, during which he spearheaded initiatives that integrated innovative teaching methods and research into the curriculum.

As a founding member of the BBC News website, Hermida played a pivotal role in shaping digital journalism from its inception. His extensive research focuses on the transformation of media, examining how emerging technologies, social media, and data journalism are reshaping journalistic practices and audience engagement. His groundbreaking concept of “ambient journalism” has provided a theoretical framework for understanding how social media platforms create a constant flow of information that fundamentally changes news dissemination and consumption.

Linda Solomon-Wood, Canada’s National Observer

Linda Solomon-Wood leads Observer Media Group, the organization responsible for Canada’s National Observer and Civic Searchlight. Linda started her career when investigative journalism was prized by newsrooms and bringing the values she learned then to a digital reporting team today. Linda is energized by the team that includes journalists with decades of experience and young, evolving reporters excited to have the opportunity to cover the most urgent issues of the day.

Linda is thrilled about the 2025 launch of Civic Searchlight, and the ways in which it is making local government transparent to users. A searchable database of municipal proceedings, it covers 32,512 meetings across 670 municipalities in every province and territory and is provided free to all approved users. Journalists use it to find buried stories and researchers use it to track policy trends. Health authorities monitor decisions affecting public well-being, while unions follow privatization votes. Citizen groups use it to hold their local councils accountable. Linda and her team uses Civic Searchlight to expose AI-driven campaigns aimed at deceiving officials at scale into voting against good civic policies. Linda is based in Vancouver, BC.

Rignam Wangkhang, CBC/Radio-Canada

Rignam Wangkhang is the first AI Advisor at CBC News, where he leads the integration of generative AI across Canada’s national newsrooms. An award-winning producer with a background in community-led journalism, Rignam co-founded the Canadian AI Journalism Network (CAIJN) to bridge the gap between technologists and newsroom leaders. As a Fellow at CUNY’s AI Journalism Lab, he collaborates globally to develop ethical frameworks that ensure AI transformation strengthens community trust rather than eroding it.

The New Vanguard: Creators, Influencers, and the Local Ecosystem

Bob Kronbauer (BC Bob), Now You Know BC

Bob Kronbauer (BC Bob) is a TV host and content creator sharing stories all about British Columbia. Bob has been focusing on his home province and its culture, people, and history for two decades.

Bob hosts his show Now You Know BC on CHEK TV, where he highlights subjects all across BC. 

Tanya Talaga, Journalist and Filmmaker

Talaga is the founder of Makwa Creative, a production company formed to elevate Indigenous voices and stories through podcasts like Auntie Up! and documentary films including the Canadian Screen Award nominated War For The Woods, and Mashkawi-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin Spirit to Soar that received the ”Audience Award” for best mid-length documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival. Talaga holds five honorary doctorates and in 2018, was the first Anishinaabe woman to be the CBC Massey Lecturer. Talaga is the recipient of the 2025 Canadian Journalism Federation Tribute which recognizes media luminaries who have made an exceptional journalistic impact on the international stage.

Anita Li, Publisher and CEO, The Green Line

Anita Li is a longtime journalist who’s known for her work in journalism innovation, as well as a media consultant, educator and entrepreneur based in Toronto, Canada. Anita has over two decades of experience as a multi-platform journalist in three major markets: Toronto, New York City and Ottawa. Anita started out her career as a reporter and editor at Canadian legacy outlets, including The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and CBC. Anita then served in strategic, management-level roles at American digital media outlets, such as Fusion, Complex and Mashable. Currently, Anita is the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Green Line, a hyperlocal, independent news outlet that investigates the way we live to help young and other underserved Torontonians survive in a rapidly changing city.

Anita also occasionally freelances, with her op-eds and articles appearing in New York Magazine, Poynter, The Walrus and other publications across North America.

Politics, Power and the Press
How audiences navigate a fractured political reality

Christy Clark, Former Premier of British Columbia

Christy Clark, a distinguished figure among Canadian politicians, was the 35th Premier of British Columbia and the first woman to be re-elected to that position. When Clark took office, Canada’s third-largest province was struggling economically, but in just six years, she transformed the BC economy. She made significant investments in strategic infrastructure, encouraged greater participation from Indigenous communities in the economy, accelerated global trade, and modernized and diversified what is now a $250 billion economy. At the same time, Clark balanced consecutive budgets, reduced debt, and maintained some of the best health and education outcomes in the country.

Today, Clark is a highly sought-after guest speaker at events nationwide, an active board member for top Canadian companies and institutes, and an advisor to some of Canada’s leading figures and organizations.bHer deep understanding of decision-making at various levels of government has made her a trusted advisor to business leaders in corporate boardrooms, and her experience in economic development has earned her recognition as a thought leader by numerous industry leaders and think tanks.

Richard Gray, Vice-president, CTV News

Simi Sara, Host, Mornings with Simi, Global News

Seasoned in the media business, Simi Sara spent the first 15 years of her career in broadcast journalism and television. In 2010, she joined 980 CKNW as host of ‘The Simi Sara Show’, a news program known for its expert commentary on breaking news, current events, and opinion. She later transitioned into a new timeslot as host of ‘Mornings with Simi’, where she dives into the headlines of the day, helping Vancouver locals wake up and start the day on the right track.

Through her personable and humble approach to journalism, Simi’s passion for storytelling is engaging and real, allowing her listeners to openly share their thoughts. As a trusted and beloved voice in the city, she brings everyday common sense to Vancouver’s daily conversation. She is the recipient of numerous awards including two national and three regional RTDNA awards for her editorial and commentary, a Jack Webster award, 2x B.C. Association of Broadcasters award (BCABs), and many more. As an event professional, Simi Sara has a remarkable aptitude for hosting, emceeing, and event moderating; she excels in orchestrating a seamless experience for single-day and multi-day events.

Decoding America
Understanding the U.S. from Canada

Kris Reyes, CBC/Radio-Canada

Kris Reyes CBC’s correspondent based in New York. She is a multimedia journalist with more than 15 years of experience in broadcast and digital newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada, as a host, producer, anchor and reporter.

Dawna Friesen, Global National

Dawna is anchor and executive editor of Global National, the flagship national newscast of Global News. During her more than 30 years as a journalist, Friesen has been everywhere from small town Canada to the front lines of history, and in 2023 was awarded the Canadian Screen Award for Best National News Anchor and Best National Newscast. 

Prior to joining Global National, Friesen was a senior foreign correspondent for NBC News, based in  London. During her 11 years there, she travelled extensively across Europe and the Middle East, covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, spending months in Israel and Gaza during the Second Intifada, covering the disappearance and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, and covering events in Russia, including terrorist attacks in Moscow and Beslan, as well as too many stories about the British royals than she can count. While at NBC News, her work appeared on NBC Nightly News, Today and MSNBC. She also won an Emmy award for election night coverage when President Barack Obama won his first term. 

Prior to that, Friesen worked her way up through the ranks as a journalist in Canada, including as a Parliamentary correspondent for CTV News, a national reporter in Toronto and back-up host for Canada AM, a reporter for CBC News in Saskatoon and Vancouver, and at radio and TV stations in Brandon, Manitoba, Thunder Bay and Winnipeg. Friesen returned from London in 2010 to join Global National and has since anchored multiple breaking new stories on location, including the death of Queen Elizabeth, the mass shooting on the James Smith Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, the shooting at the mosque in Quebec City, the wildfires in Fort McMurray, Alberta, and the terrorist attack in Paris, France. She also travels to Washington DC to cover every American Presidential election and anchors the live coverage of every federal election in Canada.  

In 2019 and 2023, she was awarded the Canadian Screen Award for Best National News Anchor, and in 2015, Global National won Best National Newscast. In 2013, Global National was awarded the Edward R. Murrow Overall Excellence Award for Network Radio and Television, becoming the first Canadian program to earn that recognition in the award’s 42-year history.  In 2011, Friesen won the Gemini Award (now CSA) for Canada’s Best News Anchor. 

Mi-Jung Lee, CTV News Vancouver

Mi-Jung Lee is a veteran investigative journalist and anchors CTV News at Six. Before this role, her reporting won numerous awards for excellence. In 2017, she won a RTDNA award for her coverage of the opioid crisis in Vancouver. In 2016, Lee broke stories on Sexual Harassment Claims at WestJet – stories that earned her a Webster Award for best TV reporting. Her investigative reports have also won numerous RTDNA awards for excellence in journalism. The hidden camera investigations included stories on the underground world of massage parlours that sell sex, a “natural health doctor” claiming to cure cancer and how casinos fail to protect problem gamblers. Lee is a trail blazer. When she began her career in 1990 as a reporter and part-time anchor at Victoria’s CHEK-TV, Lee was the first Korean-Canadian newscaster in BC and one of only a few Asian-Canadians on the air in Canada. She joined BCTV in 1992 where she reported and anchored.

In 1998, she joined Vancouver Television as the co-anchor of VTV Live at 6. In 2008, she hosted CanadaAM: Western edition. Lee was the anchor and producer of CTV News at 11:30 p.m. from 2001 to 2010. Born in South Korea, she has lived in Vancouver since she was four. She graduated from the University of British Columbia with an English Literature degree and Ryerson University with a degree in Journalism. In 2008, Lee travelled to Brazil as an ambassador for World Vision’s Vancouver Campaign for Children. She continues to volunteer with several local charities and organizations.