Jennifer Wells new visiting j-school chair

Clarification/update: Wells, as noted, is a visiting chair — not the overall chair.

Jennifer Wells is Ryerson University’s newest visiting chair for the School of Journalism in 2011. The York and Ryerson grad is currently a feature writer for The Toronto Star, and has worked for Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, The Financial Times of Canada and The Financial Post. In addition to her role as Rogers Communications Distinguished Visiting Chair, she will teach a course on business journalism and plans to work closely with Interim Chair Suanne Kelman to enhance business reporting curriculum.

In a note to staff, FCAD dean Gerd Hauck wrote:

“Wells’s business reporting has taken her to countries around the world, from Romania to investigate the sale of CANDU reactors, to India to investigate the export of Canadian asbestos and to Haiti to examine the Haitian economy following the 2010 earthquake. Wells’s travels to Indonesia to probe the Bre-X gold fraud earned her the National Business Book Award for Fever: The Dark Mystery of the Bre-X Gold Rush. Wells is the recipient of two National Newspaper Awards, three gold National Magazine Awards and numerous citations for her feature writing, both in newspapers and magazines.”