Our core team includes award-winning reporters, editors, designers, engagement specialists, data analysts and programmers. Our work has been published in dozens of media outlets, ranging from the Atlantic Magazine to CTV to Postmedia, Canada’s largest newspaper chain. Discourse Media was a finalist for the 2015 Data Journalism Website of the Year awarded by the Global Editors Network for its project Moving Forward. Our team has also been recognized for its journalism innovation work with awards from the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Ashoka Canada, Inspirit Foundation and AMEX Emerging Social Innovators.

Our network includes strategic partners from a variety of sectors. We collaborate with media outlets and journalists through partnerships and fellowships. Our media partners range from Al Jazeera to the Dhaka Tribune to Canadian University Press to Thompson Reuters to Maclean’s. We also extend the impact of our journalism by brokering partnerships with research groups, funders and other sorts of organizations, including the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, SFU Public Square, the Waterloo Global Science Initiative, 8 80 Cities and the Knight Foundation.

Erin Millar has received multiple awards for her journalism innovation work, including being named 2015 Bob Carty Fellow by the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, a solutions journalism fellow by Ashoka Canada and an AMEX Emerging Social Innovator. She has given talks and hosted workshops across Canada and internationally, including at the University of British Columbia, the Canadian Association of Journalists national conference, the International Journalism Festival and as part of the Knight Foundation/8 80 Cities collaboration K880 Fellowship.

Previously she worked for The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Reader’s Digest, The Walrus, The Times of London and other publications. She has reported from over a dozen countries on three continents. Her work has been translated into 20 languages and published in 34 countries. She is a published author and taught journalism at Quest University and Langara College.

Debbie Douez is a marketing and business development strategist with more than 20 years of experience spanning corporate and non profit worlds in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Her passion for the arts, new media and social change has drawn Debbie to projects designed to make an impact in local communities and society at large.

She has worked with large corporations such as Intrawest, the Royal Bank and Bristol Myers Squibb; with non profits such as The Minerva Foundation, AIDS Vancouver and Blind Beginnings, and artist collectives such as The Human Emotion Project, Exquisite Corpse Video Project and Bocallave Colectivo where she has explored new collaboration methods with artists from around the globe. Most recently, Debbie was the Director of Marketing and Development at the Museum of Vancouver, actively participating in the development of exhibitions focused on issues facing Vancouver today. As the owner and director of Video4Web, she produced over 40 short videos for various not for profit and corporate clients. 

Caitlin Havlak is a data analyst and interactive programmer dedicated to using data visualizations to make complex issues accessible and engaging. Her background is in applied biology at the Resource and Environmental Management graduate program at Simon Fraser University, where she researched how to use indices to inform the public and policymakers about complex issues like ocean health.

Caitlin designed and programmed interactives for Discourse Media project Moving Forward. Apps such as the Cost to Commute Calculator helped users understand complex data about the transportation system in Metro Vancouver in the run-up to a high-stakes plebiscite on transportation funding. Caitlin contributed research to the Ocean Health Index, an ambitious effort to use indices to inform the public and policymakers about the complicated issues impacting the world’s oceans.

Brielle Morgan is a writer and producer with a passion for process, an ear for elders, and an interest in building platforms for story-sharing among underrepresented communities. She is co-founder of Storywise, an audio story-gathering initiative.

Brielle has reported in Canada’s far North at Nunatsiaq News, chased international stories at CBC’s As It Happens, collaborated with citizen journalists in East Africa, studied journalistic ethics as a FASPE fellow, and penned stories for BC’s Knowledge Network. Prior to earning a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Carleton University, she spent two years teaching English in Seoul.  

Ian Gill is a columnist with The Tyee (thetyee.ca) and author of four books, including the forthcoming: “No News Is Bad News: Canada’s Media Collapse – and What Comes Next.” (Greystone Books, September 2016). A former senior reporter and editor at The Vancouver Sun, award-winning documentary reporter with CBC-TV, CBC radio columnist (Morningside), and frequent contributor to magazines and journals in Canada and his native Australia, Ian served for several years on the board of Canada’s Centre for Investigative Journalism. After leaving the CBC in the mid-90s, Ian founded Ecotrust Canada, a Vancouver-based non-profit working in coastal communities. Ian has worked extensively with philanthropic foundations and non-profits in Canada, Australia and the US, and currently is principal of a consulting company, Cause+Effect. He lives in Vancouver.

Nelly Bouevitch is a reporter and researcher driven by journalism that breaks down barriers for underrepresented voices in media. Nelly reported for Discourse Media and Maclean’s investigation of the Canadian justice system, and has previously worked with The Globe and Mail, Canadaland, and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

Her research at the School of Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University investigates ways that Canada’s government is partnering with First Nations on development and conservation of natural resources. Her background includes working with SFU Vancity Office for Community Engagement, where she wrote about public programming related to social justice, sustainability and urbanism in the Downtown Eastside community of Vancouver. 

Ash Kelly first joined Discourse Media as an intern in 2013 and has since contributed reporting to multiple projects. A graduate of the journalism program at Langara College, Ash was awarded the Penny Wise Journalism Scholarship that recognizes exceptional promise. In 2015, Ash also received the prestigious Jeani Read-Michael Mercer Scholarship that supported her collaboration with the award-winning team at CBC Radio Vancouver’s On the Coast to produce a week-long series about the elevated risk of abuse toward people with disabilities in the Lower Mainland. Ash’s work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Vancouver Province, CBC and Maclean’s.

Christine McLaren is a journalist and researcher with a focus on the intersection between urban development and environmental and social issues. She has worked with media outlets including Monocle, GOOD, Metropolis, Next City, The Globe and Mail, Xinhua News Agency, MSN and others. She spent three years travelling around the world as the resident writer of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a mobile urban think tank project of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Christine was lead researcher for the book Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. She now gives keynotes, conducts workshops and consults with cities and organizations around the world on urban wellbeing.

Colleen Kimmett is an award-winning, Montreal-based journalist focused on social justice and environmental issues. Her journalism has appeared in publications including The New Republic, The Guardian, Canadian Geographic and Chatelaine. Previously, Colleen worked as a reporter and editor focused on food policy for the only Canadian news organization — The Tyee — to win two Edward R. Murrow awards for Excellence in Journalism. In 2010, Colleen helped launch The Tyee Solutions Society, a non-profit focused on producing catalytic journalism in the public interest.

Associates