I'm the founder and publisher of Canada's National Observer (CNO), where I previously served as editor-in-chief for eight years. My journey in journalism began remarkably early – at 16, writing wedding notices and obituaries for The Greenfield Recorder in Massachusetts. After studying at Northwestern University, where I edited The Daily Northwestern's opinion page, I landed at The Tennessean in Nashville. There, I was fortunate to be mentored by publisher John Siegenthaler, whose example showed me how a good publisher could combine business acumen with a deep passion for journalism's highest calling.

At The Tennessean, my investigative reporting earned United Press International awards for uncovering insurance fraud and exposing corruption in Nashville's public housing administration. The stories led to U.S. Senate Hearings and legislative change. I worked with another reporter on a series that led us to spend six months on an investigation in the city's public housing projects where we uncovered numerous instances of negligence and fraud. This series won The John F. Finney award for Economic Reporting. I pursued other groundbreaking stories, including an investigation into how doctors were attempting to undermine nurse-midwives' practices – a story that took me from Nashville to California as it illuminated the national movement to de-medicalize birth.

My path then led to international freelance reporting, where I interviewed and wrote about remarkable women creating change against tremendous odds: Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Medha Patkar, who fought against a World Bank dam project that would displace a million Indian farmers; and Noreen Kaleeba, who transformed Uganda's approach to AIDS from stigmatization to compassion.

Life took an unexpected turn after 9/11, when concerns about Manhattan's air quality prompted my family's relocation to Vancouver. There, I pioneered a new approach to journalism by founding the Vancouver Observer, one of the city's first hyperlocal digital-native sites, which gained significant prominence. This experience led to the creation of CNO, where I've focused on developing sustainable revenue streams for high-quality investigative journalism and in-depth reporting.

As CEO of Observer Media Group, I've built and led teams that have garnered more than sixty of Canada's most prestigious journalism awards. As we approach CNO's tenth anniversary in 2025, I'm proud of our evolution into a powerful multimedia platform. Despite the inevitable changes ahead in both journalism and our world, I'm confident that CNO will continue providing invaluable public interest journalism for years to come.

My driving force remains unchanged since my earliest days in journalism: I've witnessed, time and again, how quality journalism can transform people's lives for the better. This conviction continues to guide my work in developing innovative approaches to sustain and advance impactful reporting.