Aatefeh Padidar 

 Aatefeh Padidar began her journalism career as a researcher on CBC Radio’s current affairs programs, where she developed a passion for storytelling rooted in public service. Alongside her newsroom work, she contributed to The National’s Heat Project, a data-driven investigation into how extreme indoor heat impacts vulnerable communities. 

She later worked on Black Changemakers, a series celebrating Black excellence in Quebec, and contributed to State of Our Schools, a national investigation into public education. Her team’s work on the latter earned a CBC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Award. 

Now a reporter for CBC Montreal, Aatefeh covers a range of local stories for TV, radio, and web — from the housing and homelessness crisis to the threat of Lyme disease and efforts to revive historic cinemas. 

As a master’s student in Digital Innovation in Journalism Studies at Concordia, she has presented her research at two Canadian Communication Association (CCA) conferences, worked as a teaching assistant, and co-organized academic events. Aatefeh believes journalism and academia must work in tandem — one can’t exist without the other.