Professional Industry Networks — Journalism

André Roy, event emcee. Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science

Dean of Concordia's largest faculty since 2014. Roy was a professor of geography at Université de Montréal for 30 years before becoming the dean of the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo for three years.

Aphrodite Salas, MA 99, event moderator. Assistant professor, Department of Journalism

Aphrodite Salas is a journalist with more than 20 years of experience who has worked across Canada and around the world. She is now an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at Concordia and continues to freelance at CTV Montreal, where she spent 10 years in several different roles.

George Kalogerakis, BA 87, author and freelance journalist

After graduating from Concordia, Kalogerakis worked for a tiny weekly newspaper in Buckingham (a town in Quebec, not the palace) before becoming a justice reporter for the Ottawa Citizen. He then joined the Montreal Gazette where he worked as justice reporter, copy editor and finally city editor. After the Gazette, he was the managing editor at Le Journal de Montreal for 12 years.

Rachel Lau, BA 13, Quebec online producer, Global News

A graduate of Concordia's journalism program, Rachel also studied political science in France at the l’Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and photography at the New York Institute of Photography. She was previously an ambassador for the United Nations Association in Canada and travelled across Canada as their representative. Her personal series on Global Montreal, Just Like Home, was nominated for a 2019 Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) award.

Julian McKenzie, BA 16, freelance journalist and news reporter at CTV Montreal

McKenzie is a freelance journalist, podcast host and broadcaster based in Montreal. He is a weather presenter and news reporter for CTV Montreal, a sports stringer for the Canadian Press, a broadcaster for McGill University's Athletics Department and a co-host of the Canadian sports media podcast, The Scrum Podcast. 

Patti Sonntag, BA 00, director, Institute for Investigative Journalism (IIJ)

Former managing editor in The New York Times' News Services division, Sonntag now facilitates and provides advice on collaborations between Canadian universities and media companies. She served as series producer on the award-winning national investigation “The Price of Oil” and other IIJ projects. A recipient of the Michener Fellowship in Journalism Education, she also teaches investigative reporting at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.