President's Media Outreach Award Winners

2025

• Steven High Steven has established a reputation with opinion page editors in English and French media for his timely and informative writing on subjects that benefit from his astute perspective on current events. This past year, his latest book examining the history of the New Democratic Party informed the context he provided on the party’s latest struggles as well as on a number of social issues.

2024

• Chedly Belkhodja Chedly explores trends in immigration retention across Canada, providing insights that shape public policy and societal engagement. His work strengthens Concordia's commitment to social justice, enhancing its impact on both the academic community and broader society by promoting inclusion and integration.

2023

• Catherine Kineweskwêw Richardson, Director, First Peoples Studies Program in the School of Community and Public Affairs. In this role, she has demonstrated her willingness to discuss a variety of issues related to First Nations here in Canada. Her value as a fearless commentator shone especially brightly in the summer of 2022 during the Pope’s visit to Canada when Catherine declared it was time to move beyond apologies to reparations and made the case for its urgency by writing in The Conversation.

2022

• Ursula Eicker, for writing a long list of opinion pieces in a variety of newspapers, publications and web sites, arguing in favour of green development in our cities, suggesting sustainability need not go out the window. She is always quick to respond to the MRPA team’s requests for an op-ed, making her urgent appeals and incisive analysis available to readers while the subject is hot.

2021

• Jean-Philippe Warren, Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, for his special series in La Presse on fake news
• Philippe Rioux, postdoc, with JP Warren, on Quebec superheroes

2020

• For their op/eds and interviews around the B/OLD conference
  • Kim Sawchuck, Professor, Communications Studies
  • Shannon Hebblethwaite, Associate Professor, Applied Human Sciences
  • Meghan Joy, Associate Professor, Political Science 

2019

• Nura Jubagi, PhD candidate and 2018 Public Scholar, on the Teo Taxi’s doomed business model
• Steven High, Professor, History, on the linguistic impetus among working class support for the Quiet Revolution

2025

• Fenwick McKelvey Fenwick is another perennial standout in the expert category; last year his savvy media contributions reached a whopping 105 million 742 thousand people on subjects bridging politics and communication. He offered a sharp analysis of Kamala Harris’ campaign, praising its mastery of media culture, and also brought his digital policy expertise to the fore, endorsing AI use in the Canadian federal government to streamline services and boost accessibility.

2024

• André Gagné André enhances Concordia's reputation through his critical analyses of religion's influence on politics and society. His work positions us as a hub for cutting-edge scholarship on cultural and political intersections.

2023

• Michel Magnan, Professor, Accountancy. Discussed matters of governance, particularly for publicly held institutions, and he’s called upon to analyse executive pay and benefits and how they fluctuate through changing economic conditions. Michel also wrote for The Conversation, most recently analysing the relationship of executive bonuses for Equity, Sustainability and Governance and a company’s performance on these issues.
• Moshe Lander, Senior Lecturer, Economics. Lander is a regular contributor to radio programs in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta, tackling issues such as inflation, the economic impact of professional sports facilities and a variety of other subjects preoccupying Canadians.

2022

• Simon Bacon, Professor, HKAP for his tireless appearances on popular television and radio shows sharing his calming perspective in what was a very scary time. He also founded and continues to co-direct the iCARE project, an international online survey of public attitudes around COVID-19, health and prevention measures.
• Carmela Cucuzzella, Professor, Design and Computation Arts, for advocated for stronger, bolder visions of what a city can and should be in op-eds in the Conversation and elsewhere, including attending the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. 

2021

• Ann-Louise Davidson, Professor, Education, discussed best-practices in online learning, and wrote several pieces for The Conversation dealing with how technology in teaching could help ensure wider access to education.

2020

• Moshe Lander, Senior Lecturer, Economics. He retained his reputation as a trusted expert when this pandemic hit, sharing his insights on Bank of Canada rates, border closures, CERB, Alberta’s economic plans, professional sports cancellations, Edmonton being a host city for NHL playoffs, the pros and cons of four-day work weeks, when our economy will reopen and what business owners and consumers should prepare for, and more.

2019

• Moshe Lander, Lecturer, Economics, besides providing regular commentary on sports economics, economic impacts of hosting world jr ice hockey championships, funding for francophonie games, professional sports teams and facilities in Halifax, Calgary’s bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, financial plans presented by politicians and their parties like Quebec Solidaire, NAFTA negotiations and the personalities involved, and so much more, also wrote an op-ed in the Globe and Mail about ticket pricing for Toronto Raptors games.

2025

• Jordan Lebel Jordan stands out as a leading voice with a remarkable media reach of more than 33 million people across top media outlets such Radio-Canada, La Presse, and Journal de Québec. His commentary—ranging from food marketing and consumer trends to economic shifts and local product advocacy—demonstrates deep expertise and clear public engagement.

2024

• Karim Zaghib A renowned expert in electrification and battery technology, Karim is instrumental in advancing Quebec's role in the global transition to clean energy. From reshaping lithium-ion battery strategies to driving the electrification of transport, his vision integrates innovation with practical solutions. Recognized among L'actualité's "Personalities of the Year," Karim also emphasizes the economic challenges and risks tied to these industries, advocating for sustainable progress.

2023

• Léa Clermont-Dion, Chercheuse Postdoctorale, Centre d'étude sur l'apprentissage et la performance (CSLP). Elle est sélectionnée par La Presse parmi les 12 Vrais influenceurs de l’année. Elle est présentée comme une défenseure dévouée et optimiste du changement social, utilisant activement sa plateforme pour aborder les questions de violence sexuelle et interagir avec des publics diversifiés. Léa s’est démarquée aussi avec plusieurs entrevues dans les médias francophones comme TVA, Le Devoir et particulièrement ses passages sur toutes les plateformes de Radio-Canada, notamment sa participation à l’émission phare Tout le monde en parle qui attire tous les dimanches plus d’un million de téléspectateurs et téléspectatrices. 

2022

• Carly Ziter, Assistant Professor, Biology, for her Urban Trees Project, which was covered in a web series by Radio-Canada and CBC
• Chadi Assi, Professor, CIISE and Tony Nasr, MASc. 22 received this award in recognition of the widespread media attention their research garnered for it outlined the vulnerabilities of Internet-connected Electric Vehicle charging stations.

2021

• Ted Rutland, Associate Professor, GPE, who discussed policing, racial profiling and gun violence and took the initiative of producing several opinion pieces on these topics for La Presse and Le Devoir.

2020

• Guy Lachapelle, Professor, Political Science, for generally being a very willing expert on a wide variety of political subjects, including the 2019 Canadian and 2020 US elections.

2019

• Mourad Debbabi, Professor, CIISE, Dean, GCS, was interviewed by Radio-Canada about blockchain.

2025

• Thanh Dang-Vu With a cross-country media reach of over 29 million, Thanh is a prominent voice on sleep and brain health research. Featured on Radio-Canada and CBC, he offers a critical lens to studies linking light pollution to Alzheimer’s and examines trends such as “sleep maxing,” emphasizing the potential harms of obsessively optimizing sleep.

2024

•  Emma Despland Emma is involved in environmental and educational activism. She contributed to addressing support for urban biodiversity with pollinator-friendly routes like the "Beeline," opposing the construction near Montreal airport for environmental reasons, and critiquing the Northvolt site selection process

2023

• Sandra Martin-Chang, Professor, Education. Sandra looked at the positive impact of students reading fiction, in particular an increase in empathy as a quality shared among young readers.
• Hashem Akbari, Professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering. Akbari's research was on the benefits of green roofing was quoted in a variety of publications. His work was cited in looking at measures people should adopt to mitigate the effects of rising temperatures due to climate change by these novel roofs effectiveness in lowering the cost of cooling buildings.

2022

• Muthu Packirisamy, Professor, Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering, Mohsen Habibi, research associate, Shervin Foroughi, PhD candidate, and Vahid Karamzadeh, MSEng 18, for their development of a breakthrough in 3D printing technology using ultrasonic waves that was hailed by the prestigious publication Québec Science as one of their Top 10 scientific discoveries of the past year.
• Damon Matthews, Professor, GPE, who published research on how Earth’s natural carbon sinks, such as forests, peat bogs and other ecosystems, play a role in removing carbon from the atmosphere. In that same study, Damon Matthews also warns these natural wonders can’t clean things up on their own and that governments must introduce tough policies to produce significant change.

2021

• Simon Bacon, Professor, HKAP, who led a global survey on people’s attitudes to COVID which highlighted the value of clear communications as people sought to understand the nature of the virus, its impact but also the best ways of combatting its spread.

2020

• Sylvia Kairouz, Professor, Sociology & Anthropology, for her interviews about her research on gambling addicts’ spending on VLTs & influence on provincial politics. Her research led to the provincial government saying it was looking into making changes to existing laws.
• Patti Sonntag, former Journalist-in-Residence, director of the Institute for Investigative Journalism, who led the Tainted Water collaborative investigative journalism project. Tainted H2O was a year-long investigation conducted by more than 120 journalists from nine universities and six media groups and won numerous awards.

2019

• Carly Ziter, Assistant Professor, Biology, for her research into how urban trees mitigate city heat islands. Chosen as one of EurekAlert’s Top Ten stories of the year, carried by the National Science Foundation, Le Devoir, CTV and other news outlets.

2025

• Natalie Philips Natalie is internationally recognized for her research on cognitive health, reaching more than 217 million people the world over. Featured in The New York Times and Le Devoir, her work shows how multilingualism and addressing sensory loss can delay dementia and improve quality of life.

2024

• Simon Bacon At the height of the COVID epidemic, Simon quickly established himself as a credible voice for research-based context on the latest developments. Even in 2023-24, media sought him out frequently for his sound perspective. He did interviews that reached more than 137million 490 thousand people around the globe.

2023

• Carly Ziter, Professor, Department of Biology. Carly was a media outreach award winner last year for her crowd-sourced research project of creating a portrait of the tree canopy in Montreal neighbourhoods. Carly built on that work again this past year by emphasizing the role of trees and the shade they create in mitigating the harmful effects of climate change. Her research was mentioned by media outlets the world over by the like of Sky News, Mother Nature Network and radio stations in the U.S. Her work was also highlighted as one of 2022’s best stories by the Global Investigative Journalism Network. Carly also readily offered up her expert perspective as Radio-Canada produced an in-depth series on heat islands in Montreal and when the COP conference came to Montreal at the end of 2022. Yet another of Carly’s research findings, this time about the surprising downside of urban beekeeping on domestic bee populations led to another wave of coverage from outlets including the prestigious Washington.

2022

• Seth Wynes, postdoc, GPE, for his work analysing the drop in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the cancellation or reduced travelling for teams in the four major North American leagues during the pandemic lockdown. Next, just as the federal election was kicking into high gear in the fall of 2021, Wynes’ research indicated that politicians, could, in fact, take people’s concerns about climate change to heart and respond to these concerns with policy changes.

2021

• Leon Wang, Professor, BCEE, produced a web platform for assessing the risk of viral transmission in buildings. His work was covered by the LA Times and Nature.

2020

• Sylvia Santosa, Associate Professor, HKAP. Her Research showed how the effects of obesity mirror those of aging and was carried in local and international media and was shared widely on social media site Reddit.

2019

• Bianca Grohmann, Professor, Marketing, whose research on variations in wine palates by geography appeared in  Food and Wine and La Presse, then picked up by many other outlets. 

2025

• Eva Crocker Eva has a combined media reach of over 14.8 million people. Her third-place win in the prestigious Montreal Fiction Prize for “Every Player Wins” showcases the strength of Eva’s work. Her writing bridges scholarship and storytelling, making a meaningful impact both within and beyond academia.

2024

• Mitchell Dickau Mitchell raised general awareness about the impact of climate change through his research on the effects of global warming on outdoor skating rinks. He wrote about the work and gave countless interviews driving home the findings that unstable ice conditions were a tangible result of global warming.

2023

• Fanny Gravel-Patry, Public Scholar. Fanny quickly made a media splash writing about – and discussing – her research on a surprising upside to the social media platform Instagram. She pointed out its effectiveness in community building and support for people dealing with mental health issues. Fanny was tireless in making the rounds of media outlets such as CTV, Global, CBC, CJAD and Le Devoir, discussing her work and her findings.

2022

• Hossein Azarpanah, PhD candidate in Supply Chain and Business Technology Management, who was the lead author on a paper about cognitive biases and vaccine hesitancy, and his co-authors, assistant professor Mohsen Farhadloo and professor Rustam Vahidov in the same department.

2021

• Marc-André Argentino, whose work documenting QAnon drew the attention of journalists across the globe. Following countless interviews in both English and French, Argentino’s research was covered in prominent outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald, Washington Post and France 24.

2020

• Simon Dubé, PhD student and 2021 Public Scholar. His research into Erobotics got him an article in The Conversation, coverage from CTV, Canadian Press and Moteur de recherche.

2019

• Tomas Matthews, PhD, Psychology, on the science behind what makes people groove. Appeared in the Conversation, La Presse, Psychology Today and Radio New Zealand.

2024

• Dorothy Williams Dorothy’s work as a historian has focused on life within predominantly Black communities in Montreal. Her research has informed documentary films and been recognized though public exhibitions. Dorothy’s teaching and her community involvement have made her a popular subject for media outlets looking to illuminate the contributions of Black Montrealers though history.

2022

• Manon Tremblay, Senior Director of Indigenous Directions in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic in recognition of all her work in advancing the university’s Indigenous Directions Action Plan as for her moving storytelling about her mother’s and great-grandfather’s experiences.

2021

• Angelique Willkie, Chair, President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, and Annick Maugille Flavien, Task Force member, who shared their views on why Black History Month still remains relevant, writing opinion pieces for the Montreal Gazette and CTV News. 
• Manon Tremblay, Senior Director, Indigenous Directions, spoke to CityNews about what it means to Indigenize the university’s practices, discussed in University Affairs magazine how Indigenous knowledge can be interwoven with traditional western practices and wrote about the importance of ensuring Indigenous Peoples have equitable access to education in The Hill Times. 

2020

• Amber Berson, Wikipedian-in-residence. Spoke to Rad-Can, Le Devoir, many others in English and France about her unique position.

2025

• Xiaodan Pan A keen analyst of the health of retail sales operations, Xiaodan has written widely read pieces in The Conversation that provide insight into the effects of tariffs and how businesses can better survive their introduction. She has also looked at the lessons to be learned by retailers watching the failure of the Hudson’s Bay stores.

2024

• Denis Schweizer An expert on finance, Denis wrote popular pieces in The Conversation about U.S. presidential candidates Harris and Trump and their views on cryptocurrencies and their likely impact on voters. Showing his wide breadth, he also examined the personal and professional impacts on job performance experiences by people going through divorces or separations.

2023

• Jordan Richard Schoenherr, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology. Jordan figures among the most prolific writers on The Conversation Canada’s platform and his pieces enjoy widespread republication in a variety of media outlets. He also demonstrates a flair for addressing issues behind stories making news headlines. Just a few examples of subjects Jordan has taken a closer look into: state use of deepfakes, systemic issues revealed by generative AI and how drones are dehumanizing warfare.

2022

• Homa Hoodfar, Professor Emerita, Sociology and Anthropology, for her writing condemning the Taliban government in Afghanistan for closing girls’ schools.
• Claudine Mangen, Professor, Accountancy, for her articles about the impact of COVID on women in the workplace and the shift to working from home.

2021

• Louise Champoux-Paillé, executive-in-residence at the John Molson School of Business and co-director (practice) for the faculty’s recently inaugurated Barry F. Lorenzetti Centre for Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership. Her articles on women in the workplace, the impact of COVID on working women and why the world needs more women leaders in COVID times and beyond were carried by outlets including the World Economic Forum, Huff Post Quebec and L’Actualité magazine.