Our team

Carol Linnitt is a journalist, editor, illustrator and co-founder of The Narwhal. Carol has been reporting on energy and environmental politics for the last decade for outlets including VICE Canada, The National Observer, Academic Matters and The Tyee.

Emma Gilchrist co-founded The Narwhal with Carol Linnitt in 2018, and served as executive director and editor-in-chief until 2024. Emma grew up in a small town in northwestern Alberta where she saw firsthand the important role resource development plays in Canadian communities.

Denise Balkissoon is based in her hometown of Toronto. Prior to becoming executive editor, Denise helped launch The Narwhal's Ontario bureau, steering the team to Canada's highest journalism honour, the Michener Award.

Michelle Cyca is a journalist from Vancouver, and a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6. She joined The Narwhal in 2023 as the editor of Indigenous-led conservation, …

Shawn Parkinson is a creative director, designer and filmmaker. He helps lead and evolve The Narwhal’s award-winning brand and visual storytelling. Shawn previously led creative …

Paloma Pacheco is a journalist and editor based in Vancouver. Her reporting and writing on art, culture, social issues and humans’ relationship to the natural world has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, The Tyee, Maisonneuve and POV Magazine, among other publications.

Will Pearson is a publisher, editor and journalist based in Nogojiwanong-Peterborough, Ont. Previous to joining The Narwhal, Will was the publisher and editor of Peterborough Curre …

Savannah Ridley is an Onöndowa’ga:' journalist, editor and multimedia producer based in Tkaronto, Ontario. Her work for The Narwhal as their first Indigenous editorial fellow wo …

Anne Caroline Desplanques is the senior national reporter for The Narwhal, based on the Quebec side of the National Capital Region. She covers the environment, natural resources and the impacts of federal policy.

Keili Bartlett is a journalist and editor based on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Before joining The Narwhal, Keili spent the better part of a decade covering the news in coastal and underreported communities from Gander, N.L., to Banff, Alta., to Squamish, B.C.

Lindsay Sample is a journalist, mother and fifth generation Scottish settler, living on syilx, Sinixt and Ktuanaxa territories, colonially known as Nelson, B.C. Lindsay joined The …

Francesca Fionda is a senior reporter in The Narwhal’s B.C. bureau. She was previously our director of newsroom development, a role she took on after working as a mining reporter for almost two years.

Shannon Waters is a political reporter and editor with experience covering municipal, provincial and federal governments. She began her reporting career as a radio journalist in northern B.C., covering communities from Smithers to Williams Lake and leading award-winning coverage of B.C.’s 2017 wildfires.

Santana Dreaver is a Saulteaux and Plains Cree journalist based in Nlaka'pamux territory. She has worked in daily news, social and for The Early Edition radio show with CBC Vancouver, as part of the Indigenous Pathways to Journalism Program, before finding her way to The Narwhal’s Indigenous Journalism Fellowship.

Stefan Labbé is a senior reporter in The Narwhal’s B.C. bureau, where he covers the collision of power, industry and the natural world. Labbé's reporting has been published across a number of outlets, including The Guardian, PBS Newshour, The Tyee, the CBC and The Globe and Mail.

Sharon is an award-winning journalist based in Edmonton. Her writing has also been published by The Walrus, Harper’s, The Tyee and Maisonneuve, among others. Her work for The Na …

Drew Anderson is the Calgary-based senior Prairies reporter for The Narwhal, covering Alberta and Saskatchewan. He focuses primarily on the intersection of energy, environment and politics, with forays into agriculture, drought, forestry, biodiversity and more.

Eva Wasney is The Narwhal’s Manitoba reporter, a role that’s part of a partnership with the Winnipeg Free Press. Eva is based in Winnipeg and previously worked as a reporter and editor with the Free Press, where she covered everything from food and music to women’s health and the rise of AI-generated news.

Elaine Anselmi is the Ontario bureau chief with The Narwhal, based in Peterborough, Ont. She has tree-planted across northern Ontario and Alberta and still spends as much time as p …

Fatima Syed is a Mississauga-based journalist. She was the founding host of The Backbench podcast. She has worked for The Walrus, the Toronto Star, The Logic and National Observer, where she established the outlet’s Queen’s Park bureau, with an emphasis on coverage of environmental and energy policy.

Carl Meyer is The Narwhal’s Ontario and climate investigations reporter, based in Ottawa. In 2024 he won a Canadian Association of Journalists award for his dogged reporting on the climate pledges of oilsands companies. Carl’s work has been featured in a political party’s attack ad, in academic research, on the radio, in newspapers and in newsletters.

Leah Borts-Kuperman is a staff reporter with The Narwhal’s Ontario bureau, based in North Bay, Ont., and focused on issues affecting what’s known as the near north. She joined The Narwhal in 2026, thanks to funding from the Local Journalism Initiative, after years of freelancing for publications including Canada’s National Observer, The Walrus and Canadian Geographic on issues of environmental and public interest.

Rajpreet Sahota is a reporting fellow at The Narwhal based in Toronto, the traditional territory of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Ha …

Arik Ligeti is The Narwhal’s director of audience, with a focus on growing a dedicated community of members and readers. Arik previously worked at The Globe and Mail as a digital …

Karan Saxena is an immigrant settler living on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ territories. Karan is The Narwhal’s audience engagement editor, with a focu …

Andrew Munroe is The Narwhal’s web developer, bringing experience in development, design, and writing on a wide range of digital projects. He’s worked extensively in the non-p …

Jacqueline Ronson is a journalist and editor based in Youbou, B.C., on the unceded homelands of Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. She previously worked for The Discourse, where her reporting in the Cowichan Valley became the foundation of a new model for thoughtful, community-led local news. Before that, she worked as a science and environment reporter for Inverse and a news and politics reporter for the Yukon News. Jacqueline loves making DIY gifts and would never turn down an invitation to a sweaty dance party.

Atenas is a settler from Mexico City who’s been living on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations since 2017. She has spent almost 15 years managing numbers, operations, facilities and human resources in the non-profit arena.

Kyla Fitzgerald is The Narwhal’s people operations specialist, serving as the first point of contact for our members and donors while managing the member database. Kyla also supports hiring, onboarding, and policy updates, and provides general operational assistance to the team.

Don Gordon has served a variety of environmental non-governmental organizations as a senior executive for decades. He has also been an active governance volunteer and a dedicated marine citizen-scientist.

Marco Pimentel has been CMO and partner at Redbrick, a Canadian technology company, for more than a decade. During that time, he co-founded and sold Assembly after scaling it into one of the fastest-growing digital publishing groups in North America.

Adrian Harewood is a professor in Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication, which he joined in 2021. He completed a bacherlor of arts in political theory and history at McGill University and a masters in history at Carleton University.

Gä̀gala-ƛ̓iƛ̓ətko (Nadia Joe) is an environmental professional in service of a sustainable and climate just world. She was raised by a river and loved into leadership by the many Elders, leaders and mentors of the nłe?kepmx and southern Tutchone-Tlingit peoples.

Trina Roache is a proud member of the Glooscap Mi’kmaw community in Nova Scotia. She’s an award-winning video journalist and assistant professor at the School of Journalism at the University of King’s College in Kjipuktuk (Halifax).

Anna Maria Tremonti is a long-time journalist who travelled Canada and the world covering societal change, political upheaval and armed conflict for CBC Radio and Television.

Priscillia Andrieu is a Toronto-based public policy and public affairs leader with over a decade of international experience spanning government, nonprofit leadership and advocacy.

Ashley Okwuosa is a journalist covering the food industry for The Examination, an investigative newsroom focused on global public health. Previously, she has reported on immigration, education, politics and related issues, and her work has been published by outlets including The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, WNYC, Quartz, TVO.org and The Narwhal.

Johnny is a technology designer and startup founder based in Vancouver. He was a founding engineer at Slack. His environmental advocacy focuses on support for local organizations such as the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Nature-Based Solutions Foundation.