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. She has been executive editor at Chatelaine, where she edited a National Magazine Award-winning feature about long-term care (and perfected her well-honed ability to put the fun in feminism).

Francesca Fionda is The Narwhal’s director of newsroom development, a role she took on after working as our mining reporter for almost two years.

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, and is now the bureau chief of conservation and fellowships.

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

Jacqueline Ronson is a journalist and editor based in Youbou, B.C., on the unceded homelands of Coast Salish and Nuu-chah-nulth peoples.

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 Currents, an independent local news outlet that he co-founded in 2020.

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 won the silver spot for the Canadian Association of Journalists Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award, and was a finalist for Emerging Excellence at the Digital Publication Awards.

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 Narwhal after playing an integral role in building The Discourse — a digital media company transforming independent local news — and its’ network of sister outlets.

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.

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.

Drew Anderson is the Calgary-based 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. He writes frequently on oil and gas liabilities as well as renewable energy generation and Alberta’s electricity grid.

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 possible outside with her family.

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.

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.

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, Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples. She covers Queen’s Park and the ways policy affects racialized communities across Ontario.

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 editor, a role that prompted his move from Toronto to Vancouver in 2014.

Karan Saxena is an immigrant settler living on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ territories. Karan is The Narwhal’s audience engagement editor, with a focus on the intersections of journalism and community-building.

Andrew Munroe is The Narwhal’s web developer, bringing experience in digital design, development and writing for a wide range of interactive projects.

Manuel Baechlin is The Narwhal’s video producer, where he is working with the editorial and audience teams to translate complex stories into compelling video content.

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 over 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 BA in Political Theory & History at McGill University and a MA 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, 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.