Stephen Cogan is the son of two broadcasters, and has his MA in Journalism from Michigan State University, one of the so-called "Journalism Ivies."

After graduation, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Kingston Whig-Standard during the storied "Davies-Reynolds" era, when the Whig was considered one of Canada's best dailies. After that, he was a writer and editor at NBC News in New York, and then at CBC News in Toronto.

While at the CBC, Stephen began teaching broadcast journalism part-time at both Ryerson University and Centennial. Then he joined Centennial's full-time journalism faculty. He's remained active in journalism since, producing radio documentaries and contributing articles to publications like the United Church Observer, and the Recorder (the journal of the Ontario Music Educators' Association).

Stephen manages the East York edition of the Observer community newspaper, produced by Centennial journalism students under his and fellow faculty's oversight. He also teaches various courses, was a 2003 finalist for the college's "Wicken" teaching award, and a 2007 winner of the college's "Presidents Award of Excellence."

For more information on the Journalism Fast Track program, contact
Stephen Cogan at:

• email: scogan@centennialcollege.ca
• telephone: (416) 289-5000 ext. 8824
  

Lindy Oughtred is a former community newspaper reporter and editor who worked for publications in Oakville, Brampton and Mississauga. She specialized in feature and column writing, and won several OCNA and CCNA awards for her articles and layouts. She also collaborated with a psychologist on a book about violent male offenders and researched the history of an innovative educational program in Peel for another book.

Ms. Oughtred is currently incorporating lessons learned during a year-long sabbatical into her courses. During that year, she visited journalism programs at Northwestern University in Illinois and the University of Miami in Florida; observed topnotch reporters and designers at work at the Chicago Tribune and Miami Herald; wrote about health for Homemakers.com; learned how to write lively (and sassy!) headlines and cutlines at the Toronto Sun; and refreshed her copy editing skills at Canadian Living magazine.  

Ms. Oughtred teaches courses in design, interviewing techniques and beat reporting, supervises field placements and is an editor with The East Toronto Observer, the journalism program’s newspaper. She hosts the annual Not-Quite-Ready-For-60-Minutes Interviewing Awards ceremony, which recognizes excellence in interviewing, and last fall organized a day-long design seminar featuring Dr. Pegie Stark Adam from the prestigious Poynter Institute in Florida. Ms. Oughtred and Dr. Stark Adam will be working together this summer on a major redesign of the The East Toronto Observer.

Ted Barris is an accomplished author, journalist and broadcaster. As well as hosting stints on CBC Radio and regular contributions to the Globe and Mail and National Post, Barris has authored 15 non-fiction books, including bestsellers Juno: Canadians at D-Day… Days Of Victory: Canadians Remember 1939-1945… and Behind the Glory: Canada’s Role in the Allied Air War. His most recent book Victory at Vimy explored Canada’s coming of age during the First World War.
 
After completing his Bachelor of Applied Arts at Ryerson in 1971, Barris pursued a freelance career across Canada … his broadcast work heard and seen on CBC Radio & Television, the CTV Network and TVO as well as on National Public Radio in the United States … his writing regularly published in periodicals such as Legion magazine, esprit de corps, 50Plus (CARP) magazine and Masthead. He also writes a weekly newspaper column - the Barris Beat – now available online at barrisbeat.blogspot.com
 
Among the awards Ted Barris has received: the international Billboard Radio Documentary Award, the Yorkton Film Festival’s Golden Sheaf, as well as numerous ACTRA nominations. In 1993, he received the Canada 125 Medal “for service to Canada and community.” In 2006, the renowned 78th Fraser Highlanders (Canadian) Regiment presented its annual excellence award, recognizing his "contribution to the awareness and preservation of Canadian military history and traditions." He was also short-listed for the annual Pierre Berton history writing award.

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Ellin Bessner has been a professional journalist since 1981 and has taught journalism at Ryerson, Seneca and now Centennial College. She has worked at CTV in Toronto since 1997, and helped to launch the all news channel CTV Newsnet, first as a news writer, and then as one of the roster of business anchors.

Ellin currently freelances for CBC Radio News as a reporter and news announcer in addition to teaching at Centennial College. Previously, she has been a business anchor and writer at CTV News in Toronto, a general assignment reporter at CBC in Toronto (CBLT) and a general assignment reporter (1994-96) at CBC Radio News in Toronto.

From 1989 to 1994 she lived and worked in Rome as a freelance foreign correspondent, mostly for the CBC, the Globe and Mail, Canadian Press, and Deutche Welle Radio.

She also covered civil wars in Africa ( Liberia, Sierre Leone, and Mozambique) In the early 1990s, she worked part time for the World Food Programme of the United Nations in their Information office ( Rome). From 1981 to 1988 she was a television reporter and then radio reporter for CBC in the Maritimes, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Ellin’s most memorable career moments include interviews with Prince Philip and the Dalai Lama, covering Pope John Paul ll at the Vatican for five years, covering the World Cup of Soccer in 1990, and the 2003 Space Shuttle disaster in Florida.

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Jules Elder is a veteran journalist and educator. He also works with OMNI Television, where he is a writer-editor in the News Department, Commentator and associate producer for In the Black. Prior to joining OMNI Television, he was managing editor of Share Newspaper, which he helped to launch. He is a former columnist for the Toronto Sun and freelance contributor for Radio Canada International.

Elder is a member of the Canadian Association of Black Journalists and the Canadian Media Association.

Jim Babbage is a Commercial Photographer shooting for advertising and PR firms, studio and location, since 1984. Versed in 35mm, 120mm, 4x5 and digital cameras, his involvement with web began in the mid-nineties.

Born and raised in Toronto, Jim teaches imaging, web design and photography at Centennial College's The Centre for Creative Communications (since 1990) and is a partner in a small communications company, specializing in the areas in which he teaches. He is a contributing partner to Community MX, where he has written many articles and tutorials for Fireworks, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and other general web topics. He has written several photo-related pieces and has been a guest speaker at TODCON’s 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 , and at Adobe MAX, the largest conference of its type in the world.

Jim has photographed and/or designed web sites for companies such as Four Seasons Sunrooms and Plum Communications and GRIT Conditioning. He is also Creative Partner in the Toronto-based web design company, Newmedia Services and an active contributing partner to Community MX

In 20 years of journalism, Andrew Mair has done just about everything there is to do on a newspaper. He has been a reporter, sports editor, entertainment editor, copy editor, travel writer, movie reviewer, photographer, editorial cartoonist, page designer, general manager and the editor-in-chief of three newspapers. Since 1998, he has worked at the Toronto Sun as a copy and layout editor on the news desk. Prior to that, he was with the Toronto Star, editing on the city, entertainment, lifestyle and op-ed desks. He was also the editor-in-chief of three Metroland papers after working his way through several roles. He got his start at his hometown paper, the Elliot Lake Standard, as sports editor.

Mair has won numerous awards from the CCNA, OCNA and SNA as well as for his community involvement through newspapers. He has served on hospital boards, chambers of commerce and community advisory panels. He is also the founder of the Uxbridge Art in the Park festival. In 2006, he was editor-in-chief of ICON, Canada's first multimedia celebrity publication, which was a pilot project produced for the Ontario Ministry of Culture, employing 18 Centennial graduates.

Mair joined Centennial College in 2004 and has taught newspaper design and layout as well as serving as a faculty editor on the East Toronto Observer newspapers at both The Centre for Creative Communications and University of Toronto Scarborough Campus/HP Centre for Technology.

Donna Kakonge (BJ Carleton, MA Concordia) is a freelance educator, writer and broadcaster teaching journalism and communications in Toronto, Canada. Along with almost a decade and half of experience at the CBC, she's also taught abroad. She received a Gemini nomination for work done with the Discovery Channel.

Donna's books can be bought at http://stores.lulu.com/kakonged. She teaches magazine journalism and beat reporting and currently writes for New Dreamhomes and Condominiums Magazine.

Ted Fairhurst is a former CBC Radio News journalist. He now teaches part-time in all three of the Centennial's journalism programs. He also volunteers on Take5, the live, weekday public affairs program on CIUT 89.5, the campus/community radio station at the University of Toronto. He first joined the CBC in the early 1970s after completing the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson and undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto. He has since obtained an MA in sociology at York University.

Over his 27 years at the CBC, Fairhurst performed several editorial roles as a member of the CBC Toronto local/regional radio newsroom. They included two periods of municipal affairs reporting at Toronto City Hall. He also worked as a general assignment reporter and desk editor. He was involved in the coverage of municipal and provincial elections, political leadership conventions and major stories that included the Mississauga train derailment and the public health hazard of lead pollution in two Toronto neighbourhoods. During the 1990s he was the morning newscast editor and for Metro Morning editor and anchor for Ontario Morning.

Fairhurst's academic interests are focused on the ethics and history of journalism.

Malcolm Kelly has been a sports journalist for 27 years, covering everything from amateur and Olympic-style to high school and professional events. He’s been an NBA writer (Toronto Raptors), NHL writer (Toronto Maple Leafs), Major League Baseball reporter (Toronto Blue Jays) and has worked on the CFL beat.

Malcolm is also a best-selling author of four books, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Canadian Sports History and Hanging it Out on Camera Three: Canadian Sports in the Media Era. Malcolm has worked for the CBC, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Southam Newspapers, Canadian Press, Associated Press, Canwest Newspapers and Thomson Newspapers, plus spent some time in pro basketball as a public relations professional. He teaches in the Centennial College journalism programs.

Neil Ward started his career in journalism with The Kingston Whig-Standard in 1988. Working primarily as a photojournalist, he covered hard news, prison riots and political happenings around eastern Ontario until 1996, when he moved to Bermuda to work as a senior reporter, news and web editor at The Royal Gazette. He returned to Canada in 2005 and began working at the National Post as a copy editor on both the A-Section (local, national and international news) and on the Sports Desk.

Paul Russell is the Letters Editor for the National Post, and chief copy editor for the paper's four daily Comment pages. This dual position gives him the opportunity to not only edit and enhance the prose of amateur letter writers, but also to finesse the work of such acclaimed columnists as Conrad Black, George Jonas and Robert Fulford.

Before starting at the National Post nine years ago, Paul jumped between four community newspapers, working his way up from reporter to managing editor. He's also freelanced to various publications, and has dabbled in the fields of corporate and governmental communications.

At Centennial, Paul taught copyediting to students in both the Corporate Communications and Journalism programs for the last seven years. Former students have stated that while they initially dreaded leaning the intricacies of grammar and CP style, Paul's approach to this course made it an enjoyable experience.