University Affairs team

  • Editor: Peggy Berkowitz
  • Deputy Editor: Léo Charbonneau
  • Web Editor: Sparrow McGowan
  • Publisher: Christine Tausig Ford
  • Production: Dick Seldenthuis
  • Design: Chantal Fournier, Renée Mindus
  • Circulation and subscriptions: Stella Mazzarolo
  • Advertising:
    • Career Ads (print and web) : Stella Mazzarolo
    • Web banner advertising : Glen Ashworth
    • Editorial display : Glen Ashworth, Martin Seto (Reflex Media Sales) 
  • Translation: Geneviève Legault, Lydia Lalonde, Idem Traduction
  • Art Direction, print: Underline Studio
  • Art Direction, Web: ecentricarts inc.

Our Editorial Team

Peggy Berkowitz joined University Affairs in 1994 as associate editor, after 15 years in print and radio journalism, including seven years as a staff reporter with the Wall Street Journal. As editor of University Affairs since 2001, Peggy improved the magazine’s already strong coverage of Canadian universities, recruiting a diverse and talented roster of contributors from across the university community and beyond.

In 2000, Léo Charbonneau joined University Affairs as senior staff writer and was appointed deputy editor three years later. His career in journalism includes 10 years with the Medical Post as Montreal editor and features editor. He proposed writing the official University Affairs blog, Margin Notes, partly as a way to strengthen the magazine’s relationship with our readers.

Sparrow McGowan joined University Affairs as web editor in July 2012, to manage our website, social media and editorial content about careers for academics. Sparrow has a master's in journalism from Carleton University and previously worked at CARE Canada as content and social media officer.

Other contributors

Our occasional contributors to University Affairs are too numerous to mention. Our regular contributors include:

  • Rosanna Tamburri
  • Moira Farr
  • Tim Johnson
  • Anne Mullens
  • Tim Lougheed
  • Jean-François Venne
  • Allison Lawlor
  • Harriet Eisenkraft
  • Mark Cardwell
  • Daniel Drolet

Awards

University Affairs counts several writing and editing awards among its recent honours.

Most recently, University Affairs magazine won two gold and two silver awards at the 2012 Canadian Online Publishing Awards ceremony in Toronto on Oct. 22. The magazine won in the blue division, representing business-to-business, professional and scholarly publications.

The gold awards were won for best news coverage and best blog, the latter for the Margin Notes blog by University Affairs deputy editor Leo Charbonneau. It was the second time that Margin Notes was recognized with the gold award. The blog has been nominated every year since the Canadian Online Publishing Awards were created in 2009. The University Affairs' blog Speculative Diction, by Melonie Fullick, was also a finalist for best blog this year.

University Affairs took the silver awards in the categories of best website design and best overall companion website.

University Affair's news correspondent Rosanna Tamburri won the 2012 Award for Excellence in Education Journalism given annually to a journalist in Canada by the Canadian Association of University Teachers. In selecting Ms. Tamburri for the award, CAUT singled out her article "Indebted to higher education" about the array of student aid programs in Canada that have worked to a degree but have failed to close the gap in university participation rates between the rich and poor.

In 2011, we won gold for Best Companion Website at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards, in the blue division for business-to-business, professional association, farm or scholarly websites.The University Affairs website also picked up a silver award for Best Website Design. The magazine was also a finalist in three other categories: Best News Coverage, Best Blog (Margin Notes) and Best Online-Only Series of Articles (Virtually Learning).

We also won a silver medal at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards in 2011, for business publishing in the Best Issue category for our February 2010 edition. The magazine received honourable mentions in the categories of: Best Cover and Best Art Direction of a Complete Issue for the same issue.

In 2010, we were a double winner at the Canadian Online Publishing Awards, taking top spot in the categories of Best News and Best Website Design in the blue division for business-to-business, professional association, farm or scholarly websites. University Affairs also earned an honorable mention in the categories of Best Blog, for Margin Notes; Best Community Feature (which includes best use of social media); and Best Article or Series of Articles, for our Career Advice section.

We also walked away with a gold medal for Best Online-only Series of Articles, again for our Career Advice section, at the Kenneth R. Wilson Awards for business publishing, and was a two-time finalist at the National Magazine Awards in the categories of Best Short Feature (A Place for Andrew) and Best Web-Only Content (Career Advice).

In 2009 Léo Charbonneau won the Best Blog Canadian Online Publishing Award for his blog, Margin Notes.

In 2006, journalist Michael Smith won the Medal for Excellence in Health Research Journalism from Sanofi Pasteur and Canadians for Health Research for his article “A scientific whodunit” (University Affairs, February 2005). The jury said Michael “captured three decades of scientific endeavour with features that included human drama, investigative curiosity, and pharmaceutical outcome.”

In 2005, Harriet Eisenkraft won the Award for Excellence in Post-secondary Education Journalism from the Canadian Association of University Teachers for two articles, “In a family way” (June-July 2004) and “Academic couples” (November 2004). CAUT said Harriet’s work “has presented us with new insights into a complex issue and has provoked us to think of ways we can find solutions to make academic work more family-friendly.”