Have something to say – how to pitch and write for a wider audience

Join Senior Fellow Kim Kierans for a discussion with special guests. They will share their published opinion pieces and give advice and tips about writing an op-ed.

Kim Kierans is a Senior Fellow and Resident at Massey College at the University of Toronto where she is executive producer of “The JCR: A Massey Podcast” and conducts communication workshops for graduate students.

This is a Junior Fellow Professional Program Pillar 1 event. It is open to Junior Fellows and Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellows.

If you require an accommodation, such as attending this event remotely due to a special circumstance, please contact Alison at amackenzie@masseycollege.ca at least 48 hours in advance of the event.

Guest Bios:

Dr. Mark Lautens is the Chair of Chemistry at the University of Toronto. Professor Lautens holds the AstraZeneca Endowed Chair of Organic Synthesis. His research is in the area of sustainable synthesis of bioactive molecules using metal catalysts.

He has mentored 200 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and published 425 articles during his career.

     Beyond his scientific and professional contributions, Lautens has become an outspoken advocate for science, scientists, research, students and postdocs, early career researchers and better funding. He has 20 op-eds published in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star with the goal of informing the public and providing a nudge to elected officials and the business community.

Anjum Sultana is an award-winning public affairs strategist, convenor, and community builder who works at the intersection of gender equality, youth leadership and international cooperation. As a proud first-generation immigrant Canadian Muslim of Indian heritage. Anjum leverages her lived experience and expertise in policy, and public engagement to be a catalyst and champion for social impact, civic engagement, and economic inclusion in Canada and globally. 

     She is currently the Inaugural Director of Youth Leadership and Policy Advocacy at Plan International Canada, a global development and humanitarian organization focused on children’s rights and equality for girls, where she leads Team PLAY (which stands for Policy, Leadership, Advocacy, and Youth). 

   Anjum  is a prolific and well-respected public affairs commentator in Canada in media outlets such as CBC, CityTv, Corporate Knights, CTV, National Observer, National Post, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and TVO.

     She has authored several landmark reports including “A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for Canada: Making the Economy Work for Everyone” and “Preventing a Lockdown Generation: Supporting Youth in Canada in Post-Pandemic Recovery.” Anjum is leveraging her current Fellowship at the Public Policy Forum to advocate for evidence-based solutions to Canada’s most pressing public policy challenges. 

    Anjum is a Massey Alumna who holds a Masters in Public Health with a specialization in Global Health and a CIHR Fellowship in Public Health Policy, from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Jamie Duncan is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and a researcher at the Centre for Access to Information and Justice at the University of Winnipeg. He is a fellow of Massey College and the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.

     Jamie is an interdisciplinary social scientist who studies information policy, technology governance, and strategic communications with a focus on topics related to security and policing. His work has appeared in academic journals like The British Journal of Criminology and Internet Policy Review as well as popular outlets like The Globe and Mail.

     Jamie’s doctoral research investigates how digital transformation interacts with deepening international cooperation on border security among the Five Eyes partners. This work is supported by a Canada Graduate Scholarship in Honour of Nelson Mandela.

Hamutal Dotan is an award-winning editor of magazine, newspaper, and book-length journalism — though she never had any intention of becoming a journalist at all. After several years of graduate work in philosophy, however, she realized that she wanted to see how the ethical perspectives she’d been studying played out in the real world. She eventually came to learn that there was no place she’d rather be than a newsroom, hashing out the significance of new developments and shining a light on issues that weren’t getting enough attention — and figuring out how to help readers understand those things, too.

Hamutal has now been an editor and newsroom leader for 15 years, having spent time at both rambunctious startups and in some of the most established newsrooms in the country. Most recently the senior editor of the Walrus and an instructor in creative non-fiction here at UofT, this year Hamutal is honoured to be a William Southam Journalism Fellow at Massey College, where she is studying the psychology, sociology, and history of reading.