Regional magazine associations name volunteers of the year

Last week the Magazines Canada volunteer of the year was named as Immee Chee Wah, vice-president of business planning for Rogers Publishing. This week, the five regional magazine associations have announced their volunteer of the year award winners; they will be honoured Thursday June 5 at the Magazines Canada annual luncheon during the MagNet conference:

Atlantic Magazines Association Volunteer of the Year: Thom Knowles

Thom Knowles is a freelance graphic designer and a specialist at the Halifax Apple Store. Before beginning a career in communication arts, Thom trained as an English teacher at Mount Saint Vincent University. From there, he studied graphic design at Nova Scotia Community College, graduating with the Highest Achievement award. Thom worked for four years as a designer at the award-winning  Saltscapes magazine, during which time he became a member of the board at the Atlantic Magazines Association. Aside from his design pursuits, Thom is a singer-songwriter in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he lives with his wife and two-year-old daughter.

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Magazines Ontario Volunteer of the Year: Melony Ward

Melony Ward is publisher of Canada's History magazine and Kayak: Canada's History for Kids. She is on the magazine advisory committee for the Ontario Media Development Corporation. She has served on the board of directors of Magazines Canada, and has a long track record of success with niche print and online media. Her current volunteer activities include marketing strategy in the political arena and fundraising for the health-care sector.

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Manitoba Magazine Publishers' Association Volunteer of the Year: Deborah Morrison

Deborah Morrison is CEO of Canada's National History Society. She was appointed to the History Society in 2002 and has introduced several program extensions in addition to Kayak: Canada's History for Kids since her arrival. They include Teaching Canada's History/Innover en Classe, an educator's magazine; a children's illustrated story-writing contest; historical travel tours, as well as several book projects, including 100 Days That Changed Canada, which was Amazon's top-selling history book for the 2011 Christmas season. She has been involved with the Manitoba Magazine Publishers Association since 2004 and currently serves as past president. (It was recently announced that Morrison is leaving the Society at the end of June after 12 years to become executive director of the Society for Educational Visits in Canada (SEVEC) which offers reciprocal exchanges between groups of Canadian youth.)

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Alberta Magazine Publishers Association Volunteer of the Year: Emily Ursuliak

Emily Ursuliak is the fiction editor for filling Station magazine and was previously the coordinator for filling Station's monthly community writing event "Hot Dates with Blank Pages." She is also an executive producer for the literary radio show Writer's Block where she interviews local and visiting writers. Emily recently graduated from the University of Calgary with her Master of Arts in English where she worked on both her first novel and collection of poetry.

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Magazine Association of BC Volunteer of the Year: Darren Bernaerdt

Darren Bernaerdt is Coordinator for the Publishing Program at Langara College and Publisher of Pacific Rim Magazine. He is a strong believer in ongoing education as a key element in achieving one’s career goals and actively supports his students in their educational journey. In the latter half of 2012 and through 2013 he was the Treasurer for the Magazine Association of BC.