Executive Director
Jim Handman, Executive Director
Jim Handman has been the Exec Director of the SMCC since 2017. He is also a freelance science journalist, media trainer, and university instructor. For 17 years, Jim was the Executive Producer of the CBC Radio science program, Quirks & Quarks. Jim has also taught broadcast journalism at Ryerson University, Laurentian University, Western University, and the National University of Rwanda. In addition, he was Science-Writer-in-Residence at the Journalism School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his time at Quirks & Quarks, Jim shared in numerous awards for his science journalism, including the Walter Sullivan Award from the AGU, the Science Writing Prize from the American Institute for Physics, NY Festivals Gold Prize, and many Science-in-Society Awards from the CSWA. Jim is a frequent speaker on the topic of science and the media, and also conducts training workshops in communications for scientists in Canada and the US.
Contact Jim: info@sciencemedia.ca
View list of Jim’s Science Communication Training Workshops and Presentations
Penny Park, Founding Executive Director (deceased) Penny Park came to the Science Media Centre with extensive hands-on experience in radio and television science journalism in Canada. From 1980 to 1995 she worked as a producer and senior producer with “Quirks and Quarks,” the award-winning weekly science program on CBC radio. Since 1995, Park was with the Discovery Channel, where she helped develop the show now called “Daily Planet”. Originally from Montreal, she first earned a BA from the University of New Brunswick, studying linguistics, followed by a B.Sc (honours) in biology from the University of Guelph, graduating there in 1980. In 2013, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of the Fraser Valley. Penny passed away in December, 2018.
