FIMS

Read news and updates submitted by fellow alumni by date submitted, news category, faculty of graduation, decade or search for a name. Share your news here.

Maximilian Specht, BA’15

joined Factorial, an HR software based in Barcelona, as the Head of Content in 2025.  

Martin Bauman, BA’15

won the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award (Non-Fiction) for Hell of a Ride: Chasing Home and Survival on a Bicycle Voyage Across Canada. The book was also a runner-up for the Evelyn Richardson Award, Nova Scotia’s highest honour for non-fiction. 

Wynn Walters, BA’59

was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal recognizing many years of community involvement in the arts and in conservation issues in Uxbridge, ON. Wynn was cartoonist for the Western Gazette in the 1950’s.

Brandon Mastromartino, BA’10

was named one of 25 people to watch in 2025 from the Global Gaming Business magazine for leading the first North American research center focusing on sports wagering and gambling.

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Niharika Khanal, MHIS’01, MHIS’01

is pleased to be working with Grand River Hospital as a business analyst and as a part-time system analyst at St. Joseph’s Health Care London.

Belle Puri, MA’84

received the 2024 Bruce Hutchison Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jack Webster Foundation, honouring an exemplary British Columbia journalism career.

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Wynn Walters, BA’59

became a sculptor after almost 30 years in the telecommunications industry. His sculpture of Terry Fox was installed at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.  

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Martin Bauman, BA’15

won the Pottersfield Prize for Creative Nonfiction for his debut memoir, Hell of a Ride, about a 7,000-kilometre solo bicycle trek across Canada in support of mental health initiatives. The book comes out March 15, 2024.

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Hillary Miller, MLIS’18

will marry Andrew Pople in June 2024.

Brittany DeSantis, BA’13

is the artist and internationally recognized calligrapher behind @peakpaperco. Her guided grief journal titled Forget You Not from Blue Star Press & Penguin Random House releases in February 2024.

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Ben Robinson, MLIS ’18

published his first book The Book of Benjamin from Palimpsest Press in October 2023. This literary essay on names, birth and grief is the testament of both a son and a father, contrasting genealogy with larger communal narratives. 

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David McPherson, BA’92, MA’98

published his third book, 101 Fascinating Canadian Music Facts featuring stories and surprising facts collected coast to coast.

Elaine McCluskey, MA’77

won the 2023 Alistair MacLeod prize for short fiction with Rafael Has Pretty Eyes (Goose Lane Editions). Her seventh book, a novel entitled The Gift Child, will be published in fall 2024.

Gloria Dickie, BA’12

published her first book, Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future, in July 2023 through W.W. Norton. The book is a global exploration of the eight remaining species of bears and the dangers they face, from polar bears in the Arctic to the spectacled bear of the Andes.

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Kate Reynolds, MA’08, MLIS’09

headlined the It’s You I Like: The Music of Mr. Rogers concert in April 2023.

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Henry Standage, MMJC’22

became the youngest national showrunner at Sportsnet for the audio series ‘Painting the Pitch Red’. The series looks at the rise, fall and eventual triumph of the Canadian men’s soccer team.

Lauren Pelley, BA’10, MA’11

married Adam Miller in June 2022 near Elora, Ontario.

Belle Puri, MA’84

won the Canadian Screen Awards ‘Best Local Reporter 2022’. 

Joel Sherlock, MLIS’13, MA’14

Joel, his wife Kim, and their son Samuel welcomed baby Isla Jade to their family in May 2022.