Jeff Lawrence
Jeff Lawrence focuses on digital coverage that ties post-secondary institutions and their research to tangible public impacts, while also handling key breaking news stories for CHEK News. His reporting sits at the intersection of education, science and local events, with a particular emphasis on the University of Victoria and projects that involve students and applied research. He works as a Digital News Editor at the station and brings experience from earlier digital producer roles in other television newsrooms, including CTV Vancouver and CTV Vancouver Island.
UVic student-built satellite to study climate change
Lawrence’s coverage of a student-built satellite project at the University of Victoria shows how he approaches education stories that are rooted in complex science and technology. The satellite, built by UVic students and researchers, carries a dual mission: studying how climate change affects the ionosphere and making satellite radio technology more accessible to researchers and amateur radio operators through an open-source communications system. His work on this subject explains the satellite’s role in climate research and the open-source radio component in clear terms, linking student engineering, atmospheric science and broader questions about how to monitor environmental change.
The story reflects a preference for projects where students are not only learning but also contributing to live missions in space, connecting classroom training to national aerospace priorities and future careers.
Within this line of reporting, Lawrence pays attention to how institutional initiatives at UVic are funded and framed, highlighting the CubeSat program and collaborative efforts between the university’s Centre for Aerospace Research and external partners. He uses specific mission details such as launch vehicles, orbits and scientific objectives to anchor the educational angle, showing how student-led work is embedded inside larger national programs in space science and STEM training. The result is coverage that is both an education story and a research and innovation story, giving equal weight to student experience and scientific outcomes.
UVic slips one spot in latest Canadian university rankings
In his piece on the University of Victoria slipping one position in a national university ranking, Lawrence turns a ranking update into a focused look at institutional performance and reputation. He reports the change in UVic’s standing among Canadian universities while noting that the institution has improved its position in a corresponding worldwide ranking, balancing local concern with a broader context.
The story shows his habit of treating rankings as data points that require explanation rather than headline scores alone, situating UVic’s movement within how different ranking systems measure research, teaching and international outlook.
This kind of work indicates that he tracks how external evaluations influence universities’ public image and competitiveness, especially in a region where UVic is a major post-secondary player. He uses the ranking update as an opportunity to outline what the metrics say about the university’s strengths and challenges, rather than simply reporting the numbers.
As with his satellite coverage, he connects institutional news to long-term questions about how universities position themselves in research-intensive fields and compete for students, funding and partnerships.
Sick passenger airlifted from cruise ship off Port Hardy
Lawrence also covers urgent breaking news, including an early-morning airlift of a sick passenger from a cruise ship located roughly 200 kilometres off Port Hardy. In that story, he reports on the coordination between rescue aircraft and the cruise vessel, the timing of the operation and the distance involved, giving a clear account of how responders manage medical emergencies far from shore. The coverage underscores his ability to switch from education and research topics to fast-moving incident reporting, maintaining straightforward, detail-oriented prose across very different subject matter.
Through this kind of emergency response coverage, he shows an interest in the operational side of public safety: how rescue logistics work, which agencies are involved and how outcomes are achieved under time pressure. The story highlights people and processes rather than speculation, focusing on the facts available at the time and the practical realities of coordinating a helicopter evacuation at sea. It complements his education reporting by demonstrating that, alongside university-centric stories, he remains engaged in wider news events that matter to the region’s transportation and tourism sectors.
Across these strands of work, Lawrence’s distinguishing trait is his ability to make institutional and technical subjects usable as news, whether he is explaining a student satellite’s climate mission or tracking a university’s place in national rankings or reconstructing a complex rescue operation. His background in digital production and editing supports that approach, helping him shape stories that are both precise and accessible within the fast-paced environment of a contemporary newsroom.
4 more education journalists.
Abby Russchen
Abby Russchen ties education, community institutions and individual stories together, showing how policies and decisions register in people’s lives. She reports for CBC on education and community life, working across text, video and photography for different CBC platforms. Her education coverage centres student achievement, provincial and national test results, classroom technology and the forces shaping learning conditions, connecting policy language and expert analysis to observable changes in performance. She treats AI, screens and digital tools as part of the education beat, focusing on their impact on student well-being. She also reports on community institutions and local services, from bank closures and changing city status to small-business growth. Her human-interest features follow people, public memory and recognition, and her long-form background supports detailed, fact-grounded narratives across formats.
Alexa Phillips
Alexa Phillips reports on education as a financial system, tracing who pays, who benefits and who bears the risk when policy changes reshape schools and universities. She covers education policy, funding and regulation for The i Paper, with a consistent focus on money, power and their impact on students and staff. Her reporting follows fees, budgets and reform into classrooms and lecture halls, using concrete figures to show how tax changes, funding mechanisms and loan reforms translate into course cuts, job losses and access. Phillips brings wider experience on public services and regulation, including work on gambling oversight and healthcare access, so education sits in a larger accountability story. She writes straightforward, reported news pieces that combine policy detail, financial data and case studies, built from official records and regular call‑outs to readers affected by the systems she covers.
Alexandra Holyk
Alexandra Holyk is a multi-skilled journalist at CTV News who reports on education and youth issues through the daily lives of students, families, and local communities. She covers school and campus decisions, student safety, youth behaviour, and neighbourhood incidents, with a focus on how they affect the people directly involved. Her work includes stories on graduation choices, concerns about Black students in a school board, federal research funding at the University of Waterloo, and students who helped after a cyclist collision. She also covers vandalism and other local disruptions around schools and neighbourhoods. Holyk pitches, researches, shoots, writes, edits, and presents stories for broadcast and digital platforms. Her previous work includes video journalism for provincial coverage, along with reporting for campus and regional outlets and major Canadian newspapers and business media.
Annabelle Olivier
Annabelle Olivier ties system-level themes in Quebec’s school system to the immediate realities of parents and students, treating education as a lived experience rather than an abstract policy field. She is a digital journalist with CBC News, covering education and related public policy. Her work spans data breaches and digital privacy in schools, institutional conflicts and labour disputes that disrupt study plans, education on the campaign trail, and school infrastructure and land use. She reports on incidents like mass emails exposing sensitive parent data, suspended classes that leave students feeling like bargaining chips, and proposals to turn racetracks into schools. Her background in digital production at another major Canadian broadcaster shapes an online-first reporting style, grounded in specific incidents, clear descriptions, and detailed, verifiable facts drawn from documents, statements and interviews.