Noah Brennan
Noah Brennan is a journalist at the Calgary Herald who covers education and the public systems that support it, tracing how policy, funding and institutional decisions play out in daily life. His recent work ranges from virtual reality trades training designed to ease skilled labour shortages to stories on language education, public health and provincial politics, but the common thread is the effect on students, workers and communities. He moves between enterprise features and hard news, taking on complex issues such as outbreaks, referendums and diplomatic disputes while keeping the focus on services people rely on.
Education, skills and training
Brennan’s education coverage centres on the infrastructure around learning and work rather than classroom anecdotes.
In his piece on a new Alberta company using virtual reality trades training to ease the skilled labour shortage, he connects technology, apprenticeship pathways and labour market pressure, showing how tools aimed at training can respond to gaps in the workforce. He approaches education as a system that includes vocational training, credential pathways and the transition into employment, treating innovations like VR as part of a broader effort to expand access and capacity.
His education reporting sits alongside coverage of other learning programs, including language classes for newcomers, tying them together through questions of funding, accessibility and long-term outcomes.
Language programs and newcomer integration
A significant strand of Brennan’s work follows English-language education and settlement services for newcomers, especially when those programs are under strain.
In his reporting on a Calgary settlement agency that provides free English-language classes but was forced to lay off dozens of employees following federal funding cuts, he details how budget decisions translate into lost jobs and reduced services. He explains that higher-level language classes are being eliminated, leaving many students without the skills they need for work and integration, and grounds the story in voices from the organization’s leadership and staff. This coverage shows his interest in how education policy intersects with immigration and labour, and how cuts at the federal level ripple through local agencies and the people they serve.
Public health and provincial systems
Brennan also reports on public health when it intersects with provincial capacity and historical risk.
In his story on Alberta’s measles case count surpassing the 1986 mark as outbreaks span all health zones, he uses historical comparison and province-wide data to situate the current surge within a longer timeline. The piece follows the spread across health regions, highlighting how an infectious disease strains systems beyond a single city and how public health messaging and vaccination patterns affect outcomes.
His focus on case counts, geography and historical benchmarks fits with his broader pattern of tracking how large-scale trends test the resilience of institutions such as hospitals, schools and provincial health authorities.
Politics, diplomacy and breaking news
Beyond education and health, Brennan’s reporting extends into provincial politics, diplomacy and day-to-day incidents, always with an eye on consequences for local residents. In his article on how Calgary could shape support for Alberta separation in an October referendum, he examines the city’s potential role in determining the level of support, drawing on political observers and campaigns on both sides to show how organizing and turnout could influence the result. His coverage of an honorary consul for Sierra Leone resigning in protest over the detention of a Calgary woman in that country brings diplomatic and human-rights dimensions into his work, connecting foreign policy to an individual case and the reaction it provokes at home. He also writes breaking news, such as a collision involving a motorcycle and a truck that prompted road closures in northwest Calgary, a story that has been syndicated to outlets like Yahoo Canada. Taken together, these pieces show a reporter who moves quickly between complex political debates, international disputes and local incidents, while keeping attention on how events alter people’s movement, rights and sense of security.
Across this mix of education, newcomer services, public health, politics and local news, Brennan’s distinguishing trait is his focus on systems under pressure and the people inside them. He returns to themes of funding cuts, outbreaks, referendums and labour shortages, using straightforward reporting to show what changes on the ground when institutions are stressed.
His work is grounded in clear explanations and affected voices, making policy-heavy subjects readable while preserving their complexity.
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.