Denise Balkissoone

Denise Balkissoon is executive editor of The Narwhal, a nonprofit Canadian environmental newsroom, which she joined in 2021 to launch its Ontario bureau, following an earlier career as executive editor of Chatelaine and a columnist at The Globe and Mail.

Based in Toronto, ON Org The Narwhal Role Executive Editor

Notable work and positions

The Narwhal — Executive Editor (formerly Ontario Bureau Chief)
Chatelaine — former Executive Editor
The Globe and Mail — former columnist, reporter, editor and podcast host/producer
The Ethnic Aisle — Co-Founder

Biography

Denise Balkissoon is a Toronto-based journalist who serves as executive editor of The Narwhal, a non-profit investigative newsroom covering the natural world in Canada. Earlier in her career, she worked as a columnist, reporter, editor, and podcast host and producer at The Globe and Mail, where she co-hosted Colour Code, a podcast about race in Canada. She was also a co-founder of The Ethnic Aisle, a publication about race and ethnicity in the Greater Toronto Area, and served as executive editor of the lifestyle magazine Chatelaine before leaving that role in 2021.

In September 2021, The Narwhal, a British Columbia-based non-profit outlet, hired Balkissoon as bureau chief to launch and lead a new three-person Ontario bureau, alongside reporters Fatima Syed and Emma McIntosh, covering environmental stories including climate policy, resource extraction and environmental racism. The Ontario bureau launched with funding support from the Metcalf Foundation and the McConnell Foundation, among others. Balkissoon was later promoted to executive editor of The Narwhal; according to her own author biography, she helped steer the organization's journalism to the Michener Award, Canada's highest honour for public-service journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the National Magazine Awards, the Digital Publishing Awards, the National Newspaper Awards, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and the Association of Ontario Midwives. She has also contributed opinion pieces to the Toronto-based nonprofit outlet The Local.

Career highlights

1. Launch of The Narwhal's Ontario bureau, 2021 Hired to build and lead a three-reporter Ontario team covering environmental journalism, later promoted to executive editor of the organization.

2. Michener Award Helped steer The Narwhal's journalism to Canada's highest public-service journalism honour.

3. Colour Code podcast, The Globe and Mail Co-hosted the podcast series examining race in Canada during her tenure at the paper.

4. Co-founding The Ethnic Aisle Co-founded the publication examining race and ethnicity in the Greater Toronto Area.