JENNIFER NORMA ROSS LAGUNA

emails: jen.reporter@gmail.com jen_ross27@hotmail.com
webpage: https://jen-ross.tripod.com/portfolio.htm

Summary:

I am an award-winning multilingual foreign correspondent with two Master's degrees and a variety of work experience in several types of media and organizations.

Education:

2000 -2001
LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
Master of Science, International Relations
Graduated with merit (an A- average)

1999 - 2000
QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY
Master of Arts, Political Studies
Graduated with top honours and an A average

1995 - 1999
CARLETON UNIVERSITY
Honours Bachelor of Journalism, with a minor in sociology
Graduated with top honours and an A+ average (overall GPA of 11.6/12)

Languages:

Completely fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Functional Italian, Portuguese and Papiamento.

Journalism Experience:

Jan. 2010-present
United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Regional Office for South America, based in Santiago
Press and Public Information Officer
Starting from scratch in this new UN regional office, I am building contact databases, writing and distributing press releases, helping build a regional website, preparing a communications strategy for our office and forging a broader regional communications strategy. I am also working on fact sheets and background material as well as planning media training workshops.

Sept. 2006-Jan. 2010
United Nations' Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), Santiago
Project Assistant, Public Information Assistant
I spent 2.5 years with ECLAC’s Information Society Programme, handling all public communication, editing and translating a 12-page quarterly newsletter, preparing press releases and maintaining stakeholder contacts, organizing conferences and coordinating actors and activities under an intergovernmental Regional Action Plan for the Information Society (eLAC2010).
From Sept. 2006-Sept. 2007, I worked as a Public Information Assistant, writing press releases in Spanish and English, doing translations, and handling media requests for statistics and/or interviews with experts. I also prepared media clippings or briefing notes for high-level visits and updated ECLAC’s website.

Oct. 2003-2007
FREELANCE FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
I work for various clients in radio, television, newspaper, magazine, and photojournalism in English, Spanish and French. My regular strings and/or repeat clients include: BBC radio, CBC radio and TV, NPR's Latino USA, RNE (Spanish National Radio), The Independent, Latin Trade Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, Women's E-News, Geographical Magazine, etc.

Oct. 2001-Oct.2003
CBC TELEVISION
Senior researcher, assistant producer
Permanent, full-time position in the Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa. I worked primarily for CBC’s flagship nightly news show The National, as well as for the 24-hour news channel Newsworld. Tasks included: doing on-camera interviews for other reporters, field producing, preparing investigative research and background files, ATIP requests, keeping track of upcoming events on the Hill, finding story ideas and setting up interviews. I also backfilled as a national producer and a local on-air reporter.

Sept. 2001-Oct.2003
CBC RADIO
Freelance or casual work as a reporter and associate producer.

Summer 2001 & December 1998
SOUTHAM NEWS SERVICE
Reporter
Summer contract, Ottawa bureau, writing national and parliamentary news stories. Two-week apprenticeship in 1998.

Summer 1999
THE GLOBE & MAIL
Reporter, copy editor
Summer internship. I spent two months as a reporter and two as a copy editor for this national Canadian newspaper. Occasional stringer while in England, 2000-2001. Have continued to freelance for them in Chile.

Summer 1998
THE EDMONTON JOURNAL
Summer internship as a general assignment reporter. I wrote for city and national sections, also some entertainment and business.

Feb.-March 1998
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
Two-week reporting apprenticeship, for which I found all my own story ideas.

Summer 1997 & Sept.-Nov. 1997
NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH COUNCIL
Science writer for the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence. I wrote success stories and pitched them to various media outlets. It began as a summer job and I was hired back on contract for the fall.

April-May 1997
THE CANADIAN REPORTER
Research assistant for the "day in the life of a newsroom" chapter of Carleton University professor Catherine McKercher's 1998 textbook.

1995 - 1999
THE CHARLATAN (Carleton University's student newspaper)
Regular reporter. Parliamentary correspondent in fourth year. I also did copy editing, layout, and photography. I was a summer and fill-in section editor.

Sept. '94 - June '95
MACLEAN HUNTER CABLE 22 TV
Reporter and production assistant for a weekly community news show. I prepared line-up run sheets and helped with lighting and audio.

Magazine Publications:

Latin Trade, Geographical UK, The New Internationalist, Adbusters, Canadian Business, Hispanic, Maclean's, Chatelaine, Canadian Geographic, Islands, Travesías, IN-LAN, Education Today, The Medical Post, Up Here, Above & Beyond, Science's Next Wave.

Academic Publications:

"Movers & Shakers: Michelle Bachelet" International Journal. Canadian Institute of International Affairs. Summer 2006. Pp. 724-733.

"The Changing Role of the Military in Latin America," FOCAL Policy Paper. November 2004.

"La Sécurité humaine sur le champ de bataille: un point de vue 'shakespearian' sur l'évolution paradoxale d'une doctrine canadienne," by David G. Haglund and Jennifer N. Ross, in La Sécurité Humaine: Une Nouvelle Conception des relations internationales, ed. Jean-François Rioux (Paris: Harmattan, 2002), pp. 283-300.

"Is Canada's Human Security Policy Really the 'Axworthy Doctrine'?," Canadian Foreign Policy. Vol. 8, No. 2. February 2001. Pp. 75-93.

Honours and Awards:

  • Joint winner of the 2006 Rosa Cisneros Memorial Award (for journalism raising awareness of health and reproductive issues). My story “Brazil Begins Talking Openly about Abortion,” published May 15, 2005 in Women’s E-News was one the five articles that jointly one the award for that publication.
  • British Chevening/CanWest Scholarship (2000-01) - full award for one year in the UK ($40,000).
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (1999-2000) - Ontario's top scholarship for graduate study.
  • Gordon Sinclair Fellowship (1999-2000) - a $10,000 scholarship for a selected journalism student to pursue graduate studies.
  • Chancellor's Scholarship (1995-99) - Carleton's most prestigious award ($5,000 a year).
  • Ottawa Citizen Scholarship in Journalism (1998-99), Wilfrid Eggleston Award in Journalism (1997-98), Canadian Corporate News Scholarship (1996-97) and a number of other awards.
  • Ottawa Board of Education French Public Speaking Award and Provincial French public speaking competitor in Toronto in 1994.

Activities and Interests:

I enjoy traveling, photography, movies, reading and writing fiction. I swim, play soccer and mountainbike recreationally and have taught salsa and merengue dance lessons. I've been involved in theatre: acting, writing and producing. At Carleton, I was vice-president of the Latin American Association for two years and I helped organize a major inter-university conference on culture.