Sharing Professional Insights

Julia traced her passion for writing back to BSS, where she edited the Prism yearbook and wrote for the student newspaper, Spectrum. Her trajectory from the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) journalism program to graduate school, and eventually to the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, was far from linear. Graduating during the global financial crisis, she navigated scarce job markets and unpaid internships, turning career constraints into opportunities. Through resilience and self-invention, Julia found her niche in health and science journalism, becoming well-known for her deep dives into pseudoscientific health claims. While working for Maclean’s she created Science-ish, a weekly blog dedicated to “[checking] the latest health-related headlines against the evidence — and [holding] politicians, opinion leaders, and journalists to account.” Her “Show Me the Evidence” series of Vox investigated claims around nutrition, exercise, medicine and more, and she recently co-authored the book Food Intelligence with Kevin Hall.

Julia emphasized that journalism’s true function is accountability. She encouraged students to follow their curiosities to expose harm and speak truth to power. Reminding students that writing is a lifelong practice that grows with dedication, her visit demonstrated how alumnae engagement enriches our curriculum, inspiring current students to navigate their own futures with courage and purpose.