Verge Magazine Staff

Jeff Minthorn
co-founder, editor-in-chief, art director

Jeff hails from Waterloo, Ontario and has worked and studied on four continents and travelled to six, including a season's worth of expeditions to Antarctica. With degrees in Environmental Studies and Architecture from the University of Waterloo, Jeff has a solid background in design, which he makes good use of in his art director role. Before co-founding Verge magazine, he worked for eight years as an outdoor education instructor and guide. He is a great believer in experiential education and sees Verge Magazine as a means of encouraging more people to learn about the world by experiencing as much of it as possible.

Tannis Hett
co-founder, circulation, webmaster

Originally from Edmonton, Tannis left the prairies as a teenager,and has been on the move ever since. After two years of college in Wales, she continued her studies abroad, obtaining degrees in economics from Cambridge University and the University of Chicago. While working in the environmental field for several years, she worked and volunteered in eight different countries, and she has travelled to all seven continents. Verge has managed to bundle all Tannis' interests into one great work environment.


Julia Steinecke
editor

When she left her hometown of Kapuskasing, Ontario, Julia embarked on the travels that would eventually take her through Guatemala, Jordan, India, Laos, Cuba, Ireland, China and more. Julia has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University and has been a letter carrier, ESL teacher, women's shelter counsellor, editor and journalist. She's the author of Pink Planet, a monthly travel column in the Toronto Star. Julia has shared a National Magazine Award, and received three Ontario Arts Council grants.

 

Zinzi de Silva
Special Projects Manager 

Originally from Toronto, Zinzi has traveled extensively to 22 countries. A good number of those have intentionally been surfing hot-spots, including her university exchange term where she sojourned in Australia.  Zinzi gained her extraordinary events and project management chops while completing her Honours B.A at the University of Toronto, where she graduated as the elected President of Victoria College’s Students’ Administrative Council.  Before joining the Verge team in 2010, Zinzi worked in events management at Ryerson University, and Tourism Toronto.   

 

---

Contributing Editors

Andrea Gourgy

Originally from Montreal, Andrea has a hard time staying in one place. After gaining a BA from Western and a Masters in Journalism from the University of Southern California, Andrea hit the road and never looked back. She has worked professionally as a journalist in six different countries, and earned several travel writing awards in the process. Andrea joined the Verge team in 2006.

 

Zalina Alvi

Zalina grew up in Toronto and began her career in journalism at the York University campus newspaper. Before joining Verge in 2010, she worked for a documentary festival, a non-profit organization and various magazines and newspapers. Zalina has had some eclectic travel experiences, including reporting for a newspaper on the island of Molokai in Hawaii.

Trevor Lush
Professional photographer Trevor Lush has produced imagery for some of the industry's foremost agencies. Recent productions have taken him from the glitz of Las Vegas to the stark beauty of the Canadian Arctic. Trevor contributes a regular column on travel photography.

Dr. Mark Wise

Travel Bugs columnist, Mark Wise is a family doctor in Toronto, specializing in travel and tropical medicine. He is the director of The Travel Clinic and acts as medical advisor to numerous NGOs and is on the board of Canadian Feed the Children. He has travelled to most of the places where you might consider volunteering.

 

Based in Wisconsin, Verge magazine's music columnist, Matthew Forss holds a BA in biology, MS in exercise science, and an MFA in creative writing. Since 2000, he has been writing world music reviews for Edmonton-based Inside World Music.com, while amassing a very large collection of ethnomusicological recordings from every country in the world. Matthew continues to publish music articles and cultural book reviews in various academic journals and magazines and has an acquired taste for Central Asian linguistics (Uzbek, Kazakh, and Tajik).

Most Popular Articles Tried and tested travel resources.	Upcoming Events Come meet us at a travel event near you.	Verge Community (New!)	Verge News Keep up to date by subscribing to our email newsletter, or our RSS feed.
©2010 Verge Magazine, All Rights Reserved