Salimah Y. Ebrahim

Born in East Africa and beginning her international journalism career in the alleyways of Cairo, Salimah spent years filling on culture and politics across the Middle East, covering the war in Iraq and reporting on environmental security challenges in Africa. She was on the trail for the historic 2008 US presidential campaign, and later based in Washington, DC, covering the White House and the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Affordable Health Care Act. She has worked on assignment for Reuters, A&E, CBC Television, Omni Television, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus Magazine and The Cairo Times. Alongside her work in journalism, Salimah is a serial founder and loves bringing ideas to life. She understands the work of building, mentoring and growing teams and has co-founded and led several technology start-ups , most recently around culture and cities with Artery - a global peer to peer platform that brings people and their neighbours together in real life to share and co-create cultural experiences in unexpected spaces. Artery's community of hosts, artists (authors, musicians, comedians, dancers, chefs, poets) and attendees exist in over 30 cities, globally. The platform has unlocked 3 million+ square feet of new community space and focuses on addressing social isolation in cities, towns and neighbourhoods. Her grounding project, the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition (SBYC), helped protect Canada’s endangered Spirit Bear and its habitat in British Columbia’s Great Bear rainforest - the last intact tract of temperate rainforest in the world. Under her stewardship the Coalition started with just two members and grew to a network of over 6 million members in 64+ countries. The campaign to save the spirit bear – named the official mascot of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver – was recently recognized as one of the most supported conservation initiatives in Canadian history. A fellow and graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York, and Trinity College, University of Toronto (Middle Eastern History and International Relations) Awards for journalist and community building include: profiled by CBC Television as one of 25 Canadians who are changing the world; named by Chatelaine magazine one of its 80 amazing Canadian women to watch; and honoured by the World Economic Forum in 2009 as a Young Global Leader. Her work has been featured in publications globally including The New York Times, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Gizmodo, Time Out & Fortune.