Meet our CUP board for 2021-22!
Get to know our board for the new academic year!
President — Sarah Krichel
president@cup.ca
Sarah Krichel is the incoming CUP president and is based in Toronto. As the chief editor of The Eyeopener in 2019-20, she spent the year campaigning against Premier Doug F*rd’s threat against student press. Sarah is passionate about fostering more connection, growth and opportunity through the student journalism community than ever before, and wants to raise awareness around the services and benefits CUP has to offer. Shoot her a message anytime @sarahkrichel on Twitter.
Vice President — Willa Holt
vp@cup.ca
Willa was The McGill Daily’s managing editor for two years and currently lives in Montreal with their cat, Ivy. They’re excited to support the board in making CUP more accessible and bilingual this year!
Communications Officer — Caitlin Dutt
communications@cup.ca
Based in New Brunswick, Caitlin spent the majority of her time in university chasing down news stories in various roles at The Aquinian at St. Thomas University. She deeply cares about the importance of student journalism and would happily try to convince anyone who says otherwise. Putting her double major in journalism and communications to use, she is starting her second term as communications officer. She loves making CUP accessible to everyone!
Treasurer — Rania Osman
treasurer@cup.ca
Rania is the Treasurer at CUP. She was the managing editor of the Western Gazette at Western University. Find her on Twitter @_raniaosman_.
Director of Operations — Tyler Griffin
operations@cup.ca
Tyler Griffin is an award-winning journalist based in Toronto and editor-in-chief of Ryerson University’s independent student newspaper, The Eyeopener. His writing and reporting focuses primarily on politics, arts, culture and identity, and can be found in VICE, HuffPost, Maclean’s, J-Source and more. Tyler is currently director of operations at CUP, where he’s passionate about facilitating community and solidarity within Canada’s student journalism landscape. Find him perpetually on Twitter at @tylerxgriffin.
Director of Funding — Pawan Minhas
funding@cup.ca
Pawan is a recent graduate from UBC, coming to CUP by way of The Ubyssey. Currently located in northern Alberta, on Treaty 8 land, he’s stoked to bolster CUP’s coffers and help represent the western provinces on the board! On a workflow note, in his time at The Ubyssey he was also an advice columnist, so he’ll only respond to questions that lead with ‘Dear Ask Pawan…’ and also are about relationship troubles.
Continuity Officer — Jacob Dubé
continuity@cup.ca
Jacob Dubé is CUP’s continuity rep, tasked with being the source of historical knowledge on past CUP affairs, to help the current board make more informed decisions. He was previously the CUP president and Ontario Representative, as well as a former editor-in-chief of Ryerson University’s independent student newspaper, The Eyeopener
Atlantic Rep — Diana Chávez
atlantic.board@cup.ca
Diana Chávez is a recent Journalism and Great Books graduate from St. Thomas University, in Fredericton, NB. This past year, she was the editor-in-chief of The Aquinian, STU’s official student publication. She was also the news editor the year before and her byline has appeared in CBC New Brunswick and Huddle. In her role as Atlantic Rep, she wants to bring student newspapers in Atlantic Canada together and hopefully plan a regional conference.
Western Rep — Sam Smart
westernrep@cup.ca
Sam is a recent graduate of UBC, where they were the blog and opinion editor at The Ubyssey. Located in Vancouver, they hope to ensure that western student journalists have access to support and information on equity and empathy in their newsrooms and their reporting.
Western Rep — Dhriti Gupta
westernrep@cup.ca
Dhriti Gupta is a fourth-year journalism student at Ryerson University, based in the GTA. She’s worked as the communities and features editor at The Eyeopener and will be returning as an online editor this year. She’s excited to collaborate with papers in BC and connect with student journalists across Canada. When she’s not writing, you can find her making clay earrings or telling people their birth charts “make sooo much sense.”
Prairies North Rep — Jiem Carlo
prairies.board@cup.ca
Jiem Carlo worked for the Sheaf Publishing Society at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon for five years. His goals for this year are to create a better communication channel with all members in his region, engage them in discussions about any struggles they may have and find a solution as a group, and offering each member what they need when they need it. Being the editor-in-chief last year for the Sheaf, he found that there are common struggles that newspapers have. His focus is bring these common struggles together and promote a space where member publications can help each other.
Ontario Rep — Catherine Abes
ontario.board@cup.ca
Catherine Abes is a Toronto-based journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Eyeopener. She’s most interested in long-form journalism, bringing empathy into reporting practices and creating meaningful relationships with sources and communities.
Ontario Rep — Charley Dutil
ontario.board@cup.ca
A grizzled veteran of student media, Charley has worked for both University of Ottawa student papers and has covered everything from hockey to Board of Governor meetings. Charley was previously the sports editor of the Fulcrum in 2019-20, he is currently serving his second term as editor-in-chief of the paper. He was also an intern at #ONFR where he helped cover provincial and federal politics.
Quebec Rep — Mélina Nantel
quebec.board@cup.ca
As a Quebec rep, Mélinahopes to succeed in bringing French-language issues to the table, by further involving the French-speaking Canadian publications, working to make the association bilingual and organizing bilingual events that will allow greater inclusiveness and representation of Canada’s linguistic diversity in the student press.
Quebec Rep — Abigail Popple
quebec.board@cup.ca
Abigail is entering her third year at McGill University, where she’s the coordinating news editor of The McGill Daily. She lives in Montreal, Quebec, and will be one of CUP’s Quebec representatives this year! She hopes to recruit more French papers to CUP, as well as translate CUP materials into French!