BIO

 

Karlene Nation is a broadcast journalist, media marketing specialist, community activist and motivational speaker.

Karlene, worked as a spot news reporter for CTV Toronto from 1993 to 2015, covering breaking news for three daily shows.

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In 2000, she was appointed to the position of Diversity Producer, the first reporter appointed to this position in a newsroom in Canada. 

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She was tasked with helping to increase representation of Canadians of diverse backgrounds in daily news programs.  

As diversity producer, Karlene generated story ideas for local and national news programs.

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She organized editorial board meetings where members of community groups met with CTV News managers to give feedback on stories.  

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Karlene created the CTV Diversity Database that listed experts of diverse backgrounds who were called on to comment on breaking stories. 

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In addition, Karlene was a frequent guest speaker and host of local community events and she educated community groups about how to get their stories on the air. 

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 Karlene spoke to journalism students at colleges across the GTA to give them advice and insights into how to get into the field of broadcast and print journalism.

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She organized tours at CTV for elementary and high school students and mentored dozens of students who wanted to get into journalism.  

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Prior to joining CTV, Karlene was s summer business reporter at The Globe and Mail Report on Business and The Toronto Star.  She also had stints at CBC Toronto and Canada AM.

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Over the past four years, Karlene serves as an advocate for tenants in social housing to help them to get access to the services they need and served on the Justice of the Peace Appointment and Advisory Committee.

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A passionate motivational speaker, Karlene encourages young people to dream big dreams and work hard to make their dreams a reality.

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