Virginia St-Denis launched her freelance business three years ago, but she’s no newcomer to the field. Virginia began her career in 1991 as a reporter-photographer for newspapers and magazines in the Niagara Falls area after graduating from Humber College’s Journalism program. Moving to Ottawa in 2002, she became the communications editor at a national non-profit organization. When she launched the plain-language Journal of Aboriginal Health, the multi-skilled Virginia became what she calls “a one-woman production team,” covering the peer review process, desktop publishing and proofreading. Since then, she has been the managing editor of three medical journals.
Virginia joined Editors Canada in 2015 when she returned to magazine work. With her Social Media Certificate from Algonquin College in hand, she created a social media strategy for Editors Canada in 2017 and volunteered as the in-house editors’ networking organizer for Editors Ottawa–Gatineau.
Joining the national executive council in 2018, Virginia became the director of communications and the interim chair of the communications and marketing committee. There she earned her biggest reward volunteering so far: creating an integrated marketing and communications strategy for the webinar flash sale that raised more than $22,500. “That was about a quarter of the total webinar sales for 2018 and did not include any paid promotion, so that was straight profit,” she says proudly.
In her spare time, Virginia enjoys nature, architecture and abstract photography. This hobby has not only won her many awards from ViewBug, an online photography community, but also prompted her to volunteer as photographer at the 2017 and 2019 national conferences. “Being a volunteer photographer gave me an excuse to talk to different people and helped break me out of my shell,” Virginia notes. “I learned so much from the sessions, I met so many great people and I have the pictures to prove it!”
The featured volunteer recognizes the contributions of our dedicated people who keep Editors Canada going. Volunteers are the backbone of the association, and we are grateful for the many members and affiliates who answer the call when help is needed.
Want to make a difference in your association? Find out more about volunteering for Editors Canada.
~S. Robin Larin