We are thrilled to introduce this year’s TMAC Awards Judges for both the National Awards and Recognition Awards categories. We are honoured to have such a talented and dedicated group generously volunteer their time to support this important program and celebrate excellence in travel media.
We are especially proud to welcome five judges from the Australian Society of Travel Writers (ASTW) through a new partnership to help with our National Awards judging.
From us all, thank you!
Meet your TMAC National Awards Judges
This year, we have 16 National Awards judges.
Chris Ashton
Chris Ashton is a freelance travel writer based in Byron Bay, Australia. A passionate scuba diver, street art hunter and amateur gin enthusiast, he’s written for a broad mix of print and online publications, including Australian Geographic, Australian Traveller, The Guardian, Yahoo, Executive Traveller and Escape. He is the current president of the Australian Society of Travel Writers – Australia’s peak body for travel media.
Jeff Bartlett
Jeff Bartlett blends writing, photography, and filmmaking with a passion for storytelling. He has led workshops from the Canadian Rockies to Antarctica, filed assignments from Jasper to Jyrgalan, and cycled routes from Paris–Roubaix to Patagonia. His writing has appeared in Canadian Cycling Magazine, EnRoute, Afar, and Escape Collective, while his photography and films, including the Banff Mountain Film Festival finalist Choosing to Live, bring audiences closer to the wild places he loves. Jeff’s work merges creativity with exploration, inviting others to see the world with fresh perspective. Beyond storytelling, he owns Cedar Stand Coffee Co., a mobile coffee trailer on Vancouver Island.
Marie-Andrée Boucher
Marie-Andrée Boucher is an expert in tourism marketing and press relations, with extensive experience in both government and private sectors. From 2022 to June 2025, she managed Quebec press relations at the Alliance de l’industrie touristique du Québec. Previously, she managed press services at Atout France Canada from 2013 to 2021 and worked in tourism marketing and sales from 1988 to 2013. She holds a degree in Fine Arts and a diploma in Cultural Organization Management, and has been volunteering for sustainable tourism initiatives since 2017. Marie-Andrée loves traveling and is a proud TMAC Awards Judge for the second year.
Jeremy Bourke
I’m a career journalist, having worked in newspapers and magazines in Australia for five decades. I’ve been both commissioning and writing travel for more than 25 years, firstly as an editor and, for the past decade, as a freelancer, and somehow managed to visit every continent on the planet (including Antarctica) in one 12-month period in 2022-23. Canada was part of that, and the Alberta Rockies is the only landscape that has brought me to tears, plus I have something of an obsession for Quebec ice cider. In 2025 I was named TravMedia Australia Travel. Writer of the Year.
Jonathan Custeau
News coordinator for La Tribune, in Sherbrooke, Jonathan Custeau is also Le Bourlingueur, the travel writer for the six publications of the Coops de l’information in the province of Quebec. Part time nomad, he likes to dig in the history of the places he visits as much as in the local way of life. He has been sharing his travel experiences for the last 10 years in Le Soleil, Le Droit, La Tribune, Le Quotidien, Le Nouvelliste and La Voix de l’Est.
Lynn Gail
Lynn Gail is a multi-award-winning travel writer and photographer based in Western Australia. Travel feet since birth, she specialises in culturally diverse subjects, regularly writing and photographing for a range of Australian and international titles. She’s camped under stars with Australia’s Yolngu people – the world’s oldest living culture, shared Hari Raya festivities with the Cocos Malay on Cocos Keeling Islands and danced with ancestors’ bones during a Turning of the Bones Ceremony in Madagascar. Ask her to spend time with intact tribes and visit remote regions, she’ll be on the next bus. Lynn also runs immersive, small group photography tours.
Caroline Gladstone
Caroline has been a travel writer for more than 30 years, beginning with her role as reporter and features editor on Travel Trade, an Australian travel industry magazine. These days she freelances for a wealth of publications, including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Explore and New Zealand Herald, along with cruise websites. She's travelled on some 70 cruise ships, written guide books for Fodor's and Insight and when not checking out art galleries, architecture and blues bars on her world travels, likes to relax at her home in Bondi Beach. A long-time member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, she is their recent past president and current vice-president.
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes has worked in media for several decades, spanning radio, television, and print, and has specialised in travel magazines since the early 1990s. She has edited several travel titles, including Holidays With Kids, Ski and Snowboard With Kids (it ‘grew up’ to be just Ski and Snowboard), Concierge (Travel Associates), and edited Vacations & Travel for 14 years. She sub-edits multiple magazines, and contributes to many major publications in Australia, including Escape, Explore, Signature Luxury Travel & Style, MiNDFOOD and Australian Geographic Adventure. Helen is also a broadcaster, co-hosting and contributing to, award-winning Travel Writers Radio.
Brenna Holeman
Brenna Holeman (she/her) has travelled to more than 100 countries but is proud to call Manitoba home. With an MA in Creative Non-Fiction Writing from City University of London, her travel writing career spans two decades, including seven years as a writer and editor for Expedia UK. Her blog, This Battered Suitcase, has enabled her to collaborate with dozens of tourist boards and has been featured in notable publications including CBC, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Guardian, among others. She currently focuses on writing about Canada and lives in Winnipeg with her son.
Helga Loverseed
Helga Loverseed is a freelance travel journalist, editor and translator with an eclectic background in the media and in the travel industry. Her early career included working for a film studio in Glasgow, a media watchdog agency (similar to the CRTC) and 10 years in the airline industry – first as a flight attendant and then as a reservations agent with British Airways in Toronto. During her 10 years in the airline business, she retrained as a journalist and photographer at Ryerson Polytechnic (renamed Toronto Metropolitan University), becoming an award-winning travel journalist and travelling to some 170 destinations around the world. Her articles and photographs have appeared in well over 100 newspapers (online and in print), guide books (Fodor’s Travel, Penguin Random House etc.) and magazines and she became a travel columnist with major publications such as The Globe and Mail, The Montreal Gazette and The Chicago Sun-Times. Helga also translates and edits travel websites, tourism news releases and promotional materials from French to English.
April Liu
Dr. April Liu is a filmmaker, author, and cultural programmer whose work reimagines storytelling across media and cultural spaces. Author of Divine Threads (2019), a major book-length study of Cantonese Opera in Canada, she has produced innovative programs at Vancouver's Chinatown Storytelling Centre and the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Her films and cultural projects have been featured on CBC Gem, CBC Arts, CBC Radio Canada, Guangzhou Radio and TV, Chinese National Radio (CNR), and the Pasadena International Film Festival. Blending scholarship with interactive media, Liu’s practice connects communities, preserves heritage, and sparks new cultural conversations.
Lisa Monforton
Lisa Monforton is an award-winning travel writer with 30 years in journalism, including 12 years as travel editor for the Calgary Herald. In that role, she travelled the world and wrote for newspapers from coast to coast. She also mentored freelance travel writers as they grew in their careers. She discovered a love of bike-packing on a trip to Argentina in 2019, which led her to the crazy idea of cycling across Canada in 2021. Now retired, Lisa is always scheming her next trip, often by bike. When she’s not travelling, she leads food tours in Calgary, weaves, volunteers and loves spending time with family and friends.
Carolyne Parent
Since 1996, Carolyne Parent has chronicled the world for Montreal’s daily Le Devoir. Her footsteps have carried her to more than 120 countries and, for several of them, three times rather than once. To her, traveling and writing are not what she does for a living; they are her way of life! Over the years, she has penned countless travel features, garnered a few awards, published four books, and, above all, nurtured a lasting passion for exploring what’s out there. Beyond Le Devoir, her words also appear in ELLE Québec, Véro, and Le Bel Âge.
Danie Béliveau
Danie Béliveau was the media relations person at Tourism Eastern Townships for 19 years. During this time, she welcomed hundreds of travel media. She was an industry member of TMAC. Since her retirement in 2022, Danie hosts a weekly television program on Cogeco TV, the regional cable provider. She still has an active hand in tourism by accompanying groups on coach trips for a travel agency. In 2025, she was a judge for the TMAC National Awards in three categories. An experience she greatly appreciated. She is touched by the fact that the TMAC National Awards committee has offered her to renew the experience.
Marie-Eve Vallières
Marie-Eve Vallieres is a Montreal-based travel writer and PR specialist over 15 years of experience bringing destinations to life through storytelling. Her career spans traditional print magazines, award-winning travel blogs, and impactful content marketing campaigns in renowned outlets like La Presse, AFAR, Viator, Fodor’s, and BBC Travel. A seasoned traveler, she has lived in Britain and France and visited 38 countries, drawing inspiration from themes such as gastronomy, feminism, architecture, and the transformative power of travel. Since 2019, Marie-Eve has channeled her expertise as Senior Advisor, PR and Marketing at Air Transat, where she focuses on curating compelling narratives and positioning the airline’s brand in the media.
Dominika Wocjik
Dominika Wojcik is the Senior Director of Communications at Tourism Lethbridge, leading the destination’s marketing, PR, and media strategy. She builds integrated, data-led campaigns across paid, owned, and earned channels, and has produced national media FAMs and content partnerships that convert interest into visits. Her work is grounded in developing partnerships with local businesses, community leaders, and provincial and national tourism bodies. As a regular spokesperson and collaborator with publishers and creators, she values work that showcases a sense of place and clear audience value.
Meet Your TMAC Recognition Awards Judges
This year, we have 4 Recognition Awards judges.
Trish Exton-Parder
Trish Exton-Parder was born and raised in the wonderful city of Calgary. She completed a Communications degree at York University, Toronto. Trish gained early experience at an advertising agency and for a brief energetic time in radio, however, her true career began with when she became Public Relations Officer for the Calgary Zoo. Trish retired from the Zoo in 2019 after a successful 35 years as the Media Specialist. During her time she received the Honourary Doug Johnson Award for commitment and longevity in the hospitality and tourism industry. She now parachutes into a variety of other projects that come across her path including the publishing of a book with a friend and colleague about navigating identity following a fulfilling career, “It’s Just A Hiccup”. Some of her volunteer organizations include Dreams Take Flight (all about the kids), Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (all about the animals)! She believes in the importance of consciously connecting through the fostering of relationships as the secret to effective media relations.
Henny Groenendijk
Since 1987, Henny has been promoting travel experiences in the Netherlands, Florida, and Louisiana to the Canadian media. With a passion for cultural exchange and storytelling, Henny has built lasting relationships within the industry and showcased unique destinations to Canadian audiences. As a proud member of the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) from 1994 to 2011, Henny enjoyed Conferences, Munch ’n Mingle events and made many TMAC Friends. Honoured to be invited as a judge for the 2025 TMAC Recognition Awards in 2026, Henny looks forward to celebrating excellence and innovation in travel media.
Geoff Moore
Two-time finalist for GoMedia’s Go-Getter Award for PR Excellence, Geoff Moore’s first taste of tourism was as a commercial pilot, flying travelers to destinations throughout British Columbia. Adding photography and film location scouting to his skills led Geoff to becoming a regional travel media relations representative in 2007. For the next 17 years in this role, he leveraged his extensive knowledge and passion for the region to host professional story tellers from around the world to his unique region of Canada. Geoff is currently working as a licensed drone pilot and content creator based in Williams Lake BC.
Thom Tischik
Thom has been in the Tourism Industry since 1977, so you could say he is dedicated to the tourism industry. Thom has been involved in many aspects of tourism and hospitality, from ground level positions in his early career days to executive management, destination marketing. With regard to and media relations and development, Thom has been an active participant in Go Media and Canada Media Marketplaces, TMAC marketplaces and a host and guide to scores of travel journalists over the decades. Thom has a clear understanding of what makes an effective story for both the writer and the destination. Thom has served on several boards including Destination BC Marketing Committee, Kootenay Rockies Tourism Association, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association and many other local and regional tourism specific organizations.
Meet your Nathan Fong Memorial Award Judges
Fred Lee
Fred Lee shares all of Metro Vancouver's A-list happening, red carpet parties, must-attend galas, and fabulous fundraisers with readers and listeners. His column appears in Vancouver Magazine, Vancouver Boulevard and The Province. He has been a regular contributor to the CBC, National Post, Vancouver Courier, BC Business, Look Magazine, Living Magazine, and TV Week. He, along with CBC's Margaret Gallagher, hosted the national CBC Radio One food show Flavour of the Week. A tireless, award-winning volunteer, MC, and mentor, Fred gives his time and expertise to many organizations, including the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, First United Church, and CLICK Foundation.
April Liu
Dr. April Liu is a filmmaker, author, curator, and cultural programmer. She is the author of Divine Threads (2019), the first book-length study of Cantonese opera in Canada, and has developed innovative exhibits and programs as Manager of Public Programs & Education at the Chinatown Storytelling Centre in Vancouver. Her films and cultural projects have reached audiences through CBC Gem, CBC Arts, CBC Radio Canada, Guangzhou Radio and TV, Chinese National Radio (CNR), and the Pasadena International Film Festival.
Judy Lam Maxwell
Judy Lam Maxwell is a culinary-heritage tourism entrepreneur based in Vancouver. She is the owner of Historical Chinatown Tours, which offers guided walking tours and traditional dumpling-making classes. Judy – who is of mixed Chinese European heritage and has an M.A. in history from UBC – also specializes in Chinatowns around the world. In 2024 and 2025, Historical Chinatown Tours received the prestigious Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice Award. Judy’s volunteer work spans more than two decades, including the Chinatown Society Heritage Buildings Association and Vancouver Chinatown Revitalization Committee. She is currently on the City of Vancouver Chinatown Advisory Committee and is a Heritage Commissioner with the City of Vancouver.
Meet your Host Destination Award Judge
Jodi Holliday
From the heart of Saskatchewan’s boundless prairies, I’ve spent 16 years at Tourism Saskatchewan and just passed the 11-year mark charming the media. I'm here to make you fall in love with Saskatchewan, whether that is through long drives on the prairie, horseback riding in the badlands, paddling on the Churchill, going to a powwow, eating delicious food or drinking delicious cocktails. YOU WILL FALL IN LOVE. I can be very persuasive. Though I was born and raised here, I didn’t really start exploring the province until I started this job, other than driving to Saskatoon and back for concerts. I’m a city gal at heart but enjoy it when my job takes me out of my comfort zone. Fun facts: I went to cooking school, was a Religious Studies professor, was lead clarinet in a concert band, and was a bad-ass blocker in roller derby. Everyone has many stories to tell, I can’t wait to hear yours.