Meet the Team

Justin Brake (settler, he/him) is a reporter and editor at The Independent, a role in which he previously served from 2012 to 2017. In recent years, he has worked as a contributing editor at The Breach and as a reporter and executive producer with APTN News. Justin was born in Gander and raised in Saskatchewan and Ontario. He returned home in 2007 to study at Memorial University and now lives with his partner and children in Benoit’s Cove, Bay of Islands. In addition to the channels below, you can also follow Justin on BlueSky.

Kenny Sharpe comes to The Independent with more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist. A philosophy and psychology graduate from MUN, he grew up between Brigus, Bay Roberts and Upper Island Cove. He has worked as a news editor and political reporter. He was a national reporter with The Globe and Mail, and most recently has been working as an Atlantic producer with CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau and as assignment editor for the radio program World Report. Kenny is an alumnus of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship through the Washington-based International Centre for Journalists, which supported him working as a foreign correspondent in Europe based with Reuters in Berlin. He has a Master of Journalism degree from Toronto Metropolitan University. Find Kenny on Bluesky and TikTok.

Ana Maria Alcantara is a journalist, researcher, and communications professional originally from Brazil and now based in St. John’s. She comes to The Independent as a 2026 Journalists for Human Rights fellow. Ana Maria has worked across print, digital, radio, and television media, covering culture, education, public policy, social issues, and community development. Drawing on experience in journalism, communications, cultural management, and community engagement, she brings a people-centred and globally-informed perspective to her work. In addition to working with The Independent, Ana Maria serves on the Board of Directors of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival and is involved in international initiatives focused on leadership, equity, and community engagement, with a particular interest in connecting local stories to broader global conversations.

Angela Antle is the 2025 Rachel Carson Writer in Residence at Germany’s Ludwig Maximilian University, host and producer of the podcast GYRE, an interdisciplinary PhD candidate (Memorial University) and a member of Norway’s Empowered Futures: A Global Research School Navigating the Social and Environmental Controversies of Low-Carbon Energy Transitions.

Heidi Atter is a Labrador-based journalist dedicated to sharing personal stories showcasing the resilience, challenges, culture, and voices of the Labrador community.

David is a photographer and multimedia artist trained in Newfoundland and Labrador, working in the local TV/film/photojournalism space, and freelancing online for international clients. He’s a frequent participant in Canadian film festivals. When he is not working, David is eating peanut butter sandwiches, watching Star Trek, and swimming in ponds.

Hope Jamieson (they/them) is a PhD candidate in Memorial’s Faculty of Business Administration and president of Annex Consulting, a social purpose consulting firm specializing in affordable housing.

Originally from the Maritimes, Elizabeth Yeoman has been walking, cycling, driving and using public transit in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past thirty-five years. Drawing on those experiences, she is co-editor with Robin Whitaker of Making Connections. She has made a CBC Radio Ideas show about walking (The Least Possible Baggage) and co-directed a documentary film about the struggle for the right to walk in St. John’s (Honk If You Want Me Off The Road). She is on the Board of Directors of Bicycle NL and is a member of Challenge Car Culture NL. Elizabeth also writes about language, culture and translation. Her most recent book is Exactly What I Said: Translating Words and Worlds.

Born and raised in Gander, Tom Baird is an associate professor of mathematics at MUN. A regular contributor to the Indy, he has been a board member since 2013.

Courtney Jones, originally from Torbay and currently residing in Toronto, is a PhD Candidate in Law at Exeter Law School. Her research sits at the intersections of law, technology, and feminist theory across England & Wales and Canada. She holds an MRes in Socio-Legal Research (Distinction) from Exeter, an LLB (Hons) from Exeter, and a BSc (Behavioural Neuroscience) from Memorial University.

Jonathan (he/him) is an environmental geographer based in Corner Brook, NL. He has a PhD from UBC and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto and UWinnipeg. He has published widely on the politics of natural resource governance, extractive industries, and climate change. He joined the Indy Board of Directors in 2024.

Hailing from Corner Brook in Western Newfoundland, Kaila (she/her, settler) works as Innovation Coordinator at Grenfell Campus. She spends much of her free time biking, running, cross-country skiing, and taking in concerts and cultural events–while squeezing in time to cook and bake to keep up her energy. In past lives she’s worked as a foreign service officer with Global Affairs Canada and coordinated an advocacy campaign aimed at ending impunity for sexual abuse committed by UN personnel, and has a Master’s degree in Immigration and Settlement Studies. At the height of the pandemic, Kaila returned to Newfoundland and Labrador to reestablish her roots at home, and ran for the NDP in the 2021 federal election. She deeply values her memberships with the Western Environment Centre and the Indy, and is a volunteer with Corner Brook’s Sexual Assault Response and Advocacy (SARA) project and a community spin instructor.

Michelle Porter is the descendent of a long line of Métis storytellers (the Goulet family) originally from the Red River area. Her first novel, A Grandmother Begins the Story (2023), was the winner of the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her next novel, A Glacier’s Guide to Dying, will be released in September 2026. She lives in Newfoundland and Labrador where she teaches creative writing at Memorial University. Michelle also served as the Indy’s Editor-in-Chief in 2018.

In addition to sitting on the Board of The Independent, Robin Whitaker has contributed to the Indy on issues ranging from electoral reform to shared-use trails. She and Elizabeth Yeoman are co-editors of Making Connections. In her day job, she works as an anthropologist at Memorial University and is active in her union, MUNFA, which she served as president from 2017-2019. Robin is currently President of the Canadian Association of University Teachers and President of the National Union of CAUT. Robin grew up in Portugal Cove and now lives in St. John’s. She can often be found on a bicycle.