Who’s Who
Folks doing work behind the scenes to bring you Asparagus Magazine
Our Team
Jessie Johnston — Founder, Publisher, Editrix-in-Chief
Jessie has been working in magazines and digital media since 2004, including fact-checking and blogging at National Geographic Traveler, ad sales with Clevers Media, and project-managing website development for Agentic Digital Media. After accumulating these professional hats, she decided in 2017 to put them all on at once and make her Asparagus publishing dream come true. When not chasing crazy dreams, Jessie can be found digging in her vegetable garden (or cooking up its produce), marching in a protest, applauding in the audience at a local theatre, riding her beloved two-wheeled steed, singing soprano in a kick-ass choir, or traveling to one of her myriad homes-away-from-home. (Email: asparagusmagazine [at] gmail [dot] com)
Alia Dharssi—Deputy Editor
Alia is a journalist, editor, and sustainability consultant based in Vancouver. Her writing and investigations on sustainability, global development, human rights and immigration have been published by a range of media outlets, including the New York Times, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the National Post, the Financial Post, and Reuters. When she’s not busy chasing stories or crafting sentences, she can be found perplexing over how to lead a more sustainable life, salsa dancing, or curling up with a good book.
Christine Fwu—Art Director
Christine Fwu is a graphic designer based in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. She holds a Bachelor of Design in Communication Design from Emily Carr University. Her practice focusses in print & publication design, visual identity, creative direction, and typography. With an interest in old print processes and the handmade, she is always looking for opportunities to integrate them into her work. Christine can be found hiking in the mountains, biking through trails, smelling flowers, and capturing the beauty of nature through the seasons.
Emily Blatta — Advertising Sales
Emily does both freelance communications work and journalism for independent media. She holds a BA in Creative Industries from Toronto Metropolitan University and now lives back in Vancouver, where she grew up. In her spare time she loves cooking for others, hiking, and writing the occasional poem in the sun.
Daina Lawrence—Editor
Daina is a freelance journalist based in beautiful Vancouver, BC. Formerly of the Financial Times and Canadian Press, Lawrence’s work has also been published in the Economist, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Walrus and Canadian Business magazine. Daina received her journalism degree from Carleton University.
Pamela Swanigan—Editor
Pamela Swanigan is a lifelong writer, editor, songwriter, singer, and biophiliac. E.O. Wilson is her hero, and she’ll fight anyone who says sociobiology is some kind of eugenicist plot. (She won’t really, but she wishes she would.) She has a PhD in why Children’s Lit authors are brilliant and academics are odious, and a masters degree in why African Americans don’t get along with Jamaican Americans. She herself is, as her witty husband puts it, “halfrican American”, as well as being both Canadian and American, both urban (Oakland) and rural (the West Kootenays), both highbrow (poetry) and lowbrow (Gogglebox. Since starting her professional writing career at the age of 18, she has written for Saturday Night, the Chicago Tribune, and the Toronto Star, among others, and has been an on-staff editor at the Georgia Straight, Vancouver Magazine, the Vancouver Sun, and Eye Weekly magazine. She’s all wore out on writing and now she just wants to edit.
Avvai Ketheeswaran—Associate Designer
Avvai is a full-stack developer and designer who loves to travel. With an education in Biology and Publishing, she’s on a quest to make science communication more accessible and fun. During her free time she can be found trying to read all the graphic novels at her nearest library, packing up a tent and some grub for weekend bike trips, and experimenting with new ways to live a more zero-waste and socially responsible life.
Anjali Bhardwaj—Business Development Co-ordinator
Anjali is a marketing and publishing professional based in Mississauga, ON. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto, and is also pursuing studies in Digital Graphic Design at Seneca College. Her goal is to combine her love of publishing, design, and marketing into roles that empower her to makes meaningful changes in issues such as the environment, health, and literacy. In her spare time, she can be found reading classic murder mysteries, watching 90s horror movies, or doing DIY home renos.
Zeahaa Rehman—Assistant Editor
Zeahaa (pronounced Zaha) Rehman is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist who likes deconstructing everything from pop culture to politics with an intersectional lens. You can follow her on Twitter at @notzeahaa.
Sun Woo Baik—Assistant Web Editor
Sun Woo lives and works in “Vancouver, BC”, in unceded Coast Salish territories. He is always looking to photograph strange, odd, unexpected stories in the built environment. If he’s not walking around the city taking photos, he’s probably reading, watching an endless stream of British panel show clips, or doing some kind of grassroots organizing.
Erin Flegg — Art Director Emerita and Lead Web Developer
Erin Flegg is a freelance designer, developer and photographer based in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. With a background in print media and an education in tech, she’s excited by the possibilities inherent in combining the two. She loves backpacking on the coast, growing flowers in the backyard, and shooting as many rolls of film as she can afford.
Elizabeth Flegg — Web Designer
Elizabeth is a graphic and UI designer. She brings her love of colour and form to all of her hobbies, including sewing, cooking and gardening.
Aniana Domínguez—Marketing Assistant
Aniana is a writer, marketing, and publishing professional from the Dominican Republic and based in Vancouver, BC. She has a BA in Marketing and Communication from the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, and a master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Salamanca in Spain. She is currently pursuing her Master of Publishing degree at SFU. Books, magazines, and movies are her happy place. Her goal is to generate a positive impact in the world, and in her country, through publishing and movies. She has been a nomad—studying and working around the world—for the last 11 years.
Zohra Shahabuddin — Digital Marketing Assistant
Zohra is an international student from Pakistan currently pursuing a Masters of Publishing from SFU. She loves books, and libraries are her happy place. She is passionate about digital space and is looking to expand her horizons in the realm of digital marketing particularly for storytelling. She is agile and loves challenges. She believes in kindness and empathy.
Emily Birr — Logo Designer
Emily has been designing for web and other media for over ten years. Working from a place of empathy for humans and the natural world, she strives to create things that are both useful and beautiful.
Our Columnists
Sara Bynoe — Environmentalist from Hell
Sara has an MA in creative writing from Goldsmiths, University of London, but most people recognize her from playing the woman you feel sorry for in commercials.
Jesse Firempong—Views from the Inside
Jesse is a Ghanaian-Canadian writer and nonprofit communicator living on rocky, mossy patch of Tla-amin traditional territory in BC. She lives with a rowdy bunch of humans and three sensible cats.
Brianna Sharpe—Black Sheep Parenting for a Greener Planet
Brianna is a writer, educator, and chronically caffeinated parent based out of Cochrane, AB. Her accomplishments range from the eclectic (international dog-sled guide) to the established (Masters of Education), but she spends most of her days clicking keyboards, ranting about plastic sippy cups, and kid-chasing.
