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Resume

Coppin Resume Snapshot

Highlights

• Seven years of experience as a writer in the Canadian journalism market

• 2,500+ hours of experience as a web editor and multimedia producer

• Background in coding, documentation, and technical troubleshooting

• Journalism awards received from Columbia University (2009) and B.C. and Yukon Community Newspapers Association (2007, 2006); Fulbright fellowship received in 2008 to support my journalism education at Columbia.

Education

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York, M.S. awarded in May 2009

Investigative Masters thesis on new hormones in birth control drugs won a Horgan Science Prize. Received a 2008-2009 Fulbright award.

Simon Fraser University, Vancouver/Burnaby, BC, Canada

B.ASc. First Class Honors, Electrical Systems Engineering, graduated June 2004, 3.845 GPA
Minors in math and computing; semester at SFU Center for Dialogue; year exchange at University of Sussex.

Skills

  • Reporting and writing breaking online news, feature writing for newspaper and magazine;
  • Programmer/journalist: able to perform web, server, and database administration tasks and scripting (Perl, PHP, Javascript, SQL);
  • Digital imaging: photography (SLR and auto, low-light conditions), and video capture; Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop; some post-processing skills.
  • Audio: Training by NPR and WNYC reporters on mic techniques, scripting, and mixing
  • Multimedia production on PC or Mac, including audio/video editing with Audacity, Garageband, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, ProTools, and more;
  • Computer-assisted research: Excel, Access, math/stats skills; Lexis-Nexis, Accurint, Factiva, ProQuest, Bloomberg terminal, VPL tools, online directories, web scraping;
  • CMS: Experience with many leading online publishing tools: Joomla, WordPress, HTML, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Soundslides, ActionScript (1&2) and Flash, SaxoTech, SouthParc;
  • Other: Raised bilingual (French/Eng); IRE member; user of many open-source Windows/Mac alternative software (Open Office, Gimp, etc.)

Work Experience

Web writer/editor, CBC Vancouver, July 2011 to present

It’s like a rewrite desk. Plus there’s multimedia, video to upload… Twitter to follow.. you know. It’s a part-time temp gig, for now.

Reporter and web editor, The Vancouver Sun, February 2010 to April 2011

Regular web shift duties include using site statistics to shift positioning of popular stories and multimedia; covering breaking news, writing briefs, creating photo galleries, monitoring the wires, and troubleshooting web items.

During the 2010 winter games, I wrote and posted breaking news covering sporting results and traffic disruptions; I also implemented a shareable live schedule via Google Calendar’s tools. Since mid-August, I have been filling in one or two shifts a week as a general assignment reporter.

For recent stories published in The Vancouver Sun, see delicious.com/rhiannon.coppin

Multimedia producer and online editor, The Vancouver Sun, Sept. ‘07 – June ‘08

Covered and edited breaking news, wire news and galleries for the web. Edited and co-produced more than 100 online videos, Soundslides, and podcasts. Also designed and programmed a handful of Flash applications, and co-ordinated weekend coverage with freelancers.

General assignment reporter, The Yukon News, Whitehorse, Yukon, May – July 2007

Provided vacation relief. Reported 71 stories over three months. Covered legislature, city politics, environment, courts and business. Initiated a well-received in-depth series on radon’s impact on health and real estate in Whitehorse and covered the ongoing battle between caribou conservationists and oil and gas developers in the north regions of the territory.

Contributing writer, Vancouver Courier, 2004 – 2007

Wrote a dozen profiles of artists and entrepreneurs and 10 cover stories (2,500-3,000 word features), three of which won awards, one gold and two bronze, from the B.C. and Yukon Community Newspapers Association.

Freelance writer, 2004 – 2010

Published in The Globe and Mail, The Georgia Straight, Western Living Magazine, Vancouver Magazine, Vancouver Review, The Tyee (online), Cranked Magazine, and Seven Oaks Magazine online. I wrote the cover story for the May 2008 issue of Momentum about Lance Armstrong’s new bicycle shop. Western Living Magazine fact-checker/intern for six weeks in April-May 2005.

Teaching Assistant, ENSC 100: Engineering and Society, Fall 2002

Ran tutorials and moderated issues-focused class discussions (20 students), in addition to marking and providing one-on-one session feedback on written assignments.

Programmer, engineering trainee, positions held between 1998-2004

In 2004 I developed interactive Flash games for the Virtual Museum of Canada; For ten months in 2000-2001, I worked in Silicon Valley at an e-Commerce firm; and for four months each I worked at Nortel’s semiconductor plant in Nepean and in Vancouver General Hospital’s biomedical engineering department.