Andrea Houston is managing editor at Canadian digital non-profit publication Ricochet Media, a role that combines journalism, leadership, project management, fund development, and advocacy. She is also an instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism, where she developed and continues to teach the first-ever course on Queer Media. Previously, Andrea was communications and development officer for Rainbow Railroad, an international non-profit helping queer and trans people facing persecution in more than 70 countries around the world escape to freedom. She also served as executive assistant to former member of provincial parliament, and Ontario’s first LGBTQ critic, helping to craft and pass legislation to make the province a safer and more accepting place for LGBTQ youth, sex workers, and other marginalized people — including Canada’s first ban on conversion therapy. Andrea is a former Pride Toronto “Honoured Dyke,” two-time Inspire Award nominee for LGBT Person of the Year, and in 2017 was named Role Model of the Year by the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity. Andrea’s been a staff reporter at a number of publications, including the Toronto Star, the Peterborough Examiner, Xtra, and managing editor of Torontoist. Her reporting played a key role in the passage of human rights legislation that mandated all publicly funded schools be required to allow LGBTQ groups if students want them. As a public-relations specialist, political strategist, and human-rights advocate, Andrea has extensive experience writing and editing communications materials, engaging media, delivering speeches, conducting workshops, and organizing events. She is an alumna of York University and Humber College, where she obtained a degree in English literature and a diploma in journalism, respectively. More recently, she went back to Humber to upgrade her skills with a diploma in fundraising and non-profit management.