"Living Book" Karina Zapata

About the Event

Karina will share her story of how she fulfills her passion for helping people feel heard - while simultaneously learning more about herself - through her career as a journalist. Committed to making an impact through her work, Karina has reported on topics like heritage language loss, decolonizing mental health, the lack of clean water in Indigenous communities, and more. Most recently, she wrote an article about skin lightening in the Filipino community, and in the process, learned more about her Filipino identity. Karina will give us insight into her life-long goal of helping the public understand the lived experiences of underrepresented communities through empathy, connection, and the power of words.

Karina’s Bio

Karina Zapata, born and raised in Calgary is a journalist who is passionate about telling in-depth, seldom told truths. Karina grew up with a strong love of words and her nose always in a book. When she realized that words can transform lives, she pursued her Bachelor of Communication with a major in Journalism and a minor in Social Innovation at Mount Royal University. She is currently a 2021 Joan Donaldson CBC News Scholar, where she gets to share the stories of people across the country. Prior to her scholarship with the CBC, Karina worked on award-winning investigative projects with the Institute for Investigative Journalism, such as Tainted H2O and Broken Promises. She also co-produced a multimedia website, Bad Blood, which explores Canada’s blood donation restrictions against men who have sex with men. The project won the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Student Award of Excellence, as well as second place at the ACP Pacemaker Awards for 2020 Multimedia Story of the Year. In her spare time, she runs Femme Handbook, a magazine she co-founded that is dedicated to empowering women through creative content.