Valerie Fortney

Biography

Valerie Fortney, University of Calgary alum and longtime Calgary Herald columnist, writes about issues from crime to pop culture to politics. Valerie is the founding editor of Avenue magazine, as well as a writer for Chatelaine, Readers Digest and the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Sunray: the Death and Life of Captain Nichola Goddard, the first female combat-certified soldier to die in combat. Valerie has been nominated twice for a National Newspaper Award; in 2001 for her feature on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and in 2005 for a series on India's abandoned brides. Valerie was part of the Calgary Herald team that won a National Newspaper Award for coverage of the 2013 Alberta flood.