Greg Ehlers shot SFU Galleries director Melanie O’Brian for “The Art of the Matter” as well as photos for our regular Mountain High column. After graduating from Ryerson University with a degree in still photography, Ehlers worked in the Toronto fashion industry before joining the medical photography team at the Hospital for Sick Children. Since returning to the west coast, he has had the remarkably good fortune to be with SFU for two decades.

Our cover writer Diane Luckow is an SFU alumna (BA’78) and has been writing about SFU people, issues, and events for the past 20 years, 15 of them as co-editor of SFU News. She also freelances for a variety of organizations and publications. When she’s not sitting in front of her computer, she’s on her knees in the garden.

Raymond Lum shot part of the McWhinney collection for “A Passion for Books” and has been photographing award-winning images for advertising, corporate, and editorial clients since the early 1980s.  His studio near Granville Island is frequently used for commercial and corporate video/film productions. Lum’s photos have been exhibited in Canada, the U.S., and Japan. He has also been a sessional instructor of studio photography at Emily Carr University. <www.raylum.ca>

Marianne Meadahl, who wrote the piece on empowering women in India, once visited a small village in India’s Madhya Pradesh State and befriended many of the women there, who impressed her with their tenacity. Meadahl is an assistant director of SFU’s Public Affairs and Media Relations office who spends most of her time at the university’s busy Surrey campus.

Amanda Skuse was thrilled to photograph scientist Jennifer Gardy for this issue of aq Magazine. “I could not have asked for a more photogenic, easygoing, and fearless subject.” After studying at Ryerson University, Skuse came home to the west coast in 1991 and has been photographing people for editorial, advertising, and corporate clients ever since. When not photographing the who’s who of Vancouver, she can be found in a downward dog position, boating up Indian Arm, or trying to teach her kids some manners. <www.amandaskuse.com>

Roberta Staley, who profiles biologist Wendy Palen, is the interim editor of Canadian Chemical News, published by the Chemical Institute of Canada in Ottawa. An award-winning magazine editor and writer, Staley has reported from such places as Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Cambodia, and Soweto, South Africa. Staley teaches magazine writing at Douglas College and is currently enrolled in the Graduate Liberal Studies program at SFU.

Eric Swanick, who wrote our article on the Emily McWhinney collection, is head of Special Collections and Rare Books at SFU’s Bennett Library. He has previously contributed stories on other aspects of Special Collections, including the Punk Collection and  historic postcards from British Coumbia.

Anicka Quin (MPub’03) writes about the SFU Galleries and new director Melanie O’Brian. Quin is the editor-in-chief of Western Living magazine and has written for publications such as BCBusiness, Homemakers, and the National Post. Before she moved to Vancouver from Ontario to get her master’s at SFU, she was the managing editor of the national environmental magazine Alternatives Journal.